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Dark Green, Bright Red
In the tiny Central American republic of Tenango, a place of orchid-scented jungle, crumbling palaces and baroque cathedrals, the rainy season is over and the dusty days of winter have begun. It is time for revolution. In an old plantation house the conspirators meet: General Jorge Alvarez, returned from exile in New Orleans with his hothead of a son and his proud, beautiful daughter; a volatile entourage of disenchanted colonels and rebel priests; and Peter Nelson, an American soldier of fortune with his own reasons for joining the rebels. Yet when the waiting is over and the struggle for power under way, nothing in Tenango turns out to be what it seems, not even the tragedy that awaits them all.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
About the author
Gore Vidal
291 books1,743 followersWorks of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play
The Best Man
(1960) and the novel
Myra Breckinridge
(1968) .
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 27, 2022
Vidal had a good feel for his subject - mid-century Latin American banana republics and the plotting that went on, shifting alliances between local elites, military and the gringos (multinational banananeros and the CIA, which stays in the background). He doesn't plunge into the emotional depths of character as Paul Bowles did in Up Above the World, but here the plot is more structured and a little twisty, but not too much so. In other words, it's a tight, crisp short novel that felt like it was written to be picked up and turned into a movie script.
There is nothing exceptional here but if you have spent time in Central America you will recognize and appreciate his feel for the atmosphere and description of the people.
I haven't read Vidal's best known novels. This one has increased my appetite for doing so.
There is nothing exceptional here but if you have spent time in Central America you will recognize and appreciate his feel for the atmosphere and description of the people.
I haven't read Vidal's best known novels. This one has increased my appetite for doing so.
June 29, 2015
3.5; rather more haphazard than other of his novels from the period, but still contains moments of penetrating depth and possesses a pleasantly surprising (if reserved) frankness and maturity about a number of matters not then commonly depicted or discussed in american fiction.
April 27, 2018
I have not read mich of Gore Vidal and this was probably not his best works. A very short novel, only 127 pages. Not quite absorbing but readable nonetheless. Here, Mr. Vidal tells the story of Pedro, a captain in the Catholic Socialist movement which has staged a revolution in order to overthrow the 'liberal' government of the embattled leader Osini. Like all revolutionaries, they claim to have the interests of the massess at heart. One star.
January 3, 2023
In Vidal's book, one finds a distilled version of what was happening across Central America in the mid-nineteenth century: authoritarian regimes, military juntas, and an American corporation (called simply the Company). He wrote most of this while living in Guatemala, a country which the US successfully pulled off a military coup in 1954, which led to a civil war that lasted until 1996. Vidal, who completed the book in the Winter of 1949, predicted the influence of the United Fruit Company in the affairs of a small country with a majority indigenous population. He didn't predict the efforts of the CIA, which was less than a year old when he was writing, but there was a noticeable shift in the postwar, peak America world in establishing dominance, especially in their hemisphere.
The topic and geography is unique in Vidal's bibliography, but it definitely lags towards the center of his oeuvre. He experiments in a couple sections with stream of consciousness. Most are written from the perspective of a combat-experienced American who somehow got himself mixed up in a small Central American revolution/civil war. The middle sections really propels the reader to the end of this short novel.
The topic and geography is unique in Vidal's bibliography, but it definitely lags towards the center of his oeuvre. He experiments in a couple sections with stream of consciousness. Most are written from the perspective of a combat-experienced American who somehow got himself mixed up in a small Central American revolution/civil war. The middle sections really propels the reader to the end of this short novel.
May 15, 2019
“The General nodded absently, looking up at Elena who smiled at him, touched his shoulder, removed a hair” (p. 245).
Vidal finished Dark Green, Bright Red a year and a half before I was born, and I can imagine him struggling with what he should write, while suffering under The Times anathema. This is a rather standard Political/Adventure novel, but Vidal can’t seem to help throwing in little gems like the Objective Correlative quoted above (which I fear might require more context to appreciate).
Vidal finished Dark Green, Bright Red a year and a half before I was born, and I can imagine him struggling with what he should write, while suffering under The Times anathema. This is a rather standard Political/Adventure novel, but Vidal can’t seem to help throwing in little gems like the Objective Correlative quoted above (which I fear might require more context to appreciate).
August 30, 2017
A fine little diversion. While not on the A-List of Gore's novels, it's an entertaining and capable book. It delivers all of Gore's hallmarks in a compact read. There are flaws in this gem, but it well worth the reader's minimal investment of time.
September 21, 2022
"Mas el bote ruinoso / de las arenas del estuario, / ansía los distantes/ muelles dorados".
November 3, 2023
Dark Green, Bright Red (1950) is Gore Vidal’s solid attempt at a political thriller, with all of the intrigue, action, and romance that accompanies the genre. Taking place in some South American country (likely influenced by Vidal’s time in Guatemala during its decades-long civil war), the novel centers on the political machinations of General Alvarez, a strong-man dictator recently ousted from the country and who wishes to regain power. His leading advisor is Peter Nelson, a former US military man-turned-mercenary, who organizes a Bay-of-Pigs-style attack on the country in an attempt to return Alvarez to power. Peter falls in love with Alvarez’s daughter but knows their courtship is doomed by the deteriorating political situation. After the killing of Alvarez’s son and the failure to carry out a successful coup, it is discovered that one of Alvarez’s lieutenants orchestrated his own coup, which was backed by the largest company in the country. Peter flees the scene in time to avoid arrest and worse, never completing Alvarez’s coup and abandoning the one he loves.
While the novel’s action scenes are a bit tedious, it shines in its depiction of morally bankrupt and politically reactionary leaders whose only interest is gaining and maintaining an iron-grip on power. This is the first work of Vidal’s where he is grappling with the consequences of the American empire, how its own interests shape nations thousands of miles away, often to the detriment of their people. In real life, a coup against the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala, instigated by the United Fruit Company and the CIA, would happen only a few years after Dark Green, Bright Red’s publication. One review described this novel as an “interesting failure,” and I think that’s a good way to sum it up. There’re a lot of compelling elements, especially in relation to notions of empire, but altogether it feels a bit stilted. Vidal would return to these themes with much greater effect in novels like Julian (1964) and Empire (1987). Overall, Dark Green, Bright Red is an attempt at a thriller that works better when it strays from the action and focuses on the politics.
While the novel’s action scenes are a bit tedious, it shines in its depiction of morally bankrupt and politically reactionary leaders whose only interest is gaining and maintaining an iron-grip on power. This is the first work of Vidal’s where he is grappling with the consequences of the American empire, how its own interests shape nations thousands of miles away, often to the detriment of their people. In real life, a coup against the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala, instigated by the United Fruit Company and the CIA, would happen only a few years after Dark Green, Bright Red’s publication. One review described this novel as an “interesting failure,” and I think that’s a good way to sum it up. There’re a lot of compelling elements, especially in relation to notions of empire, but altogether it feels a bit stilted. Vidal would return to these themes with much greater effect in novels like Julian (1964) and Empire (1987). Overall, Dark Green, Bright Red is an attempt at a thriller that works better when it strays from the action and focuses on the politics.
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July 30, 2019This early Vidal novel about an attempted coup in a Latin American country is strongest where I'd expect him to be weakest--in its depiction of the psychology of the characters, who may be types, but are memorable and empathetic--and weak on what I'd normally consider his strong point: analyzing the politics of the situation. The country's current ruler has made some gestures toward reform, the general who used to rule and wants to take over again is a stooge for the Company (translation: United Fruit), but none of it seems to matter. Vidal writes better about politics than just about anyone, but to judge by this novel, his best writing on this topic takes nonfictional forms. The most interesting character to me was de Cluny, a washed-up French novelist who's hooked up with the General though he doesn't really believe in the cause of reinstating him as the unnamed country's leader...prefiguring Vidal's own involvement with the Kennedys, whom he later turned against. At least I was able to get through this novel....The only other ones of Vidal's I can stand are his "Edgar Box" mystery threesome, which--for all the gaping holes in their plots--offer plenty of entertaining, knowing description of American life in the early 50s, without the alternating ponderousness and goofiness that marks GV's "serious" fiction. (I also enjoyed his story collection A THIRSTY EVIL, recently republished as CLOUDS & ECLIPSES--the original title was better--with one additional story.)
July 9, 2013
I found this little gem at a used bookstore that I frequent. In my quest to read everything that Gore Vidal has written, it was a thrilling discovery! The book was wonderful...Mr. Gore Vidal never misses.
December 30, 2012
Not the usual Gore Vidal voice, but I liked it nonetheless.
August 12, 2016
I'm not usually a fan of war stories, but Vidal's writing style was just perfectly written, leaving the reader hooked on every word.
May 18, 2024
Vidal Journey #6
Another interesting yarn from Vidal this one set in Central America and the normal shenanigans you would expect.
Very readable and the journey goes well.
Another interesting yarn from Vidal this one set in Central America and the normal shenanigans you would expect.
Very readable and the journey goes well.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews