SOURCE: A review of The Smithsonian Institution, in World Literature Today, Vol. 74, No. 1, Winter, 2000, p. 174.

In the following review, LaHood offers an unfavorable assessment of The Smithsonian Institution.

Gore Vidal has just about done it all: twenty-three novels, a book of short stories, five plays, nine collections of essays, and Palimpsest: A Memoir. So what could he possibly imagine for his latest novel? Why not drop a thirteen-year-old boy genius, named T., into the Smithsonian Institution, where he meets just about everyone in America’s past, exhibitions come to life, Lindbergh takes him for a ride (within the building) in The Spirit of St Louis, he is seduced by Mrs. Grover Cleveland in the guise of a twenty-two-year-old white maiden held captive by the Iroquois, and past presidents get a chance to explain some of their decisions.

The main action revolves around T.’s encounter with nuclear scientists...