The City and the Pillar

Name: The City and the Pillar
Brand: Brilliance Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Gore Vidal
ISBN: 9781799750925

Author: Gore Vidal

Narrator: Will Damron

Unabridged: 5 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Published: 10/15/2019

Categories: Fiction, Lgbtq+

Synopsis

A literary cause célèbre when first published more than fifty years ago, Gore Vidal’s now-classic The City and the Pillar stands as a landmark novel of the gay experience.Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defying his parents’ expectations, Jim strikes out on his own, hoping to find Bob and rekindle their amorous friendship. Along the way he struggles with what he feels is his unique bond with Bob and with his persistent attraction to other men. Upon finally encountering Bob years later, the force of his hopes for a life together leads to a devastating climax. The first novel of its kind to appear on the American literary landscape, The City and the Pillar remains a forthright and uncompromising portrayal of sexual relationships between men.

About Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His first novel, Williwaw, written when he was 19 years old and serving in the army, appeared in the spring of 1946. He wrote 23 novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over 200 essays, and a memoir.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mark on May 04, 2022

gay misery porn. the writing is polished and sophisticated, no surprise given that it is by the massively talented Gore Vidal. also, why aren't more people named "Gore"? this was absorbing despite also being boring and depressing, if that even makes sense. sometimes, strong writing can carry me thro......more

Goodreads review by MJ on April 29, 2012

So few of my GR friends have read this and other Gore Vidal classics, I have to pose the question: where does Vidal stand in the American pantheon? Do his historical novels about the Republic turn readers off for their political content and supposedly dry writing? Does his late career as polemicist......more

Goodreads review by Doug on January 31, 2019

3.5, rounded up. I'm pretty sure I read this a long, long time ago, but the memory is rather vague. As the first in a planned year-long look back at some of the seminal works of gay literature, this was de rigueur for a revisit. First off, it is fairly amazing that a book so upfront and forthright ab......more

Goodreads review by Dagio_maya on April 19, 2020

«Credo che l’amore sia sempre una cosa tragica, per tutti, sempre». «Ma è ciò che rende la vita interessante. Come possiamo valutare una cosa fino a che non è finita?». «Niente luce senza oscurità?». «Sì. E niente dolore senza piacere». Virginia. Anni ’40. Bob Ford, il migliore amico di Jim Willard, si è......more