Dark Green, Bright Red
{{short description|1950 novel by Gore Vidal}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox book |
| name = Dark Green, Bright Red
| image = File:Dark Green, Bright Red.jpg
| caption = Cover of the first edition
| author = Gore Vidal
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| genre = Political fiction
| publisher = E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York City
| release_date = 1950
| media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
| pages = 296
| isbn = 0233989137
| preceded_by = A Search for the King
| followed_by = The Judgement of Paris
}}
Dark Green, Bright Red is a novel by Gore Vidal, concerning a revolution headed by a former military dictator in an unnamed Central American republic. The book was first published in 1950 in the United States by E. P. Dutton.{{cite web|url=http://www.harpersbooks.com/pages/books/16222/gore-vidal/dark-green-bright-red |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140317175154/http://www.harpersbooks.com/pages/books/16222/gore-vidal/dark-green-bright-red |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 17, 2014 |title=Dark Green, Bright Red |publisher=Harper's Books |accessdate=December 7, 2014 }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3ZbAAAAMAAJ |title=Dark Green, Bright Red |accessdate=December 7, 2014|last1=Vidal |first1=Gore |year=1950 }} It drew upon Vidal's experiences living in Guatemala during the Guatemalan Revolution.{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/early.html |title=The Early Fiction of Gore Vidal: 1946-1956 |accessdate=December 7, 2014}}
Vidal re-wrote a significantly shortened version of Dark Green, Bright Red in 1968. However, when the book was published in a new United Kingdom edition in 1995 by Andre Deutsch, the longer, original text was used.
Plot summary
With the backing of a U.S. fruit company, a court-martialled American army officer and a French advisor, General Alvarez, a deposed Central American dictator mounts an attempted coup d'etat to regain power. The first part of the book is set mainly in jungle, yet most of the military action takes place elsewhere. It was the first of Vidal's books to explore the idea that the United States was an imperialist country.
Critical reception
The novel received mixed to negative reviews. Donald Barr in The New York Times called it "a sad waste of real narrative gifts and wit",{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-dark.html |title=From Patio and Jungle |last=Barr |first=Donald |author-link=Donald Barr |date=October 8, 1950 |newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=December 7, 2014}} while Kirkus Reviews considered it "[w]ell-written, with authentic atmosphere, ... but not up to the mark of [Vidal's] earlier work."{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gore-vidal-5/dark-green-bright-red/ |title=Dark Green, Bright Red |date=October 9, 1950 |publisher=Kirkus Reviews |accessdate=December 7, 2014}} Saturday Review deemed it "an interesting failure."{{cite journal |title=Fighting Somebody Else's Revolution |last=Brooks |first=John |author-link=John Brooks (writer) |journal=Saturday Review |date=October 14, 1950 }}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Gore Vidal}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dark Green, Bright Red}}
Category:Novels set in Central America
Category:Novels about revolutions
Category:American political novels
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