He has painted a portrait that is by turns shocking, witty and very funny - just like the much-missed man himself * Evening Standard *<br />Writer, pundit, bon viveur, frequenter of chat-show couches, Vidal will be remembered by his contemporaries, Parini is sure, "as a meteor who streaked through the night skies, with a fantail of sparks". He is less certain about future generations. "Will they read him? It's impossible to know." With this fine biography, he has done his part in ensuring they will * Independent *<br />A marvellous new biography . . . a portrait that is both affectionate and balanced * The Economist *<br />As much an intimate memoir as a scholarly biography -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *<br />Riveting * Herald *<br />In a good year for biography, the life I enjoyed the most, a gossipy window on a great American, is Jay Parini's life of Gore Vidal, <i>Every Time a Friend Succeeds Something Inside Me Dies </i> -- Robert McCrum * Observer *<br />This biography, filled with glittering names and acerbic wit, faithfully evokes the dangerous charm whose chilly dazzle even his melancholy last years could not quite extinguish * Daily Mail *