Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal

Written by Gore Vidal

Narrated by Johnny Heller and Brian Nishii

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781799751298

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His first novel, Williwaw, written when he was 19 years old and serving in the army, appeared in the spring of 1946. He wrote 23 novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over 200 essays, and a memoir.

Reviews for Live from Golgotha

[keebrook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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?

[isotropicjoseph · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sacrilegious, punk, scathing, sharp, but ultimately forgettable, and pointless. The perfect book to read on the beach in the summer or when you really want to piss off a Catholic on your Goodreads list.

No, that's not totally fair. Parts of the story are rather clever and memorable. The polished obsidian stone, for example.

[ehines_20 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More or less the Last Temptation of Christ minus the religiosity and told from a rather bitterly cynical point of view (a la late Twain).

[fyoder_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vidal's extreme antipathy towards Christianity appears to have softened somewhat since Julian as he here presents St. Paul as a loveable operator who is keeper of the holy rolodex and master of the followup letter. Read this and you may not be able to read Paul's letters in the New Testament in quite the same way again. While there's a lot going on with regard to time travel, networks wanting broadcast rights to the crucifixion, and visits from an astrally traveling Shirley McLain, it's the portrait of Paul and his uneasy relationship with Timothy, the narrator, that really make this book memorable.

[branful · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a real SF, featuring time travel via quantum technology. TV news crew shooting live from Golgotha.