THE GOLDEN AGE by Gore Vidal

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

An unusual entry on this list: not a war story, but rather the political backstory to America’s entry into World War 2 as the views of media and social elites on isolationism intersect with those of FDR and Harry Hopkins. Rich portrayals of historical figures (FDR, Hopkins, Wendell Wilkie, William Randolph Hearst and Harry Truman) give us keen insights on the political minds of the time, and immerse us into period settings (FDR getting around in his armless roller chair, the surprisingly ‘small’ feel of the White House, the ‘Queen’s Bedroom’). FDR is portrayed sympathetically as moving America to England’s aid inch by inch, even possibly with a calculated effort to provoke Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, while at the same time adroitly maintaining a responsible isolationist public political position in order to recapture the White House. Mr. Vidal drops us into period political intrigue with historical figures as our guides like no other. But when World War 2 ends, and the story reverts to primarily fictional characters, it runs out of steam with lengthy postulations on the developing Cold War (an exception is a compelling portrayal of Dean Acheson pulling President Truman’s strings to asset America’s ‘manifest destiny’ and provoke the Soviets).