The City and the Pillar is written in the same terse Hemingwayesque prose as Vidal's first two novels. This fact may have contributed to the scandal caused by the appearance of the work because many readers of the time felt the style to be uncomfortably inconsistent with the subject. On the other hand, the novel is written from a thirdperson restricted point of view with the focal character usually Jim. This fact led other readers to misapprehend the work as autobiography. Vidal's prose always carries a conviction of deep interest in his subject no matter what it is. While he has disavowed the naive autobiographical interpretation of this work and all of his works (he is not an untutored tennis bum, and he was never kept by another man), it is sometimes difficult to distinguish his personal life from his professional persona. In Two Sisters, he has the...