SOURCE: Allen, Brooke. “Sorcerers' Apprentices.” Hudson Review 52, no. 1 (spring 1999): 150–56.

In the following negative excerpt, Allen expresses contempt for what she sees as the hostility, jealousy, and hypocrisy in Sir Vidia's Shadow.

The appearance in bookstores of the bound, published version of the Starr report mere hours after its release is yet another proof that something in our culture has radically changed: not so much the death of outrage, as William Bennett would have it, as the death of privacy, or of simple decency. The fact that those who govern feel that it's not only necessary but perfectly all right for us to know every detail of someone's sex life appears to be quite unprecedented. Is it even legal to expose these facts? If not, what legal recourse is there? If Bill Clinton were a mere private citizen, mightn't he himself file a lawsuit to protect his privacy?

The...