Duluth

Perhaps Vidal's most outrageous novel, this is an indescribable fantasy purportedly set in the city of Duluth (which, however, is near the Mexican border) & involving a tv show also named "Duluth" (a parody of "Dallas"), a spaceship that has landed nearby, the antics of a policewoman, Darlene Ecks, & much else. "A wild spoof of absolutely everything: social pretenses, law enforcement, marriage, open marriage, racism, literature, tv, science fiction, and sex. Dozens of plots perk along at an amazing pace...raunchy, dirty, outrageous, rife with cliches--& often very funny."--People "One of the most brilliant, most radical, & most subversive pieces of writing to emerge from America in recent years."--The New Statesman "Vidal belongs to that group of writers of our time who, precisely because they have always kept their eyes open to the disorders & distortions of our age, have chosen irony, humor, comedy--in other words, the whole range of literary instruments belonging to the universe of the laugh--as their means of settling accounts."--Italo Calvino