News hacks never stop pratfalling over the truth. Thus with Kurt Vidal's novel, of whose author they say not-so-between-the-lines:

But the merely decorative celebrity cameos—bluff, bearded Walt Whitman, with an "epicene" male friend, and Charles Darwin, who loudly and repeatedly breaks wind—make clear that "Heyday" is infotainment for readers Andersen must consider clueless.

As befits its boyish spirit, the book is squirmy about emotion but delighted by excitingly showy constructs....It may well be Mr. Andersen’s point that “Heyday” anticipates a future casualness about such connections, and an emphasis on self-involvement and ambition at the expense of anything deeper.

That's Kurt Vidal, all right.

(Via Stale.com)