He has painted a portrait that is by turns shocking, witty and very funny - just like the much-missed man himself
Evening Standard
Writer, pundit, bon viveur, frequenter of chat-show couches, Vidal will be remembered by his contemporaries, Parini is sure, "as a meteor who streaked through the night skies, with a fantail of sparks". He is less certain about future generations. "Will they read him? It's impossible to know." With this fine biography, he has done his part in ensuring they will
Independent
a marvellous new biography . . . a portrait that is both affectionate and balanced
The Economist
As much an intimate memoir as a scholarly biography
- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
Riveting
Herald
In a good year for biography, the life I enjoyed the most, a gossipy window on a great American, is Jay Parini's life of Gore Vidal, Every Time a Friend Succeeds Something Inside Me Dies
- Robert McCrum, Observer
This biography, filled with glittering names and acerbic wit, faithfully evokes the dangerous charm whose chilly dazzle even his melancholy last years could not quite extinguish
Daily Mail