Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Buy Used: from $2.96 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
(Click here)
Book Reviews of Shantaram: A Novel
Book Review: A beautiful mess of a book
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't know that I've ever read a book that was so enthralling, and yet with so much terrible writing in it. Knowing it's semi-autobiographical is the driving force in the effort to read the entire thing. When Roberts writes what he clearly knows, the book soars (and a reader has to admit, his life, if this is what it was, was extraordinary by any measure). The writing is clean, direct, and immensely vivid. His affection for the people of Bombay comes through so clearly in the writing that the reader falls in love with them too. I could see Bombay in a way I've never seen it before, or cared to, truthfully. I was completely absorbed in those passages. But Roberts can't write a heterosexual love story to save his life. The women depicted here never come across as real, and the handful of love scenes are written horribly, as if he just wanted to get them over with. The renderings of the male friendships, though, are written with such heart, so authentically, that you just keep turning the pages to be in the company of these men. As has been stated many times in these reviews, there's some truly humiliating prose in this book -- sometimes it's almost as if it was written by two different writers -- one who can write about India and Afghanistan and politics and the care of the poor in the slums of Bombay, with a skill that is artful and impassioned -- and the other, the one who can't write about sex or love or spiritual lessons without the most embarrassing, flowery, ridiculous prose. An editor needs to tell Roberts to please please stop with the hyphenated-adjectives. They make him sound like a high school English major. The book is sprawling, the narrative disjointed and frustrating -- episodic, I suppose, because his life is episodic, and his editor decided not to shape the book, but instead allowed Roberts to just tell his mind-boggling story -- but still, how many readers complained out loud when he unceremoniously kills off a favorite character simply to turn the plot in another direction? I nearly quit the book then, over 600 pages in, but I felt too commited by that point. There's so much good here, and so much bad, but in the end I feel the good wins out. I'm glad I read the book. But do yourself a favor and just skip the silly parts, you won't miss anything.Book Review: A complete experience of the senses.
Summary: 5 Stars
Shantaram is a complete adventure. The reader will experience Bombay through all the senses. Brilliant charachertors that I found stuck with me. Based on the authors real life experience, at times I would wonder what was fiction and what was not. It is long, at times wordy and at times preachy and self righteous but worth the commitment to read. Like nothing I have read before. Enjoy the ride.Book Review: A decade on the run !
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this novel to be enthralling, jaw-dropping, entertaining, mysterious, humorous with a typically Aussie dry wit, and impossible to put down. The characters the author draws, and the vivid pictures he paints of the tangled lives he and the characters are leading in Mumbai is fascinating. There are twists and turns, mysteries and motives to unravel, an insight into lives of Indians as well as foreigners living in Mumbai, on both sides of the law. Yes, it is a lengthy book, but at no time was I bored. I also liked the character's insight into his own behaviour and actions during his life. He made no excuses for anything he had done. The reader gets to know him better as he learns and comes to terms with his own personality, characteristics and behaviour. Brilliant. Totally recommend it.Book Review: A good basis for a multi-year TV series
Summary: 4 Stars
An extremely ambitious effort. While categorized as a fictional novel, Roberts would have you believe, both in the book and his website, that at least the jobs and travels are true, while not making this claim for the women and friends noted in the book. If true, the man has had more than nine lives.
Hemingway-esque in its aspirations, one finds a travelogue of India and the Afghan/Pakistan border, a sociological study of the slums of Bombay and some of the fighting tribes in Afghanistan, a memoir of a failed man looking for redemption while maintaining a life of crime, an action thriller as the protagonist Linbad goes to a Bombay jail, fights toe to toe with his good friend Abdullah against a whole host of enemies including a pack of wild dogs and a gang of mysterious Iranians, and a philosophical journey as Linbad listens to a mafia king pin communicate his theory of good and evil from a quasi-scientific metaphysical perspective, all the while manipulating the lives of the people around him.
I enjoyed the book though I admit the author goes right to the edge of being pretentious with his protagonist being portrayed as a lovely and lovable man who just happens to be a drug dealer, fugitive, and iresistable friend and compatriot. To some, the author may have went overboard.
The book is long at 900+ pages, which served me well at hunting camp where I take one long yet highly readable book to keep me awake during the long mid-day when the deer aren't moving. While the book is not at the par of the previous two season's books (LBJ in the Senate and a biography of Alexander Hamilton), it did provide some great insight into India, the people that populate Bombay, particularly expats and the slum-dwellers, and a unique philosophical position that is one the author now promotes explicitly on his website that attempts to maintain a notion of God consistent with our scientific understanding of the universe and how the universe is "moving towards complexity".
I think this book would be a wonderful basis for a multi-year TV series. India is hot right now and we are mostly ignorant of its culture. Having Linbad guide us weekly to all that is India while providing an adventure or two would be better than most of the crap on TV plus the book has at least 4 seasons worth of material, its that big of a book.
Book Review: A great adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
I was not even aware that this book was based on a true story, but this is an adventure which is rare in books. I read that Roberts took 13 years to write this book and they are making a movie out of it staring Johnny Depp. Horrible casting you ask me, as much as I like the guy.
The story takes you on an adventure in Mumbai India and the extraordinary life led by Roberts.
This was a book that gave me bad dreams I have to say. That's a good thing. I couldn't put it down.
Highly recommend this read.