Shantaram: A Novel
by Gregory David Roberts
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Book Reviews of Shantaram: A Novel
Book Review: Well written novel, a modern life in India - drugs, mafia, and moralism
Summary: 4 Stars
As a novel this is as marvellously sprawling and complex as India itself. Gregory Roberts has clearly drawn on his own life experiences to write this book - a short biography appears in my copy about his life. The novel follows the life of 'Lindsay' the assumed name of an Australian criminal on the run from a high security Prison in Australia. Having got to New Zealand he assumes a false passport in the name of Lindsay and ends up in India, in Mumbai. There he meets Prabaker, an Indian guide Lindsay trusts immediately, and with just cause - and soon after Karla. Karla is a western woman, her reasons for being in Bombay are unknown and unexplained, but Lindsay falls in love with her at first sight and seeks to stay longer.
These two relationships are the foundation for this novel which follows Lindsay, or 'Lin' as he becomes called, through the slums of Bombay, its prisons, its heroin dens, the colour and smells of the place and the local Mafia - on to Afghanistan with the idealistic Mujahadeen fighter and philosopher, Khaderbhai, and then back to Mumbai.
What lifts this novel is that it is well written and observed. The conversations are at times hilarious, Lin/Greg observe excellent comic timing and keeps the pathos at a limit.
In fact I opened this book and was immediately hooked - I thought wow and sat down and read the first 300 pages with barely a thought for anything else. Yet I started to lose interest in it, and finally by the time Lin was fighting for the righteous cause in afghanistan I was starting to skim pages.
Part of this was that I lost interest in the whole 'Karla' issue. His intense desire for her was generally unrequited - or not really returned - it was almost reflective of Dr Zhivago and teh Lara obsession and I wondered if Roberts was intentionally trying to mimic that.
The relationship between Lin and tne indians such as Prabaker, and Johnny Cigar was interesting, and really held the novel together for me. I found that the most compelling and driving force of the book, the cultural differences which reflected how they reacted, and what they did. And their reactions often surprised me,for instance when there is a fire in the slum, or when Lin invites a few of his trusted friends to join him in a business he has.
So, while the first part of teh novel was intense, I found it lost my interest towards the end. However overall I would definitely recommend this. A powerful book which I am certain will be enjoyed.
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 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: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Summary: 5 Stars
Lindsay or Linbaba, as the Indian people named him, is a fugitive who escaped prison in Australia, where he served two years of his 19-year sentence of arms robberies, which he used to do to support his heroin addiction caused by loosing custody of his daughter in a failed marriage. After the escape, Linbaba lands in Bombay on a fake New Zealand passport. Upon landing, he meets Prabaker who plays the guide role and shows him even the most secretive parts of Bombay. In the same time Lindsay meets Karla, a beautiful Swiss-American who works at Leopold's café the place where all the ex-pats hang out. Linbaba falls deeply in love with Karla and the love takes a complicated role in the plot. Following one night when Lindsay is robbed of all his possessions, Prabaker brings him to the slums of Bombay where over twenty-five thousand people lived in extreme poverty. There, Linbaba becomes the "doctor", taking care of people illnesses: rat bites, dysentery, anemia, etc. His unfortunate fate brings him within the walls of Arthur Road Prison, a hellish place where he experiences the worst prison conditions. He is released from prison and Lindsay gets involved with the Bombay mafia, Abdel Khader Khan, which later on brings him in Afghanistan to fight against the Russians.
Roberts wrote the book in prison, two of the copies were destroyed in 13 years and then he succeeded to write the last copy for publishing. The writing approach is far from flawless, but the book has a magnetic appeal and it is hard to put down; its plot whirls into complicated events which are linked and explained in the end. The characters have fascinating personalities and have strong connections in the series of events.
It's interesting how the book reveals the underground scene of the 80s and how its ex-pats engaged in criminal activity to lead a high life in Bombay. Despite the criminal activity he gets dragged into, Lindsay comes out as a strong person with a great heart. His love for Karla grows stronger in time even if she cannot return the same feelings. He is a savior, a fighter and a survivor.
I strongly recommend this book as a work of action thriller, travel guide, love story and superb epic.
Book Review: Good, great and ordinary
Summary: 4 Stars
Shantaram is a roller coaster ride. There are parts of the book that are so well written and interesting that it made me slow down to relish the writing and admire the author's eye for details and his ability for artistic expression; and there are parts of the book that are so boring that I was tempted to skip a few pages and even stop reading the book altogather. I am glad I ploughed through the boring parts of the book, because there are enough diamonds in the book, which make this book a must read.
The most interesting parts of the book are the description of the slum and slum life, the workings of the Bombay underworld and crime, the culture of Bombay and its people, the culture of the village people in west India, Prison and prison life in Bombay and Australia, drug use and recovery from addiction, Description of the horrors of war etc. The author has an amazing eye for details and ability to describe situations and people very well. The attitude of people who are poor and are involved in crime and war were also quite enlightening. People who visit India for a short duration are often shocked by the Indian culture, people and ambiance; and the initial impressions are usually quite bad; but the author having spent a long time in India manages to get to the heart of Indian culture and writes about India and its people with a very equivocal, even loving tone.
The boring parts of the book are the plot of the story itself, over-description of some events, inclusion of some really annoying characters etc. The story got so slow at times that I was tempted to stop reading the book, but the memory of some great chapters in the book told me that I need to be patient and keep reading, In the end I was not disappointed.
With good editing the book could have been a little over 650 pages instead of the 950 pages it currently is. I think one could overlook this considering that the author had to re-write the book thrice as the he lost the original drafts for the book in Australian prison.
Overall I would give this book 4 stars, although some parts of it deserve more than 5 stars and some parts of it deserve just 3 stars. Highly recommended!