Point to Point Navigation

A Memoir

De: Gore Vidal

Narrado por: Gore Vidal

Winner of both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, New York Times best-selling author Gore Vidal is one of the true masters of American letters. In this extraordinary memoir, Vidal recalls his accomplishments and defeats, discusses the friends and enemies he has made, and contemplates the nature of mortality.

In the Navy during World War II, Vidal was forced to use point to point navigation whenever compasses failed. It is an apt analogy for his life, which has been filled with glorious triumphs as well as spectacular controversies. Never afraid to enter uncharted waters, Vidal has had relationships with innumerable luminaries, including President Kennedy, Tennessee Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Orson Welles, Greta Garbo, and others.

Thoroughly engaging and, of course, provocative, Point to Point Navigation is the fascinating story of an American icon. Vidal himself narrates this memoir, intimately sharing the stories of his own life.

©2006 Gore Vidal (P)2006 Recorded Books LLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

"In short, the memoir is a perfect encapsulation of Vidal's outsized personality." (Booklist)

A very articulate autobiography/memoir

A very articulate autobiography/memoir. I enjoyed many Gore books. Review complete.
Thanks to Audible Shop.
Glen W Stinnett
[e-mail]

Fascinating anecdotes from a master storyteller

Rich tales from a rich life are recalled by Vidal himself in this excellent collection.

Brilliant

Gore Vidal at the end of his long and over-the-top life, here exhibits his wisdom, his wit and his frustrations, as he settles old scores and drops many a name.

There is much to be learned from this too soon ended short account of a remarkable life.

Digressive, like an old man's reveries

This memoir is not nearly as good as Vidal's 'Palimpsest,' which was a masterpiece of autobiography as well as witty social history. There were bits of exaggeration and maybe outright lies in the earlier book, but the ego is allowed poetic license.

In this volume the memories are running thin and they threaten to get maudlin. The lingering illness and death of Vidal's life-partner Howard Auster is a poignant tale, told with excellent reserve and no soppiness, but it does leave a big black cloud over the whole book.

On the other hand, we've got Gore Vidal himself reading the thing in his Mandarin drawl, and that blots out a multitude of sins. Gore revisits some of the favorites from the earlier memoir--Jack and Jackie, Tennessee Williams, his parents, Amelia Earhart--and brings them to life like Dickens giving a final-tour reading.

A Brisk Summing Up of One's Life

Vidal records his interactions with people and his memories of his younger days with wit, charm, and eloquence. He lived a full and eventful life. He seemingly knew everybody. The tone is surprisingly light, considering he is nearing the end. And for a man who once said, "it's not enough for me to succeed, others must fail," there is an absence of mean-spiritedness and the need to get even.

This is a quick, easy listen. Still, it is a little disappointing. For me, I know Vidal best from his contretemps with William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer. None of that is covered here. And it ends not with his thoughts on life's meaning, but his views on the Kennedy assassination.

Tongue in cheek

Mr Vidal is witty and wry. Love both so I'm a fan. He wouldn't care at all. One of a kind.

A Few Hours With Gore Vidal

I seem to have spent a lot of time circling around the works of Gore Vidal since my late teens. It was a pleasure then to come to the late author’s second volume of memoirs, even more so when read by the author himself. In theory covering forty years from 1965 to 2005, Point to Point Navigation instead sees Vidal exploring aspects of his entire life. From his childhood in 1930s Washington DC to various boarding schools, his career as a novelist, brushes with Hollywood stars and Washington politicians, and more besides, it’s all here. Told in anything but chronological order, it’s a fascinating, witty, and even at times poignant examination of Vidal’s life and times with insights galore about American politics and the media. Yet, also, of the man himself, from two failed runs for public office 22 years apart that Vidal writes about without bitterness but an acknowledgment of the forces against him, and the death of his partner of 42 years, Howard Austen. In doing so, Vidal shows a more self-reflective side of himself, leading to some of the memoirs most tragic moments. Yet it’s the incredible life, encounters fleeting, and longtime friendships that draw the listener in, with Vidal’s eye for detail and biting wit on full display. It’s a wonderful way to spend a few hours, taking in Vidal’s stories and anecdotes.

Depression made manifest

This is a very sad book by a wonderful writer who knows all about disillusionment, loss, betrayal, and bitterness. It made me very sad myself to hear it in his eighty-year old voice, sometimes hard to understand. Not a book for most readers, I would suspect, even those who admired and respected Vidal.

Excellent and insightful memoir

Excellent and insightful memoir by one of the greatest writers of 20th century.
Highly recommended

What America is missing

If only gore vidal was here in February 2025 to tear apart the decline of our nation through all the trump/maga insanity
In the way only a true intellectual could.