I just finished Kurt Anderson's
Heyday,
and it has a fair amount of "Oh, look who we ran into!" But the novel's basically constructed to be a encyclopedia of 1848, so the plot is thin and built on unlikely coincidences. I think it was kind of like the Vidal book -- if it was meant to be realistic, the cameos would be the least of its problems.
The only bit that really bugged me was when they were in Illinois and start talking about a politician/lawyer, and it's obviously Lincoln but they don't say his name for most of the conversation, and it's too cute by half. Lincoln himself doesn't "appear" though.
Vidal is a novelist, not just an explorer of ideas. The main character is genuinely interesting if not always pleasant. He survives truly dangerous situations - both through luck, and through occasional exercise of intelligence. He is in danger from his (literal) witch of a mother, from the Harem and the court Eunuchs in Persia. He survives dangerous journeys, and deadly wars (civil and not) and intrigue in India, China, and in Greece as well.
This weekend, a headline said "Norbert Batters Mexican Coast." What does it say that my first thought was dragon, not hurricane?
Norbert?
And we already have Omar building up steam too. (Or so I heard.)
What's the "P" name this year?
I think that Ragtime also did the famous-people thing well, but that book was really ... I'm not sure of the word I'm looking for. "Stylized" comes to mind, but it's not exactly what I mean. It's like, it wasn't just random famous people inserted into the ongoing plot; the famous people were part of what held the book together.
Yeah, Creation has a lot in common with Ragtime. It is *about* makers of history and expounders of new ideas, and the relations between them. Along with Vidal's quirky theory about where this intellectual revolution came from.
That was great
I just sent it to a billion people - I know tey will really enjoy it
