PURE GORE

I have never been a fan of Vidal’s books and probably will not become one, but “Pure Gore” was one of the best reasons for opening the Jan. 28 paper.

Vidal’s “Lincoln” perches here untouched on a bookshelf, passed over many times. Now Barbara Grizzuti Harrison’s article makes me wonder what I have been missing, if not about the books, then about the man who writes them.

This was a brilliant interview, exact and intense. Harrison did more than her homework, more than ask probing questions. She really got inside Vidal’s skin. Without offering judgment, she conveyed a peer’s admiration for a man she could not help but pity just a little. Too, her writing made me not just know about him, but I sensed him and I sensed what it was like to be in the same room with him. When I read “ ‘Am I sad?’ The air, so cold, was thick with sadness,” I, too, felt a chill.

JENISE STONE, Irvine