Customer Reviews

The Maitreya

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Living through difficult times, we like to think about a better future. And sometimes we "freak out" imagining just how bad things might get. Steve Fortney has done both in a brave and timely book. "The Maitreya" depicts America a decade or so from now. Extremist politics and religion have grown even closer than they are today. A single willing intermediary stands between the right-wing governor of Wisconsin and an armed, underground militia. Forces of oppression and repression seem poised to plunge the U.S. into a dark age. Among those standing in the way is an unusual collection of artists, academics, and meditators calling themselves the American Buddhist Community. Their aim is to fuse the best of Buddhism and western culture, renewing America's vision and, if possible, saving it from doom.
Inhabiting this story are characters as three dimensional as the most interesting people you and I have known. They express themselves eloquently, sometimes drunkenly and humorously. They fall in and out of lust and love, they live and die in scenes of great power and beauty.
One charismatic and puzzling figure is Martin Butler. First encountered as a derelict living in an abandoned warehouse, he gradually becomes the focal point of the novel. Important people inside the Buddhist Center believe that he is The Maitreya, the long-prophesied Buddha of the West who will bring about deep cultural change. Powerful forces outside fear that this is true and plot to abort his mission before it begins.
Our own times and terrors are frighteningly present in "The Maitreya's" glimse into the near future. Though Fortney is too steeped in Buddhism to take a narrow dualistic view, this reader got very caught up in the contrasting hopes and fears surrounding the book's central character. Here is a novel for the heart, the intellect, and the gut. I strongly recommend it.