Two Sisters: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel.

New York, NY Bantam Books, 1971. Paperback First Ed thus, so stated. First Ed thus, so stated. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows only the most minute indications of use: just a hint of hairline creasing near the lower front corner tip; else only the mildest rubbing and the pages have tanned slightly, due to aging. Binding square and secure; text clean. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 12mo. 248pp. All Edges Tinted Yellow. Mass Market Paperback. TWO SISTERS is at once an autobiographical reminiscence interspersed with a fictional tale based on the ancient world about two sisters with a passionate attraction to one another. At one level the novel gives Vidal the chance to settle old scores against his contemporaries - Mailer, Nabokov - while allowing him the chance, in middle age, to look back on his younger self in 1948. At another level TWO SISTERS reveals the author's fondness for testing the limits of so-called 'propriety' in the novel, particularly where sexual matters are concerned. He has a jaundiced view of contemporary (i.e. post-1945) American culture, which he believes is both repressive and inflated in its view of itself. However I can't help but get the feeling that the novel represents another performance on Vidal's part, where he deliberately seeks to reconstruct his public personality as a critic concerned to make an impression on his readers, using every means - stylistic, thematic, and linguistic - at his disposal. Gore Vidal is concerned to sustain the myth of 'Gore Vidal,' leaving us to wonder whether there is anything beneath that surface, or whether he wants to remain confined within his mediatic and literary creation.