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Portrait of Gore Vidal Photo: David Shankbone (2009)
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Vidal, Gore

The American novelist and essayist Gore Vidal was born at West Point, New York. He was originally christened Eugene Vidal, but in his teens he changed his first name to his maternal grandfather’s surname. Gore Vidal was the only child of the pilot Eugene Luther Vidal and his wife, Nina S. Gore, an actress. He was not close to either. His parents were divorced when Vidal was ten, and although he m...

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Literary figures

Peter Decker

Gender: Male

When he falls in love with the Jewish widow Rina Lazarus, the parents of the divorced single father and police inspector Peter Decker reveal that he is adopted, and that his biological parents were Jews. He changes religion, and can marry Rina. Together, they solve a row of criminal cases in Faye Kellerman’s books, where one of them – or sometimes both of them – plays the main role.

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