Customer Reviews
Historically Important; Literarily Weak - By: Gary F. Taylor, 21 Feb 2004 
Originally publishedin 1948, THE CITY AND THE PILLAR is generally considered the first mainstream American novel to place gay men & their lives & loves at dead center of the story. As such, it receives a tremendous amount of attention from critics & historians. Still, for all the stir it caused at the time (most newspapers wouldn't review or advertise it & many bookstores refused to carry it), it is more interesting for its history than for itself.
The story concerns Jim, an all-American boy from Virginia, who has a sexual encounter with classmate Bob just before Bob graduates from highschool & leaves town "to go to sea." This is Jim's first same-sex encounter, & with classic adolescent innocence he concludes that he & Bob are spiritual "twins." As soon as he graduates, Jim goesin search of Bob on the assumption that Bob feels the same--and driven by this obsession he too "goes to sea," & moves from port to port & eventually from relationship to relationshipin search of his ever-elusive lost love.
In a sense, THE CITY AND THE PILLAR gives us a window on what it must have been like to have been a young gay manin this era; at first Jim has absolutely no frame of reference for his sexuality, & when he begins to discover that men who have sex with men are not uncommon he resists thinking of himself as "one of those." But the overwhelming problem with the novel is that Jim is not a greatly interesting person, nor is Bob, nor are any of the people that Jim encounters while he looks for Bob. It soon becomes difficult to care about Jim, much less about whether or not he will ever find Bob & what will happen if he does.
Vidal himself was not greatly happy with the novel as it was publishedin 1948, & he rewrote it for a 1960s reprint. (The original 1948 version, which has a very different ending & slightly different tone, is no longer widely available.) Butin rewriting the novel, Vidal did not go far enough: the characters are just as tediousin the second version as they werein the first. While I applaud Vidal for taking on such then-hot subject matter, I can't really praise what he did with it either originally orin the rewrite. Fortunately, if you feel you must read the novel due to its historical significance, it is fairly short--and that, really, is the best thing I can say for it.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
amazing - kept me reading into the wee hours! - By: , 10 Jan 2002 
i discovered gore vidal through this book & it's well worth reading. i totally didn't know what was going to happen right up until the last page. i loved it & literally could not put it down. it works on so many levels & is really wrenching. i love it & strongly recommend everybody reads it. this edition is gorgeous.
quality, not quantity - By: davidaldous2000@yahoo.co.uk, 28 Mar 2001 Excellent example of a gay novel, providing a good balance between the emotional & sexual endevours of a young gay malein 1950's America. It boasts an effective use of emotive language, which both captivates & entertains the reader. The book provides a stunning journey through calm & stormy waters for a young man discovering his sexuality. A must read for all.
The first gay novel? - By: Georges Claude Guilbert, 31 Jan 2001 The City & the Pillar came out the year of the Kinsey Report & Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms. The Kinsey Report stunned America with the revelation that a tremendous proportion of Americans had at least one homosexual experiencein their life; Capote's clever novel thrilled the literati with its gothic elements & sissy-meets-tomboy-before-finding-bliss-with-queeny-Cousin-Randolph storyline, while reassuring the dominant culture, because, yes, homosexuals were freaks. But Vidal's novel gave us the first ever boy-next-door as gay antihero, & that, beside its numerous literary qualities, is what makes it priceless.
