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It said, essentially, that Gore Vidal was particularly intolerant of purposeful lying to deceive, almost violently intolerant of it. They attributed this to a parent that drank and hid it.
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I feel a keen kinship towards this feeling, although for me it is based on a parent that was a pathological liar. No need to drag my father through the brambles on this again, it was just a fact that he lied for fun and believed it when he said it, and not one second longer.
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This anger might be particular odd for many to believe, since my mantra has often be: stick with the lie. But I mean that only where telling the truth would accomplish nothing but hurting someone else's feelings. There is no reason to tell Zela her Salisbury Steak makes me queasy - once I have already eaten it. There is no reason for a young nephew to tell me he is rooting against UCLA in the basketball pool to win money. These are harmless touches of humanity to keep the gears of community humming.
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"What a lovely gift!" "No, I like your hair grey." "Those pants totally do not make you look fat." "It's alright that Coco pee'd on the floor." Stick with those types of lies.
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On the other hand, to claim you didn't know a subordinate was molesting children - that is an evil lie. To say you "retroactively retired" that is an insulting lie to remove culpability. To say you would run a more transparent government, then jail whistle blowers consistently - that is a lie for political gain. Those types of lies infuriate me. (Note: my examples were non-political, right and left, respectively, to show that thisbugs me where ever it happens. They were not chosen to be "equivalent", I see the first as far and away the worst.)
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I guess that is another reason I admired Mr. Vidal. FYI - Ed said he liked his shampoo.