618. Myra Breckenridge

Myra Breckenridge
Gore Vidal
1968
Around 265 pages

The movie version of this novel was so bad that it essentially erased all the critical acclaim and popularity that the book had. Considering this is the first novel to undergo a sex change operation, it's odd I don't hear it mentioned more, given the current dialogue on transgenderism. It's a hard book to categorize, so maybe it's not so weird that people don't touch it.

The story is told through the entries of Myra's diaries. Myra is a transgender woman obsessed with old movies.  This is one of those books that was shocking for its time, and is now a bit of a slog. I don't really like camp, or books that are just designed to make you clutch your pearls. I understand the impulse on the writer's side, but it doesn't make it any more enjoyable.

So it's transphobic, racist, Anti-Semitic, and violent. I felt Gore Vidal's smugness through the pages; I would imagine he was insufferable in real life. I don't think this is much to be gained from identifying all the problematic issues with this novel, since the point was to be as provocative as possible.

Felt like a precursor to American Psycho, but not as gross. 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Vidal hated the film adaptation and called it "an awful joke."

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