Kalki

A Novel

By: Gore Vidal

Narrated by: Hope Day

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.

©1978 by Gore Vidal. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Makes you think

Although Kalki is certainly unusual, it is surprisingly simple for Gore Vidal. It is one of my favorite stories of his.

Helps to know something of the languages

Brilliant, challenging book, with well-drawn and oddly credible characters in an incredible situation, this apocalyptic tale is almost one huge spoiler.

A pretty decent reading is spoiled buy hope days inability to pronounce some terms and names vital to the story, such as Shiva - which Vidal presumably spelled Siva, but is *not* pronounced Sivva; and terms in French, which Day renders like... someone who's boned up half-heartedly prepping for the rôle of a fluent speaker is the language.

Wrong reader

A reader who doesn't know "Siva" is pronounced "Shiva" really has no business reading a novel with foundations in Hindu cosmology. Dropped letters in English terms also change the text's meaning - "passers-by" is read in the singular; and added words don't help - "at home with *the* language" is a different meaning from Vidal's more inclusive "at home with language. I quit about 20% of the way in; I'm enjoying the book too much to spend the rest of it wondering what the reader's screwing up.