Ka - Softcover

Calasso, Roberto

4.13

948 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099750716 ISBN 13: 9780099750710

Publisher: Vintage, 1999

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It is the essence of Roberto Calasso's particular genius to have evolved a unique way of reconstructing the imaginative heart of some of the world's greatest cultures. In The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony it was the 'Greekness' of classical culture; in Ka he gives us the 'Indianness' of the mind of India, but in an Indian way. He does not describe or explain this mental world: he regenerates it through its stories and customs.

Who is Ka? And who is the immense eagle who asks this question, filling the sky, an elephant and a giant turtle in his claws? How can he be the child of woman? Who are these tiny folk he eats? The first impact of Ka is one of tremendous strangeness, bewilderment, disorientation. Slowly, however, the strange becomes familiar and - as Ka folds and enfolds the world of the Deva and the Seven Seers, of Siva, Brahma and Visnu, the wars of the Mahabharata, and finally the advent of the Buddha - we are amazed at our own recognition. These stories lie so close to the grain of our own experience that they confirm, or for the first time articulate, our own deepest perceptions about our condition.

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Review:

"Ka is a dizzying, erudite incursion into sacred texts, which throbs with erotic, violent and enigmatic tales" (Independent)

"The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written" (Wendy Doniger)

"An elegant compendium of classical Indian myths and legends...no cotemporary Indian writer would be able to match such erudition and originality as Calasso displays in Ka" (Independent)

"To read Ka is to experience a giddy invasion of stories - brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful...these stories are superbly narrated" (New York Times Book Review)

Book Description:

'If you want a dazzling, complex, erotic and utterly original European novel of ideas, Calasso is your man, and Ka is his masterpiece' Sunday Times

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