by Gore Vidal
I didn't realise that Gore Vidal was what is called a revisionist when it came to his historical novels, but it only makes me want to pick up more of his books because revisionists tend to give us an alternate view of history that differs from the history that is written by the winners. This book is...
Persian history at the peak of the Achaemenid Empire (5th century BCE) is pretty neatly summed up in a few lines from our high school world history courses, largely in connection with Greek history. We hear a few snippets about the Persian rulers, Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes; a big paragraph about the...
I absolutely can't stand Vidal as a non-fiction writer and generally as a man of opinions or "letters" or what have you but this is the second novel of his I have read which I have thoroughly enjoyed. He appears to be doing two things with his revisionist history in this case: presenting an alterna...
need a re-read1/8/2012: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19074230
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