Julian

Great man, holy fool
my god(s) can beat up your god
the endless squabble.

Oh, that was great. This book is vivid, satisfying, rich and textured. And never boring! I was worried. But it's perfect. I think it's like Rashomon or Groundhog Day are perfect films; this is a flawless book.

Set in the 4th century CE, this is a biography of Julian (AKA Julian the Apostate), the (last) Roman Emperor who believed in the Olympian gods and rejected Christianity. I had never heard of him, but now I think - what a hero! What a story! Basically, 4th century CE Roman Empire was a tumultuous time on the brink of disaster. The story is told via three perspectives: Julian himself, as well as two of his former philosophy teachers, Priscus and Libanius. Together, all three recount the life of Julian - through letters, diary entries, marginalia and notes to self. We watch as Julian - enthusiastic, nerdy, idealistic - survives the dangers of an Imperial childhood (royal families tending to murder each other), becomes Emperor, pushes back the German tribes, secures Gauls, tries to get everyone onboard with a Hellenistic revival via loooots of clumsy, gory sacrifices to various Olympian gods, tries to conquer Persia, almost succeeds and, well, dies. It's not a spoiler. It's 1,600+ years ago!

What surprised me about this book - and made it so lovable - is that it BROUGHT HISTORY TO TACTILE LIFE. The people were real people. They gossiped, farted, got annoyed, forgot things, were clumsy, were ambitious, complained about bugs. The politics felt immediate; the philosophy - especially the clear-eyed (and very critical) portrayal of an early, ambitious, havoc-wreaking Christianity - felt urgent. Gore Vidal makes it supremely easy to connect there to here - AND he makes it supremely easy to see ourselves there. You understand exactly why some people are Christians, some people refuse to be, and so on.

This Late Classical period - so perilously close to the Dark Ages - feels tragic. Julian and his philosopher bros know they're at the end of “their” history - the history that matters to them. Christianity is quickly destroying the old world. Their future is dark. I was watching this Khan Academy video about the early Renaissance, and - just seeing the timeline of Classical Period -> Dark Ages -> Renaissance -> Modernism was a SHOCK. The Dark Ages last a THOUSAND YEARS. The Renaissance was a blip. Then it's immediately the Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, industrialization, and then the horrors of the 20th century. Like: I'm surprised both by how much separates me from Julian, and by how little. The richness of the story is made EXTRA BUTTERY RICH by the knowledge that I, as a modern reader sitting in 2018, have about What Happened Next.

In other words, it was a heaping slice of perfectly slaying historical fiction. HIGHLY recommend. This is the current contender of Best Read of 2018 for me.