Kalki

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.

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.

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.

This is scary, devillish and brilliant stuff. I am writing this review about two hours after finishing Kalki. I' d love to delete the experience from my memory so I could do so again. The premise is that a bisexual writer and aviatrix named Teddy Ottinger is given the chance of the ultimate scoop. A former Vietnam vet named Jimmy Kelly has announced he is the AVATAR (incarnation) of Kalki. He is holed up in an ashram in Nepal. The end pof the world is nigh. Meanwhile, his retinue of deluded bourgeois American youth is handing out white lotuses on the nation's streets.Teddy must fly with him like her heroine Amelia Erhart and scoop the rival networks. The poers that be suspect a drug-ring. Those who know of Hinduism know Kalki as the tenth and final incarnation of the great Vishnu, sacred 33% of the "Trimurti", also including Brahma and Siva. Mr Kelly proves to be a worthy messiah. The book keeps you turning the pages. The end is utterly convincing. Real grist to to the mill in that eternal debate. Are we here because some Preserver-Destroyer-Creator being wills it, now and forever? Are we here because a few eons back, some monkeys (Jack and Jill?) threw a bone in the air and never looked back?

Stunning and shocking. I read it and must now buy a copy, as I must own it. One of the very few books I periodically want to go back and reread. Peopled with mystifying characters. What in the world could He want - this self-proclaimed messiah named Kalki? A very different take on Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.