5/05/2005

Buchanan Dying

Before Gore Vidal's Lincoln, there was John Updike's Buchanan Dying.

What a satisfying sequence.

I encountered Buchanan Dying yesterday at lunch, exploring a new (one-year-old) antiquarian bookshop in Baltimore. This obscure 1974 play (that's what it is) skimmed terrifically but was priced for collectors, this instance being a first edition of the UK issue. I let it be for now.

The language is marvelously bombastic and makes me want to memorize lines for shouting around the house:
Let us force no event that gradual causes will in time render inevitable.
The Internet delivers us a project website for Buchanan Dying. Enjoy.