Wilson during her husband's incapacitation, and the difficulty of dealing with Harding's mistress are recounted with none of Vidal's usual relish. The details of the Teapot Dome scandal, the shadow presidency of Mrs. There is no dramatic tension in Hollywood, although there are regular flashes of Vidal's wit, in particular a scene in a steambath with Fairbanks and Chaplin waxing grandiloquent on the nature of movies. His fictional protagonists-Caroline Sanford and Burden Day, also the main characters of Empire -seem on hand merely to be injected at just the right moment to catch an intimate glimpse of the rich and famous. Presidents Harding, Wilson and Coolidge, and Hollywood stars Fairbanks, Chaplin and Mabel Norman make major appearances here. saga has become more extravagantly peopled with historical personages. His imagination seems to flag as he draws closer to the present, and he delivers a surprisingly dry recitation of the facts and circumstances of history. In the sixth of Vidal's historic novels about Aaron Burr and his descendants, the author has come a long way from Burr, the first in the series, both in time span-the focus here is on the years between 19-and quality.
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