Subject: LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA by Gore Vidal

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1993 04:28:37 GMT

LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA by Gore Vidal
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Coincidentally, both this and THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB (which I was
thinking of as "the two Jesus books I was waiting for") arrived at the
library on the same day.  Actually, with DEUS X, which I am also reviewing
in conjunction with this, they make an interesting trilogy.  DEUS X is about
the Father, THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB is about the Son, and this is about the
Holy Ghost.

     Well, *a* ghost anyway.  To be precise, a hologram from the late 1990s
appears to (Saint) Timothy in the First century and tells him of his
mission.  A computer hacker in the 1990s is destroying the texts of the
Gospels and, using the same time-travel technology the hologram is using, is
destroying the originals so that even hard-copy texts aren't preserved.  To
preserve Christianity, Timothy must write a gospel and conceal it so it will
survive, hidden from the hacker's eyes, to be discovered in the 1990s and
renew the Christian religion.  And in his spare time, could Timothy go back
in time and host the coverage of the Crucifixion for the television
networks?

     The book is designed as a social and spiritual commentary rather than
as hard science fiction, so perhaps it is needlessly picky to observe that
the time travels aspects of LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA are not always consistent or
rational: surely if the hacker can go back in time to erase Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, he can do the same to Timothy when that book appears.  And
why do the various travelers recruiting Timothy remember the other gospels
if the hacker *is* erasing them from their very beginnings?  But in his
"modernized" re-telling of the early days of Christianity, Vidal lets the
barbs fly.  What really got the Romans upset was Jesus taking over the
money-changers in the Temple and lowering the prime rate.  Jesus's brother
James is trying to set up a rival religion from Paul--who never actually met
Jesus but preaches a heck of a sermon and tap dances at the same time.  (His
other activities are even more outrageous.)  Unabashedly irreverent, LIVE
FROM GOLGOTHA is not for everyone (Vidal seems to be at times taking THE
SATANIC VERSES for inspiration, and there will undoubtedly be those who take
offense), but I'm nominating this for the Hugo.

%T      Live from Golgotha
%A      Gore Vidal
%C      New York
%D      1992
%I      Random House
%O      hardback, US$22
%G      ISBN 0-679-41611-0
%P      229pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   [email-masked]