Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal

by Gore Vidal

Timothy (later St. Timothy) is in his study in Thessalonika, where he is bishop of Macedonia. It is A.D. 96, and Timothy is under terrific pressure to record his version of the Sacred Story, since, far in the future, a cyberpunk (the Hacker) has been systematically destroying the tapes that describe the Good News, and Timothy's Gospel is the only one immune to the Hacker's deadly virus. Meanwhile, thanks to a breakthrough in computer software, an NBC crew is racing into the past to capture--live from the suburb of Golgotha--the Crucifixion, for a TV special guaranteed to boost the network's ratings in the fall sweeps.

As a stream of visitors from twentieth-century America channel in to the first-century Holy Land--Mary Baker Eddy, Shirley MacLaine, Oral Roberts and family--Timothy struggles to complete his story. But is Timothy's text really Hacker-proof? And how will he deal with the truth about Jesus' eating disorder? Above all, will he get the anchor slot for the Big Show at Golgotha without representation by a major agency, like CAA 1,896 years in the future? Tune in.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Religion, Science Fiction, Humor, Satire, Literature

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Works of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play The Best Man (1960) and the novel Myra Breckinridge (1968) .

People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.

Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.

Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.

They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.

At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde

Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).

Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).

Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.

Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.

Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.

Reviews

[Marica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per invidia – solo per invidia
Ipotizzo che Gore Vidal abbia scritto questo libro per invidia di Salman Rushdie che aveva ottenuto una fatwa; lui sperava dunque almeno in una scomunica; ma non mi risulta che il Papa l'abbia bruciato sul balcone in mondovisione. Ed è un peccato, perchè il libro avrebbe avuto un successone.
Libro particolarissimo, non riesco a immaginare a quale fascia di lettori sia rivolto: denota una buona conoscenza del Cristianesimo delle origini, inizialmente una corrente ebraica zelota, che a seguito dell'intervento/reinvenzione di san Paolo diventò una religione a sé stante, quella che conosciamo.
La singolarità sta nel registro adottato dall'autore, fra il dissacrante e il blasfemo, con ampio uso di fantascienza. La vittima principale della blasfemia di Vidal è san Paolo, denominato il Tarsitano, ma va giù pesante anche con San Timoteo. Su Gesù non è propriamente blasfemo, ma gli attribuisce personalità e comportamento completamente diverso e comunque nessuna intenzione di distaccarsi dall'ebraismo. La voce narrante è san Timoteo, discepolo di san Paolo, che ripercorre con affetto la loro giovinezza bohémien, licenziosa, gloriosa e intraprendente, fra feste e happening religiosi. Ci sono anche Nerone e Petronio.
E' una lettura estremamente vivace e divertente come non avrei mai sospettato, dato l'argomento, fa proprio ridere: un'immagine su tutte, quella di san Paolo che per non fare addormentare gli astanti mentre elenca le genealogie (“generò”) balla il tip tap.
Le immagini prese da Hollywood abbondano, dalle battaglie legali su chi si aggiudica la diretta dal Golgota (che fortunatamente non compare direttamente) agli happening di danza e recitazione in cui vengono letti i perfidi diari della danzatrice che fa il cappottino agli amici dell'ambiente. Una trasposizione cinematografica avrebbe assolutamente richiesto la presenza di Truman Capote.

[Seth Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gore Vidal was, based on my experience so far, incapable of writing a bad book. This book is a bit strange and definitely ties a knot with the normal narrative timeline but I like a book that can surprise me with it's creativity and originality while still crafting interesting characters that make me laugh and think at the same time.

I love Roman history and how it represents and then runs into Christian history. Much like his books about America's founding fathers, I like the notion of being a fly on the wall while history is being made. I loved the protagonist's anecdotes about being circumcised in order to mollify Jewish Christians or how the brother of Jesus, James, was furious with Paul for teaching that Jesus was the son of God, a concept that didn't even exist in Judaism nor was ever associated with their idea of a messiah.

This book got me out of a reading slump after a couple months of struggling to read a less-talented writer. I would recommend it to all lovers of Roman and Christian history, those who love to take Christianity to task for all its hypocrisies and people that are willing to explore a little magical realism.

[Mel Bossa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's the thing: this is very smart, witty, full of real knowledge about the period and quirky humor.

But, it takes more than a fast tongue and phenomenal vocabulary to sweep me off my feet.

I mean, yes, Vidal is highly intelligent in this little novel, rewriting the gospel, dropping names, calling people out on the shit they do in the name of God, giving his own little twist to the Judas kiss of betrayal, and even laughing at the "art" of writing itself. It takes some solid balls to do this and those he's proven he has. However, this book was so MASCULINE. Dang. It was like sitting with that super extroverted Greek cousin of yours or whatever, and he keeps running his mouth about everything and everyone he knows and talking trash and flexing his muscles while he tosses a toothpick around in his olive oil scented mouth and he's sexy and all and you're thinking wow this guy has something, but he's hitting you over the head with his maleness and you just wanna run into Truman Capote's little arms and say, "Oh, Truman, you were right, you do write better than Vidal. Let's drink dirty martinis together and watch Netflix all night."

Yeah, that's how I feel about this book. Just a little too much is sometimes very uncomfortable.

[Robin Mandell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't explain why I loved this so much. It's chaotic and nonsensical, and, although I just finished it, I can't give more than a rough idea of what it's about. It's also clever, irreverent, and hilarious. And, it's Gore Vidal, one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century. Given all this, I was happy to let go of all convention and go along for the ride.

[Ettore1207 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Per me che non ho fede religiosa, l'idea di una dissacrazione, fatta con ironia intelligente, poteva essere buona. Peccato che, in pratica, l'idea si sia tradotta in una insopportabile serie di scemenze che non fanno nemmeno ridere, degna del peggior cabaret.

[paperplayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm only marking this book 'read' because I don't want to see it in my "currently reading". This book will officially be the only book that I've started and not finished. I'll quote a reviewer below me, "a stream of consciousness that should never have been put to paper." This thing is impossible to read if you aren't 1) used to stream of consciousness, 2) time travel (which I am but,) 3) familiar with the lives of the Saints in the New Testament. I know who they are, who's the favorite, etc, but I don't know enough of the timeline to give a shit about this book. And it took me forever to realize what point in time Timothy was writing from. Here's a hint: he is speaking in a stream, explaining the events after they occurred, so there are mixed times and crazy anachronisms.

Not to mention the cover is the worst piece of shit I have ever seen for someone so famous as Gore Vidal, whom I had never read before.

Let this not be your intro to Vidal. I plan on grabbing "Creation", it's supposed to be one of his best. That, or "Lincoln."

[Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a riot. My reading interests get steadily more niche

[Thomas]

Oh, Jesus.

Too clever by half. No, by 90%.

A nonsensical stream-of-conscienceless “novel unworthy to be under Gore Vidal’s name. What the hell was he thinking?

Oh, Jesus.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gore Vidal channeling his inner Philip K Dick. Some funny bits here and there, but overall the plot rambles on aimlessly a bit too much. Five star idea but two star execution.

[Lammoth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Както знаете Голгота е хълмът, на който е разпнат Исус Христос. Но този акт явно е бил видян от много хора и от много различни ъгли. Гор Видал използва своето въображение, тънък хумор и безкомпромисна критична ръка за да пренапише библейската история, видяна през погледа на св. Томофей Ефески. Тимофей, заедно със св. Павел, започват да преследват дошъл от бъдещето мистериозен хакер, който има наглостта да трие християнските исторически следи и доказателства. Или накратко - това е Евангелието написано от Гор Видал.

http://lammothsblog.blogspot.com/2011...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is funny with just the right amount of irreverence to interest me. I honestly think it comes kind of close to a bizarro work. It's not as free and scrapes bottom at some points due to other goals, but I think the bizarro people I know should check this out. I think they'll be as surprised as me that Vidal wrote this.

[Jacob Sadler · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1991, the French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard released his collection of essays: 'The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'. In these essays, Baudrillard does not make the maximal claim one might infer from the title—that the events named the 'Gulf War' never happened. He instead focuses on how media-produced and TV-disseminated distortions meant that all the public knew of these events—which by the lopsided kill counts look more like an 'atrocity' than a conflict—was a propagandised show, and that this show-making ability formed the ontological background in which the power-players decided to run the spectacle that was 'the Gulf War'.

Two years later, Gore Vidal, the American aristo-writer extraordinaire, released his intentionally blasphemous satirisation of historical events, specifically the Crucifixion of Christ and the life of Saint Timothy, as if these events were filmed for modern TV, infected by 90s mass-media power structures infused with time travelling powers, and affected by motives ranging from the blandly corporate to the bloodthirstingly jihadist. What comes out is a mess—a fun, readable mess, in which a Baudrillardian critique of first-century messianic narratives collapses into indulgent New Atheism-adjacent point scoring. 'The Crucifixion (as we know it) Did Not Take Place'. Instead, NBC, in thrall to ratings battles, the plans of a time-travelling Jesus, the schemings of multiple computer geniuses, and the shadowy hands of cultish Japanese infiltrators, both intentionally and unintentionally distort these historic 'events'. If we could ever have definitively called them events in the first place.

To put it more simply, because this book is dense and so is my attempted description: Vidal is a great writer making fun of the past in a way that contextualises the contingency and unknowability of this past, whilst failing to restrain himself from gratuitous strikes at belief systems he sees as beyond deserving serious engagement. This feels like (because it is) a strong talent given a blank cheque by a publishing house: simultaneously ambitious and undisciplined. The result is Jesus and Rome warring over the base rates of the central bank of Judea; Saint Paul as a groping, juggling fundraiser; Timothy as a golden-locked subject of desire, from Emperors to his own Saints—all part of a slightly tiresomely sniggering and convoluted journey around a Mediterranean in religious flux. A lusty deconstruction of the pure power behind media and religion this could be. A steady-handed execution of this idea it is not.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Timothy--Bishop of Macedonia and Ephesus. Maryred in 97AD Killed by a mob of pagans at the Katagogia, a festival for the god Dionysus. Born just after crusifixtion

Gossolalia--speaking in tongues
No such word as Jewish

The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (the Second Triumvirate) against the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia. The Second Triumvirate declared this civil war to avenge Julius Caesar's murder.The battle consisted of two engagements in the plain west of the ancient city of Philippi. The first occurred on the first week of October; Brutus faced Octavian, while Antony's forces were up against those of Cassius. At first, Brutus pushed back Octavian and entered his legions' camp. But to the south, Cassius was defeated by Antony, and committed suicide after hearing a false report that Brutus had also failed. Brutus rallied Cassius' remaining troops and both sides ordered their army to retreat to their camps with their spoils, and the battle was essentially a draw, but for Cassius' suicide.A second encounter, on 23 October, finished off Brutus's forces, and he committed suicide in turn, leaving the triumvirate in control of the Roman Republic.


St Mark was John Mark

Silas and St Paul--Silas was a leading member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and a colleague of Paul and was sent to Antioch, along with Paul and Barnabas. In prison in Phillipi with paul when earthquake freed them.

Paul---In old Ireland, epilepsy was known as 'Saint Paul's disease'. The name points to the centuries-old assumption that the apostle suffered from epilepsy.To support this view, people usually point to Saint Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, reported in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament (Acts 9, 3-9), in which Paul, or Saul as he was known before his conversion to Christianity, is reported to have a fit similar to an epileptic seizure: '...suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him: ''Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?''...Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but he could not see a thing... For three days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything.'Saul's sudden fall, the fact that he first lay motionless on the ground but was then able to get up unaided, led people very early on to suspect that this dramatic incident might have been caused by a grand mal seizure. In more recent times, this opinion has found support from the fact that sight impediment-including temporary blindness lasting from several hours to several days-has been observed as being a symptom or result of an epileptic seizure and has been mentioned in many case reports.In his letters St Paul occasionally gives discreet hints about his 'physical ailment', by which he perhaps means a chronic illness. In the second letter to the Corinthians, for instance, he states: 'But to keep me from being puffed up with pride... I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud.' (2 Corinthians, 12,7). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul again describes his physical weakness: 'You remember why I preached the gospel to you the first time; it was because I was ill. But even though my physical condition was a great trial to you, you did not despise or reject me.' (Galatians 4, 13-14) In ancient times people used to spit at 'epileptics', either out of disgust or in order to ward off what they thought to be the 'contagious matter' (epilepsy as 'morbus insputatus': the illness at which one spits)There is a clinic for epilepsy patients in St Paul, Minnesota.

Priscilla, a saint.. Priscilla and Aquila are regarded as saints in most Christian churches that canonize saints.
Saints Aquila and Priscilla They have been called the most famous couple in the Christian Bible since they are mentioned seven times, always as a couple and never individually
From Pontus

Petronious--Gaius Petronius Arbiter (ca. 27–66 AD) was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is speculated to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian age. Suspected of being involved in the plot to kill Nero so was forced to commit suicide by opening his veins in a tub of hot water, the preferred method of suicide in the higher circles.

Island of Samos could be seen from Ephesus in first century. "He who is tired of Ephesus is in need of a good night's sleep" Saying at that time.

96AD Temple in Jerusalem employed more than 20 000


James---younger brother of Jesus. Was going blind

Mark--live in Rome at the edge of the Field of Mars at the time of peter and Paul's deaths

Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Known to the world by his family name, Nero. had bad skin due to leaad poisoning. A palace coup forced him to flee and he commited suicide. peter and Paul were caught in the subsequent police roundup of subservives, tried and executedd.

Flavia---her house became Christian center in Rome before Peter and Paul's death

Ring of FIRE---PREDICTED BY Isaiah The Pacific “Ring Of Fire” is a huge area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanoes occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. The “ring” is actually a 25,000 mile horseshoe shape that goes up the western edges of south and north America, includes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, and then extends southward to Japan, the Philippines, then eastward around Australia but consisting of Indonesia and New Zealand. Located near the center of this potential area of devastation is Hawaii which is already considered a hot spot for volcanic and earthquake activities.

Messianic--of or relating to a messiah promising deliverance


Timothy--son of Eunice the Jew and George the a Greek. Born in Lystra, Asia Minor, a province of the empire of Japan

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gore Vidal is an author I greatly respect. When I found this at a used bookstore and read the back copy I thought, this sounds an awful lot like my Jesus clickbait story from Tales of Unspeakable Taste. In my story, a TMZ reporter goes back in time to cover the crucifixion, but since time travel was invented, it's become a tourist trap. I was pleased to discover he and I thought along the same lines.

In Vidal's book NBC goes back in time to meet with St. Timothy, whom you might remember from the Bible. Apparently in the future there's a hacker destroying Christianity, and for some reason St. Timothy's immune to it. So he finds himself in a situation where he must save the religion he'd just helped create with his lover, St. Paul.

The time travel rules are a bit fast and loose, but, as in my own story, they don't matter. The tale is the important thing. If you know Vidal's work, then you know he's blamed every societal problem on monotheism, in particular Christianity. So obviously he wouldn't want that particular religion to survive. So what's really going on here?

Quite a lot, actually, and if I said any more about it, I ought to be thrown to the lions. If you need a helpful helping of blasphemy and the rewriting of the Bible, then this is the book for you.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, well in 1992 anyway, we get the answer to WWJD?.
Gore Vidal's gospel (good news) comes at us through the lips of St Timothy (aka Timaximus, Timinimus, Timikens, Timmy or just plain Tim) the first century Bishop of Ephesus who was 'a top'...but only sometimes. Timmy was St Paul's confident (that according to biblical history) and may have been the author of many of the Pauline letters. He was born shortly before Good Friday (the original) in CE 17 and died in 97 CE. He apparently was a handsome lad, with long blond tresses (hyacinthine golden curls) and cornflower-blue eyes..but I digress. The story involves time travel and revisionist history...often mixed with confusing syntax, but always with wit.
Great read...very funny...truly good news!

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a first introduction to Vidal... by JOVE he has turned the origins of Christianity on its head! A truly spectacular satire that was hilarious, provoking, irrerevent, and profound all wrapped up with a bow. The addition of time travel + a surprise ending = I surely hope to give this a reread in the future. Definitely worth the time if you are alright with some blasphemy.

[Nik Maack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some boring bits, some gay sex bits (Nero, you naughty boy), some hilarious bits, and a lot of sacrilegious bits.

I first read this year's back and was highly amused. Now, much older, I was a bit bored on spots.bit then got past those bits and got to the good stuff.

Gore Vidal was an odd dude. If Christians knew what was in this book they'd dig up Gore Vidal's corpse and beat it with sticks. Which might be the main reason the book is enjoyable.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had this been a movie, I think Gore Vidal would have to go into hiding like Salman Rushdie. Like Rushdie, Vidal puts some words together that the religious-minded do not think appropriate. But in Christian society, it is Hollywood and the motion picture that is the arbiter of culture, not the written word. I can’t even recall a minor furor over the publication of this–let’s not mince words–quite sacrilegious novel. If the Christians thought Monty Python’s Life of Brian heretical, they should take a load of this.

The unfortunate thing is it’s not that good, which may be the other reason it didn’t get any press. Vidal tries hard to incorporate both postmodernism, science fiction (cyberpunk even), and satire in the same book, yet his style of delivery makes one think more of Sidney Sheldon. His extremeness–Saul as a homosexual pedophile, Timothy as the object of Saul’s affections, Jesus betraying Judas rather than the other way around–only makes points for its extreme nature rather than any insight that playing with biblical history might have illuminated. It’s not like Vidal is a stranger to mixing fiction with history (Julian is probably the most famous of his history fictions), but it just doesn’t gel here. What seemed hilarious in the first chapter quickly dulled as Vidal constantly repeated the same basic piece of satire while following a unique, but meaningless plot. Everything was there, but the puppet-master had no clothes.

Looking for a little social commentary about religion? Try Life of Brian or something by James Morrow before picking this one up.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great read for the Christmas season. Vidal uses his usual wit and unblinking irreverence to turn the story of St. Paul on its head and into a funky dark satire reminiscent of Christopher Moore’s Lamb.

or did he tell the Real Story? quo vademus?

we can never be sure because of the presence of one or more hackers who may or may not be erasing and changing the course of history by altering history “tapes.” St. Timothy begins seeing and receiving visitors (he calls them “kibitzers”) and visions from the future via a Sony television set and at certain times and locations. Chet from GE wants him to anchor a “live” broadcast from Golgotha on the day of Jesus’s crucifixion but other people have different ideas about that. along the way, out protagonist Timothy meets some colorful people -Shirley McLain, Oral Roberts, and Mary Baker Eddy to name just a few- and the ending is a surprisingly satisfying twist that even Judas wouldn’t see coming.

time travel, homosexuality, corporate politics, espionage, and Barum & Bailey-style showmanship/grifting represent the story of the birth of Christianity- quo melior?

[Tom McInnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gore Vidal’s a bit of a cultural hero of mine, but even I’m not so much of a superfan that I can’t admit that much of his later work seems primarily concerned with indulging his first love - that of the man-and-boy variety - and finding evermore bizarre frameworks with which to luxuriate in it (in prose, obvs).

Lucky the laughs-per-line are way way up in this, reading more like an early Woody Allen routine than anything else, and featuring an obese squeaky-voiced Jesus pulling all sorts of tricks on all your favourite 1st century figures.

Highly entertaining, superficially clever, more than a little suspect and ultimately a pretty inconsequential bit of good fun at the expense not of Christ but of anyone who believes what they read in the papers (holy or otherwise).

[Bobby Hallinan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The time travel aspects and the way memory works in this book is significantly more thought provoking than the religious satire in my opinion. The plot doesn’t quite come together for me on first read. That said, it’s a lot of fun to read the first century and the early Christians portrayed as catty, earthy, flawed, gossipy, holding grudges, etc. I loved Vidal’s Burr for the same reason, although skewering America’s founders has aged n much better than satirizing Christianity now that we’ve lived through 20 years of epic internet atheists being incredibly smug and annoying. Still, I had a fun time reading this.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty, weird, and very camp, which is what I was led to expect from Vidal. It is long on imagination, medium on erudition, short on credibility, but as this is a farce, that too is to be expected. It has some great moments and one-liners, and the central dilemma of whether the salvation of Jesus is for the Jews only (the James camp) or all humankind (the Pauline camp) is interesting reading, as much as the switcharoo from Jesus to Judas on the cross is fun, but in the end, if you want laughs at the expense of Christianity, go with Life of Brian.

[I. Merey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gore Vidal (like Salman Rushdie) is one of those writers whose been hanging in the outskirts of my writers' consciousness my whole adulthood without me having read a single one of his books. I picked up 'Golgotha' at some cheapo booksale, thinking finally. I'm going to Read Something by Gore Vidal.

Obviously, he is a talented, witty writer, but I could not get into it and I'm jumping ship.
Fuck, maybe I'll just have to die, never having finished a novel of Gore Vidal. : /

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

My writing professor in college knew Gore Vidal, so I picked up this title based on his general endorsement. I picked the wrong Vidal book as my first. This is a ridiculous story; meant as satire, but it comes off like a bad Monty Python skit.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gets four stars just for the gall it took to write a book like this and another star for it being written really well. Vidal's waltz through Biblical times twists common concepts and conceits and creates a time-traveling book of endless imagination and irreverence.

[Ryan Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

odd story about timothy (erstwhile companion of paul of tarsus) being visited by people from the future who are simultaneously trying to save christianity and screwing it right up by their frequent paradox creating time travels. more gay sex than your typical gospel.

[Chriskolak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blasphemous, Vulgar, Witty, Pure Vidal

[Dymbula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takový jedovatě ironický pohled na některé příběhy biblické. Pobavilo mě to.

[Dig San · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thin book. Totally fun quick read.

[Nathanael Booth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far from Vidal’s best effort, but an interesting and sometimes amusing endeavor.