The only thing I ever read by Vidal was his memoir, Palimpsest, written in 1995. (I started a couple of his novels, but, frankly, never found them very compelling.) Palimpsest, on the other hand, is a fascinating read, even if it does require more than a grain of salt. (Like, lots of grains of salt.)
For example, Vidal claimed to have more than 1,000 sexual encounters, with both men and women, by the time he was 25. That's a number that would impress even Wilt Chamberlain!
(Do the math: if Vidal became sexually active at age 15, say, that would mean he would have had sex every three or four days. I'm not sure I even met a thousand people during that time in my life.)
That, and other stories, made me think that Vidal was exaggerating, slightly; which is why I also found it implausible that he had sex once with Jack Kerouac -- the story just didn't ring true to me. (By the way, did I ever tell you about the time I had dinner with Cindy Crawford?)
But Palimpsest, as I said, is a great book (if you're not too squeamish about homosexuality). And if even half of it is true, well, then, Vidal led quite an interesting life.
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