Calasso is not an easy author to engage. Simply put, he makes little to no apologies from those that are not as well read he is, and does not waste time trying to have others catch up.

However, in this he is like the college professor who challenges his pupils, offering incredible insight to those who want to educate themselves. In this book, he attempts to connect the old gods, and the very idea of pagan divinity, to the literature of the modern age. His goal is to show us that these concrete expressions of divinity make their way into literature because they are what give literature a spark of the mysterious and divine.

In all honesty, it is hard to tell whether he accomplishes his goal, precisely because I am not up to par with his knowledge. At the same time, like a good professor he stuns me with his eloquence, so much so that I WANT to go and educate myself, to bone up on my literature and return to his lectures.

To any who love learning, I recommend this and Calasso's other books. He has a gift for recognizing and conveying the passion of writers and philosophers.

Sometimes we run across a book that makes a real difference at the way we look at the world, or at least at an area of our own world. This is one of them. A poetic run through all the myths of the Greeks results in us looking for the answers to the same questions, thousands of years later. And of course to think about what is the core of human nature and how come it has not changed that much after all. The book is well written and the translation superb. The read takes time because we must stop to think, we must go back to read, we need to understand. Reading this book is truly a journey of the mind, a journey that we can at any time go back to by picking up the book later and opening it at any chapter. And for the more practically inclined, it is a beautiful romp through Greek mythology, with interesting connections to history and psychology. You can't miss with this one.

I have often thought that the magic of classical mythology - that sense of wonder at its stories of flawed heroes and capricious gods - had to be created in childhood by parents who read to their children. Ever since I heard these stories as a child, I have peridoically enjoyed re-reading them as an adult.

This book, I thought, would be another simple retelling of the stories. Well, I was wrong: this book is for adults, with its own sense of wonder at the complexity of the classical world's religion and leisure activites. Calasso mixes the stories with archeology, art criticism, and psychology in what I believe is unique literary experiment. Even for adults who did not become imbued with these stories early on can enjoy this book and perhaps see what childhood initiates treasure. That makes it a unique gift book for the thinking adult.

It is also fun and easy to read, a lovely tableau painted by a great master. The descriptions are brilliant and vivid, totally believable as well. REcommended.

As a Mythology teacher I have read few books more insightful, intelligent, and artistic than Calasso's achievement. Although the book presupposes quite a bit of knowledge of Greek Mythology, it leaves the reader with a new perspective on the meaning and philosophy of mythology. Amazing.

It is a book by an amateur who has applied the thread of Ka, ``who'', to bring together tales that belong to different contexts. Overall, a complete failure. Calasso forgets that myths need to be contextualized for them to have any meaning.

With all the characteristic displacement of modern story-telling, Calasso's narration of myth seems, in its somewhat clumsy organization, a botched effort. However, it is a sensual and engaging interpretation of ancient Indian myth, and it survives on its strength as an personal interpretation and not a powerful invocation of a country's mythic past. As a raconteur, his ability to "feel" and convey Sukanya's longing, Shiva's maverick personality, or Krishna's eternal homesickness for Gokul, was something I never felt as poignantly before while reading Indian writing of myths. I can only remember my grandfather's narration of the story of Bhisma and Hidimba as evocative as any myth in "Ka". I think it is, overall, an amazing research and re-interpretation. He seems to "reveal," in a Heideggerean sense, the nature of myth through his own experience.

Calasso conveys the sense that myths infuse our memories. Like memories, they are fragmentary and elusive, but their residue lingers. Indian myths are about retelling stories. If you are not bothered by the lack of a traditional narrative structure, you will enjoy this retelling.

Having read and loved Calasso's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia", I grabbed this book the moment I saw it in a bookshop. I guess I should have known it would not be an easy book to read - after all, if I did not already have a solid background in Greek mythology before I read "The Marriage", I would have found it incomprehensible too. This is NOT the first book about Indian mythology to read, and perhaps not even the second or third book - you will be utterly confused unless you already have a very good foundation in Indian mythology AND some knowledge of Indian sacred writings. I was thoroughly disappointed, but perhaps that was my own fault for picking a book that went way over my head.

Ka is well written and is a true pleasure to read. It brings out some of the lesser known mythological tales of India's heritage and is very narrative in its story telling, unlike many Indian authored books on the same subject, which are riddled with commentaries and sanskrit verses in between. This makes the book very readable indeed, which is an added benefit to some very enjoyable and enthralling tales.
However, this is not a beginner book in Indian mythology. To make sense and perspective of the stories in this book, it is very useful to first have a clear idea of the present day view of many of these Gods and the rituals, and also understand India's heritage as being a mix of the Vedic Aryans and the Upanishadic Indians... or if you believe in the Aryan Invasion myth, the Vedic Aryans, period.
This is a good book to read, but needs to have a pre-course work done to avoid drawing "incorrect" subjective judgments on Indian deities from this book alone.

Roberto Calasso's "Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" is a masterful re-reading of the Greek myths. It completely outstrips Edith Hamilton, and challenges Joseph Campbell's position of superiority as a mythologist - at least as far as the Greeks are concerned. With "Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India," a retelling of the Hindu myths, Mr. Calasso falls short of "...Cadmus and Harmony." The book is quite interesting both in style and content, but it's in style that Mr. Calasso fails. First to content: Hindu mythology provides a wonderful field for the imagination because it seems to exist in thought, that is to say, in the mind. This book even tells us in its title that that is where we're going to be dwelling. Events occur on earth, but are not really earth bound. Ka, the first character in this mythology is the first thought, and all else exists in this thought - or in the thoughts of the thought. Perhaps, ad infinitum. Yes, Lord Krisna, the beautiful prankster and lover has a family, a sexuality, and an affect on humanity; but, his life is more in the cosmic imagination than the created world. The same is true of the other characters, except for the author's foray into the life of the Buddha. It's here, with the Buddha's challenge to Hinduism that the preceeding pages are brought together because we are finally brought to earth. Interestingly enough, the Buddha subdues "mind," and if it is true that the Hindu creation exists only in the "mind," or thought, then the Buddha has also subdued an entire cosmology. Mr. Calasso believes the Buddha's challenge was to the notion of sacrifice, I think, by Mr. Calasso's telling, the challenge was more radical. Regardless of the character's lack of solid form, the stories are compelling. Creation, the balance of life, its destruction, and the cycle's foreigness to Western thought could only be dull in the telling of a dolt. Mr. Calasso is not a dolt. But, he may be too clever. Which brings us to style: Mr. Calasso can tell a story, but in "Ka" he falls in love with stylization. This is a minor flaw in "...Cadmus and Harmony," in "Ka" it is a major distraction. It's also an interesting dilemna because it appears that Mr. Calasso has attempted to re-imagine the book as mind itself. Reading becomes telepathy - which in a sense, it always has been. When we read, we are reading the author's mind. Here we are reading the author's mind read the mind of Ka, which is the mind of all creation, and Mr. Calasso's skill as a stylist isn't great enough to keep things from running amuck. However, his attempt is valiant, and it shouldn't keep you from giving this book a try, and from keeping it on your shelf for a re-read - or two.

After reading the wonderful book, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, I was expecting great things from The Ruin of Kasch. Unfortunately this disjointed, disorganized, collection of odds and ends never seems to pull together into any cohesive whole. The tid-bits about the life of Talleyrand were not substantial enough to maintain a narrative thread throughout the entire book. There wasn't enough cohesion around the Talleyrand sections to begin to say this was really commentary on this fascinating personality. Read The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony twice rather than read this book once.

Very odd book. Full of nostalgia for the aristocracy of France, not unlike Nietzsche's nostalgia for the aristocracy of Rome and Greece. It is highly disjointed, indeed ofter incoherent relying upon dense references to obscure figures in the 18th Century. There is a thread of Rimbaud running through the text There are brilliant moments and insights, but no follow through or exposition. It is fragmata, obscurata, anecdotes, quotes from belles letres and diaries. Its central theme is musings on the loss of aristocratic legitimacy and the rise of the democratic mob. Worth reading if the French revolutionary period interests you and you are familiar with European culture of that period.

Since I much admired Calasso's first book, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, I looked forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, it is a mess. Although full of interesting bits, the pieces fail to add up to a satisfying whole. The author is never able to define what he means by "modern" except to provide ever more anecdotes about Talleyrand. These are intriguing but unsatisfying. Calasso seems nostalgic for an old world when myths, customs, magic were taken seriously. But it is hard to be sure if even this nostalgia is the point of the book. Still one can't help but admire the wide ranging knowledge of this author and his sometimes eloquent writing