Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Shantaram: A Novel
Book Review: A story of survival
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of a 'Gangster Gandhi'. Nonjudgemental, compassionate, yet making no attempt to hide the dysfunctional thought process of the protagonist, it tells about an escaped convict on the run. Lin arrives on a fake passport to Mumbai and falls in love with the place. When he runs out of money he moves to the slum, adjusting to the harsh life with a positive spirit that reminds you of Francie in A Tree grows in Brooklyn. Ten years of his life flood the 900 plus pages with a cast of characters that include village dacoits, pimps, passport forgers, palestinian fighters,Iranian army deserters, brothel madams with a KBG past. There is Prabhakar whose smile will stay with you after your book is done, Didier, the aging gay man who could have inspired Eliot to write The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the loveless Karla with a neglected childhood, the Palestinian who burns with hate, and countless other underworld characters who indulge in philosophy as an intellectual defense for their dark deeds.
This book falls short of a classic, partly because at times it spends too much time glorifying the underworld. Lin's life in crime really begins in Bombay, after his supposed spiritual rebirth working in a slum as a medic, something thats not well understood. For a fleeting moment you may wonder- has Lin has really reformed, or is this book a con job of a different kind, with a pen ? But things fall into place in the end. Unlike Captain Corelli's Mandolin, this is not a feel good book with sweet pure characters either (Prabhakar being the exception). At times you hate the protagonist himself for his actions, his gradual entry into crime. Yet its all out there, in the face. This is a story of survivors in a tough city, and Lin baba is the ultimate survivor of all.
Book Review: A story worth telling - by someone else
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't deny that Mr Roberts has a story to tell. I just wish it had been written by someone else, someone whose prose style isn't so flowery and cliche-ridden. I can't believe the praise that has been heaped on this book. Have these people ever read a truly well-written novel ? Roberts never uses one word when he can use ten. Everything is described in a cloying, 6th form way, all the characters are one-dimensional. I found it plain unreadable.Book Review: A wonderful journey
Summary: 5 Stars
The briefest 900 pages I've ever read. A fantastic story with engrossing, compelling characters in a world so expertly described, I feel I was along for the journey. I would recommend this book to anyone.Book Review: A wonderful read
Summary: 5 Stars
For more than 900 pages I was transported to a different world filled with compelling characters.Book Review: A world of meaning and depth that one does not wish to leave
Summary: 5 Stars
It was at page 690 that I realized with dread that this book was going to end, and soon. I knew I could maybe stretch it out to another week at most (likely just a matter of days) and then I would have to leave Roberts' Mumbai, forever. Sure, I would be able to reminisce, wandering the same pages again and again, but there would be no new paths to discover. And as surely as I knew it would, the end did indeed finally come earlier today.
I have been to Mumbai. I have slept in Colaba, dined at Leopolds, and ridden a horse on Juhu Beach, but the Mumbai that I yearn to return to, discovering ever anew, is the Mumbai of Gregory David Roberts.
Roberts' Mumbai is a world totally engaged, deeply felt, and fully digested. It is one in which gangsters and slum dwellers vie for the soul of a man, each making his case (however indirectly) for meaning, honor, and the true nature of love, according to his own slanted world view.
And with Roberts we too get to survey the frontiers of our own virtue, as we consider the various shades of truth, innocent self-deception, and ruthless disregard for life that seduce us from behind the words, actions and beauty of Roberts' well developed world of characters.
Please write more, Mr. Roberts. Mumbai needs you to tell still more of its tale.