Kalki by Gore Vidal

Kalki by Gore Vidal

In Kalki Gore Vidal explores the end of the Age of Kali (the Kali Yuga), the last of the four stages the world goes through according to Hindu mythology. In the late 1970s an avatar named Kalki, the tenth and final Avatar of Lord Vishnu, appears in the person of an American ex-soldier and drug smuggler to announce the end of the world.
As Kalki begins to attract a huge following, Teddy Ottinger, a female American test pilot, is hired by a magazine to fly to India to interview him. Teddy is the narrator of this book, written in the White House a year after she took the job to interview Kalki. She has been asked to explain what happened since taking the interview assignment.
What happens is a riotous romp through the foibles of late-20th century America, while still providing a deep understanding of the Hindu principles involved, as only the wit of Gore Vidal could imagine it. Is Kalki a con man, a true avatar come to save humanity, a delusional psychopath set on a path of lunatic dreams? We see the tale unfold through the pages of Teddy's story.