Point to Point Navigation, the title of Gore Vidal's second memoir (after Palimpsest), refers to how they would navigate ships with an inoperable compass when he was in the navy. It is also an apt description of his life and this memoir as it meanders among his memories, experiences, opinions, and anecdotes he relates, but with his ultimate destination in mind. He recounts his successes and failures, friends made and lost, and drops names of the rich and mighty of years gone by (the Kennedys, Fellini, Tennessee Williams, and many more). Now 81 and in failing health, he also takes about his recently deceased partner of 53 years, Howard Auster. Facing perhaps his own obituary in the near future, Gore Vidal looks back on a life he's obviously enjoyed living.
Point to Point Navigation has received mixed reviews with the New York Times saying, "Vidal is his own best advertisement, with a lifetime's worth of stinging observations and sharp, combative insights to his credit. Add vanity, hubris and audacity on the same scale, and you have a man whose new memoir is unmissable."
