Originally published August 24, 2006.

What can I say about this book...let's start with...I HATED IT. The Judgement of Paris is about an aimless young man who is travelling through Europe, hanging with the rest of the idle rich and having affairs along the way. The complex problems of the upper class are boring in this book. Phillip, our protagonist, got on my ever living nerves. What a bland, white-bread, non-entity. I couldn't have cared less whether Phillip opted for wisdom, power, or love.

The Judgement of Paris has some merit- Vidal spices it up with crazy supporting characters that make you continue reading, long after anyone in their right mind would. There's the morbidly obese gentleman in Egypt that is intent on suicide, the insane homosexuals Phillip encounters throughout Europe, and tragic drug-addict Jim. There is much satire in the tale, and the descriptions of the exotic locales and bizarre activities that the wealthy engage in are fascinating on some level.

I have nothing against the rich, my dislike of this book has nothing to do with class. It's the pretentiousness of this work that I didn't like. I don't need to be beaten over the head with all these diatribes about power and corruption and love and the search for identity and purpose. It was very heavy-handed. I prefer a more subtle approach. And though I am sure for the time period in which this was published (the early 1950's) the homosexual characters and subject matter was ground-breaking, it was kind of depressing that they were mostly INSANE.

Every other review I've read of this book is full of glowing praise and calls this one a masterpiece (???!!).

So maybe I'm an idiot, who knows? My experience with this book is akin to going to a fancy dress party where everyone is quoting Kierkgaard and Socrates while wiping their asses with hundred dollar bills. Not my kind of party, people!