PALIMPSEST A Memoir by Gore Vidal...

PALIMPSEST A Memoir by Gore Vidal (Penguin: $13.95, 435 pp., illustrated). Related to some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in America, Vidal grew up amid the great, the near-great and their hangers-on. In this icy memoir, he offers witty, unflattering portraits of many of his friends and relatives, reserving his only real affection for the young man he loved as a teenager. The Kennedys receive special criticism, especially the late Jacqueline Onassis, and when Hillary Rodham Clinton visits his Italian villa, he reflects, “I wonder if her interest in Jackie might not be genuine bewilderment at how a woman so selfish could be so beloved and Hillary, who wants actually to do something useful for others, is currently hated. Some obscure law of public relations is busily working overtime.” Vidal’s tone may be unkind, but he writes with a polished elegance few, if any, contemporary American authors can match.