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Kalki

Kalki

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Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Homespun Productions
Category: Book

Buy New: $31.50



New (1) Used (3) from $17.99

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 18 reviews
Sales Rank: 2872065

Media: Audio Cassette
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.3 x 1.3

ISBN: 1888329017
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9781888329018
ASIN: 1888329017

Publication Date: October 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new sealed in factory shrinkwrap; will include delivery confirmation at no additional cost

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Bestselling author Gore Vidal joins the ranks of Penguin Classics. To satisfy a public that longs for a savior, Vidal's eponymous hero of KALKI, born and bred in America's Midwest, establishes himself in Nepal, puts out the word that he is the last incarnation of the god Vishnu, and predicts an imminent apocalypse meant to cleanse the planet.


Customer Reviews:   Read 13 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars Classic!   July 2, 2008
This is a great book that works on every level. The plot and its wonders are fully explained by other reviewers, and I will not offer more. The purpose of this review is to explain the origin of the story---something not seen in the other reviews.
Merwan Shariar was born of Irani parents in India sometime around 1890. He was taken by the Five Perfect Masters at an early age. Later in his training, the Masters revealed to him that he was indeed "the Ancient One", the Avatar (also known as the White Horse Avatar). He took the name Meher Baba, and was silent for the last 40 years of his life. (also known as the "silent messiah".) He communicated by means of an alphabet board. His acts of humility are very well known. There are now millions of his followers world-wide, and the two main Baba centers are in Meherabad (India), and Myrtle Beach (S.C.). The last 10 years of his life were spent seeking out the Masts (the God-intoxicated) of India. He declared that he was called to human form by the five perfect masters not to establish a cult nor to promote a new faith (his followers retain their previous faith). Whether one believes in his divinity or not, his was a fascinating life. For more info, go to avatarmeherbaba.com. I do not believe in his divinity, but Gore Vidal must have been at least interested. and again, Kalki is a great book no matter what you believe. Because of Vidal's open homosexuality and communist beliefs, it is a shame that he will probably never be nominated for the Nobel Prize. He certainly deserves it.



5 out of 5 stars Cycle of creation as told by a bi-sexual aviatrix   June 29, 2008
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Blending his patented wry humor with acute social insight, Vidal creates a crescendo of events hurling humanity towards and impending apocalypse. However, the lasting effect of Kalki isn't the gripping plot narrated by Teddy Ottinger, bi-sexual aviatrix. She is merely a small figure engulfed the madness of events. The impact of Kalki comes from deeper meanings such as the arbitrariness of religious convictions, futility of man's efforts to steward the planet, and the madness of modern society. Although Kalki was originally published in 1983 and set during the pre-Reagan reign of Jimmy Carter, Vidal's concerns regarding over-population, raging epidemics, a compromised atmosphere, and energy shortages of the late seventies that are very much relevant today.

The story is about all of humanity and its fatal flaws. The narrative could be construed as Teddy's confession, relating her guilty role in the chaotic affairs that change the world. However, the point of the story, to me, can best be summarized when Vidal writes that "Good and evil cease to have meaning if there is no human which to weigh such entirely human qualities." I found this to be an interesting statement. The consequences of human actions may not be measured as absolutes (God, Devil, Evil, etc). What is morality in an existential world? For Vidal, the ultimate answer, unfortunately, may be self-destruction.



5 out of 5 stars Hah!   March 20, 2008
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is the first Gore Vidal book that I have read. A great book...made me laugh out loud so many times! Now I'm starting from the beginning to read all of Vidal's works.


4 out of 5 stars Great, but he's written better...   August 29, 2006
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book kept me interested and offers another great depiction of a Messianic figure taking the world by storm. It's a bit less realistic than Messiah, and I would recommend reading Messiah over Kalki. But if you've already read Messiah and want more, check this one out.

The story, overall, moves pretty fast and keeps you guessing. Down to the last page you won't know what's going to happen next.



4 out of 5 stars Master of understatement, Vidal's novel is deeply disturbing   May 1, 2004
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I cannot tell you what is deeply disturbing about this novel in regards to the actual plot without giving much of it away--which would be a crime and a half for a novel of this punch. Suffice it to say that despite the fact that Vidal puts enough aspects of 70s culture into it to make it fresh and new for when it was written, it carries even more power--and becomes even more disturbing--when read in our new millenium; almost as much as it would have had I read it in 1999.

There is a woman named Teddy Ottinger: feminist, an aviatrix extraordinaire, divorced mother of two; longing to step into the shoes of her immortal hero Amelia Earhart, even at the expense of the emotional lives of her children, for whom she has little true maternal feelings and little more than a contempt for her ex-husband that had to have been there latently when she married him. Cold, but searching for love and warmth in the arms of both lesbian women and men--and something of meaning in her life via French philosophy--she is summoned to the world of Kalki, the tenth avatar of the god Vishnu, harbringer of the end of the world. But he may also be someone else; a someone else that could make this entire fantasy world she is seemingly caught up in a dangerous lie. Or, he could simply be Kalki, and the world must prepare for the End...

Vidal channels Mark Twain in our century like he always does and creates a novel of social criticism with a style and expertise of which few in history have ever equalled. But with this novel he weaves essential Hinduism and the CIA into it in a way that makes one question not just American society, but reality itself. In two hundred plus pages Vidal will have you sitting on the edge of the bed at two o'clock in the morning with this novel, not being able to put it down, yet being afraid to read the final chapters.

And make no mistake, the final chapters will blow your mind.

I highly recommend this one.

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