SOURCE: “A Fiendish Gospel,” in Commonweal, November 6, 1992, pp. 38-9.

In the following review, Malin offers a favorable evaluation of Live from Golgotha. Malin concludes that “Vidal's provocative, distasteful novel is, perhaps, one of his most sustained meditations on the nature of things.”

Gore Vidal has always been interested in performance and duplicity. He has, indeed, played many roles: the nineteen-year-old wunderkind of Williwaw; the sage of the inner workings of the government; the lucid, aristocratic visitor from Rome who appears often on television to attack the medium and American technology in general. If we assume that Vidal is unaware of his “acts,” we are surely deceived. He is, indeed, fascinated by the ability of the performer to play different roles so well that he seduces the audience. We must view Vidal as a self-conscious actor of subtle roles. There is irony here. Vidal is, if you will, so...