Book review - Vidal essays #1 - "Rocking the Boat" by Gore Vidal

The first collection of Vidal pieces was published in the early 60s prior to JFK's assassination so a lot of it is particularly fascinating esp his analysis of JFK. His 1961 interview with Barry Goldwater is also precipitous. The essays are compartmentalised into "politics", "theatre", "books" and "personality" - which, with the exception of theatre, remain his primary essay topics (it's a shame he doesn't still do reviews - I can understand theatre as he probably doesn't go anymore, but how about movie reviews?). Many of these were republished in other editions but are still worth reading e.g. on John Dos Passos (the great "recorder of everything"). There's some less familiar ones, too, such as a review of The Gang's All Here, reviews of plays by Paddy Chayefsky and Dore Schary, hilarious review of Robert Penn's Band of Angels in the voice of a well-read housewife. You'll laugh at the piece where Vidal argues he isn't a left winger - its like when Bob Ellis goes "I'm not a Labor Party fanatic I've not voted Labor several times"). A good idea is that several of the pieces are accompanied by follow up notes which discuss the impact of the pieces , e.g. articles on Goldwater and JFK, and the times he even changed his mind (e.g. television drama)