Random Notes

Patriotic Gore: Jew-hating schlock-novel writer Gore Vidal laid down the law a few years ago: When it comes to issues of American foreign policy in the Middle East, there is reason to question the patriotism of any American Jew who disagrees with Gore Vidal. In a 1986 article in The Nation, Vidal argued that American Jews who support Israel constitute an “Israeli fifth column” and are basically traitors.

Now it turns out that there are issues on which deviations from Gorthodoxy can raise doubts about even a non-Jew’s spiritual citizenship. In an essay to be collected next month in Paths of Resistance: The Art and Craft of the Political Novel (Houghton Mifflin), Vidal devotes four pages to refuting a negative review his book Empire received in 1987 from the Washington Times. In this latest entry in his long series of “historical novels,” Vidal deployed a fictionalized Henry James as a sort of editorial spokesman for his own peculiar brand of left-wing neo-isolationism. The Times reviewer judged the book’s portrayal of James “improbable.” In Paths of Resistance, Vidal responds by vilifying the Times, which he tags a “South Korean newspaper,” and referring to the reviewer as “the South Korean reviewer” and “my South Korean critic.”

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.

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Patriotic Gore: Jew-hating schlock-novel writer Gore Vidal laid down the law a few years ago: When it comes to issues of American foreign policy in the Middle East, there is reason to question the patriotism of any American Jew who disagrees with Gore Vidal. In a 1986 article in The Nation, Vidal argued that American Jews who support Israel constitute an “Israeli fifth column” and are basically traitors.

Now it turns out that there are issues on which deviations from Gorthodoxy can raise doubts about even a non-Jew’s spiritual citizenship. In an essay to be collected next month in Paths of Resistance: The Art and Craft of the Political Novel (Houghton Mifflin), Vidal devotes four pages to refuting a negative review his book Empire received in 1987 from the Washington Times. In this latest entry in his long series of “historical novels,” Vidal deployed a fictionalized Henry James as a sort of editorial spokesman for his own peculiar brand of left-wing neo-isolationism. The Times reviewer judged the book’s portrayal of James “improbable.” In Paths of Resistance, Vidal responds by vilifying the Times, which he tags a “South Korean newspaper,” and referring to the reviewer as “the South Korean reviewer” and “my South Korean critic.”

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.