Creation: A Novel

Written by Gore Vidal

Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

A sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure—in a restored edition, featuring never-before-published material from Gore Vidal’s original manuscript—Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the ancient world.

Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to the warring states of Cathay, where he learned of Tao from Master Li and fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens—the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates—Cyrus recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life’s journeys: how the universe was created, and why evil was created with good. In revisiting the fifth century B.C.—one of the most spectacular periods in history—Gore Vidal illuminates the ideas that have shaped civilizations for millennia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781799751397

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His first novel, Williwaw, written when he was 19 years old and serving in the army, appeared in the spring of 1946. He wrote 23 novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over 200 essays, and a memoir.

Reviews for Creation

[a.godhelm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bildungsroman in the sense Umberto Eco was smeared by. At times no more than fictionalized accounts of historical people and events as if ripped from a history book on the era. A book like Name of the Rose managed to sneak the educational snippets in under the radar of the central murder mystery in a monastery setting. Creation doesn't have a comparative core of plot and character driving it forward. It's not uninteresting or a failure as a result, just less than what it might have been. It also suffers a bit from having the learned men of the era come across as 20th century transplants, where a book like Baudolino keeps more of the to us alien reasoning of the foreign era alive.
Still, probably the best and most erudite novel of the ancient era I've come across.

[chas69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Superb -- a wide-ranging tour of the cultures, religions, philosophies and major figures of the 5th century B.C. told in a often humorous, even snarky, fashion by a skilled author (Gore Vidal) who obviously did his homework. The fictional narrator is Cyrus Spitama, the Persian ambassador to Athens sometime around 445 B.C. From his unique vantage point, he observes and comments on Greek personages (like Pericles and Socrates), politics, and culture. If you have not read Histories by Herodotus, you may not see what Gore Vidal is doing here - the book is a clever, subtle satire of Herodotus, replete with all the gossip, digressions, descriptive style found in the "Histories." Only instead of being told by a Greek, it's told by a Persian, the Greeks' arch-enemy during this period of history. And whereas Herodotus traveled to Egypt and Central Asia, Cyrus Spitama travels to India and Cathay. There he meets and converses with Buddha, Lao Tzu and Confucius so we get a dose of eastern philosophy as well. A+

[janerawoof · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book, life of the fictional Cyrus Spitama, grandson of Zoroaster, the religious teacher, as told to his grandson. Set in Persia right before, during and after the Greco-Persian War. Cyrus gives a completely different version of that war than we're used to, describes his boyhood years growing up with Xerxes, who later becomes Great King. Then Cyrus is appointed ambassador to several countries, most notably India and Cathay. Darius, at that time king, wants to invade. Much of the book recounts Cyrus' travels, customs of people he meets and always the religious Cyrus is searching for alternate theories of Creation and the problem of evil. We get a quick overview of Eastern religions, of course, through Cyrus' eyes, always comparing with Zoroastrianism. Cyrus meets such figures as Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, famous Greeks of that period. Cyrus finally dies, but his grandson, after many years of travel and living in many countries, finally figures out what he feels must be the answer to Cyrus' questions. The book was quite witty, sometimes even 'snarky'. The politics bored me.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a thick book, and it is largely about religion. Many will not read past this point, either of the review or the novel. But this is an area were many escapist readers feel uncomfortable. And religious fundamentalists have trouble dealing with the shared tenets of the major faiths. But Mr. Vidal is not a fundamentalist, but a humanist and his take on the divided world with shared truths is quite a nice way to spend a week of reading time. It's worth the effort, even though the body count is low.

[.monkey.-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the most amazing pieces of work I have ever read; Vidal was a master at his craft, no doubt about it. The detailed history is written in a most engaging manner, not dull and dry but full of palace intrigue and fighting wars and interviews with characters (historical people) from all sorts of walks of life. I learned a ton, things that would otherwise most assuredly never be retained in my mind, and enjoyed every moment of it. Not to be missed.

[wweisser-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had to read this for school. It has its moments but overall its very long and not worth it.

[drakhir · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome historical insights form the Greek world from the point of view of the Persians.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The late Gore Vidal had a penchant for upending history, with his retellings of Burr, Lincoln, the Emperor Julian, and Roosevelt. Here, he has an irresistible setting - the memoirs and recollections of a Persian diplomat who is fed up with listening to Herodotus boast about an imagined victory (barbarians!), and retells his life to his son. He has met, and hobnobbed with, Zoroaster, Anaximander, Pericles, Socrates, the Buddha, Confucius, Xerxes, Darius, and Lao Tsi.

All of these figures (with the exception of Zoroaster) did live within roughly the same time frame, the 5th century b.c. The setting alone, and the luxurious descriptions thereof, are a traveler's and historian's dream.

Of course, our narrator is a diplomat after all. So in between the descriptions are some universal truths about politics in human nature - that is, it's a whole bunch of assholes trying to fuck each other.

In contrast to this, the narrator makes a point to search for Truth. He is a dualist, believing in the struggle between good and evil, and seeks to find Truth wherever he goes. This his earnest questions of prophets and sages abroad.

The history and setting alone make this worth a good look. The political descriptions are especially tedious (!) but the rest is worth reading.

[ragwaine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A long time ago I saw Gore Vidal on Bill Maher's show Politically Incorrect. I was very impressed with just about everything he said so when I saw this book at some used bookstore or thrift store (can't remember which) I picked it up. I actually started reading it and then the size of it scared me off. But now that he just died the other day I figured it would be a good time to read it.This book took me 5 months to read (although I was reading other books at the same time). It's huge (593 pages) and the font is small. It wasn't action-packed. I never felt sad or happy for the characters. There weren't any aliens, magic or "lasers". No mind-blowing, extrapolated future technologies or cultures. BUT. I really liked it. It really was like taking a tour through history. The main character meets Buddha, Confucius, and a host of other famous historical personages. Reading it feels like Vidal had some kind of time machine and just went back and took notes on everything. Complicated (royal) family trees, religious schisms, assassinations, coups, love affairs, wars etc...The closest thing I can compare it to is [book:I, Claudius|18765] but with a much larger scope and so a larger cast of characters and so (again) less intimacy with the characters.Thank you Mr. Vidal for letting me take a ride in your time machine.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Creation is an epic historical fiction novel originally published in 1981. In 2002, Vidal published a restored version, adding four chapters that a previous editor had cut. He also added a brief 2002 foreword explaining what had happened to the book in its original version and why he restored the cut chapters. The narrative follows the adventures of a fictional "Cyrus Spitama", an Achaemenid Persian diplomat of the 5th century BC who travels the known world comparing the political and religious beliefs of various nation states of the time. Over the course of his life, he meets many influential philosophical figures of his time, including Zoroaster, Socrates, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius. This felicitous conjunction of meetings is the best aspect of the novel.The story is related in the first person as recalled to his Greek great-nephew Democritus. Cyrus's recollection is said to be motivated in part by his desire to set the record straight following the publication by Herodotus of an account of the Greco-Persian wars. Vidal evokes a theme which Robert Graves had previously explored, a skepticism of the reported facts and interpretations of our understanding of History as reported by the winners of its battles. The story features a rather amusingly sarcastic treatment of the pretensions of the glory of Classical Golden Age of Athens. In the parts of the book that comment on history, Vidal makes obvious use of the Histories of Herodotus. Needless to say, reading the original would be better, but Vidal's novel still holds your interest.

[turtlesleap · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vidal's novel serves as a background for his exposition on the history and philosophy of the 5th Century. His knowledge is expansive and, while the breadth of experience for his main character is simply not believable, he does a reasonably effective job of entertaining the reader while commenting on political and religious isses (often inseprable) of the era. This is not a book for those who want their reading quick and easy and will be far more enjoyable for those who go into it with some knowledge of the era, of the development of the world's great relgiions and, particularly, of Periclean Greece.

[worldsedge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Candidly a bit of a disappointment after the tour de force that was Julian. Biggest irritation: Why do authors of works of this sort have their narrator meet every single friggin' important person that existed in their era, a la John Jakes? But, Vidal is a good enough writer that it is possible to overlook this and enjoy this work as fiction, not as being remotely close to actual history.

[rcss67 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favourite historical novelist and a fantastic book, with fantastic sly digs at the greek centred history we all ingest from the cradle.

[smiley_13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vidal takes on the golden fifth century BC from India, Persia, Greece and everything in between. Vidal, like many long practicing artists, sometimes falls into the bad habit of overuse of literary devices. He does here essentially what he did in "Burr" the main character's worldly life is recounted to a younger, unwordly, minor character. There is no other American writer that would even attempt the breath of this historical fiction. So what if it doesn't fully succeed? It's still better than most.