The Mummery: A Parable of the Divine True Love [Abridged]

by Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Kenneth Welsh

This CD features the prologue and excerpts from eight different chapters of Avatar Adi Da's literary masterpiece The Mummery narrated by award-winning actor and author Kenneth Welsh (Legends of the Fall, Absolute Power, Perfectly Normal, and Hounds of the Baskervilles). The Mummery is a multi-dimensional exploration of the Process of Divine Enlightenment.

Audio CD

First published April 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dimitrios Otis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mummery Book is a bona fide modernist literary experiment which encompasses the Biggest Questions and Themes. Not merely life and death, or love and war, but ultimacies of meaning and feeling and philosophy. Ultimately it is a Spiritual text, which should be a recommendation but I fear amounts to a condemnation! So I should be clear that this stands as a valid work of literature stylistically and in imaginative prose, poetic language, and creating a symbolic world. We can't really hold it against an author that his concerns are of the Profound.

Originally written in a short burst of creativity in 1969, but kept from publication by the author, the ms. was later expanded to its present and final form.

[Dimitrios Otis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 6-CD set is a complete recitation of the novel The Mummery Book (it was re-titled in the latest edition) by noted actor Kenneth Welsh. I've read the novel a couple of times over the years, and while appreciating it very much I hadn't broken through to any higher reading experience of its complex imagery and proprietary mythology. But this audio version--which let it be known is really a complete one-man recited performance of it--completely broke open the latent power and focused intricacy of the text. Welsh has gone all out in emoting the book, finding expression for its unique punctuation style and intensity.
Technically, the performance includes Welsh giving distinct--while still restrained within his overall narrative voice--characterization to the fictional personages, and subtle audio enhancements such as reverb in parts.
If you are interested in this particular novel, or cutting edge literature, or "spoken word" performances (Welsh has a strong theatrical training and background), then I would highly recommend trying to obtain this rare recording.