Shantaram: A Novel
by Gregory David Roberts
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Book Reviews of Shantaram: A Novel
Book Review: 19 out of 42
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a wonderful story for the first nineteen chapters; after that it changes and it's not nearly as good. The "change" is sudden and unexpected. You will enjoy the first nineteen chapters, the first 400 pages of this 900 page book, and you won't take my advice to stop reading at that point, as I was advised to do. You will read on, as I did, expecting the magic and charm to return, and even when they don't you'll want to tie up all those loose strings.
The first nineteen chapters are a book about India. We read this for my book club, and we were fortunate to have a guest who had grown up in India, to answer our questions about all the strange and fantastic things this white, Australian, ex-con author was telling us. It turns out that what he wrote about Indian ways and culture is true, and our guest even demonstrated the Indian head waggle!
This story offers more than an intimate glimpse at India; it is also a provocative lesson on redemption for all sins, not just the ones that can land you in a jail. It also offers a few lessons on love.
But after chapter nineteen the story is no longer really about India, and the main character, Lin, is no longer a "normal" man in extraordinary circumstances. Lin becomes a kind of superman involved in one cliff-hanging circumstance after another. The story and the characters are no longer endearing; they become larger-than-life cardboard "heroes" in an action movie. The reader no longer learns anything of value about India or the characters. And that's too bad, because it didn't have to go that way; there was enough going in the first 400 pages to carry it every bit as well to 900.
I will mention, too, that Gregory Roberts could write a compelling story about being in prison, if Australian prisons really are as bad as he claims. Perhaps he will.
Book Review: A Once in a Lifetime Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I can count on two hands the number of books that I have come across in my life that have, from the first page, looked into my heart and caused me to fall in love. "Shantaram" by Australian author Gregory David Roberts is one of those books.
It is a memoir/novel, which I assume to mean that a lot of this story is true, and some of it fictionalized, but whether real or not, it is without a doubt one of the most exquisitely written books I have come across in a long time.
It's the story of a man who is an escaped convict from a New Zealand prison, arrives in Bombay, India, and assumes a new identity and a new life. In a short time he falls in love with India the country, the culture, its people and the way of life in the slums, and decides to stay.
The language is stunning. For example, he describes Victoria Terminus train station in Bombay (which one can only imagine must be nothing but a bustle of humanity and accompanying noise of same) as:
"..beneath a metal heaven of rolling vaulted ceilings. The cherubs of that architectural sky were pigeons, so far overhead in their flutter from roost to roost that they were only faintly discernible; distant celestial beings of flight, and white light."
At almost every page a description, a conversation or a personal insight is shared with the reader in such a way that it almost feels like the author is just speaking to you - and only you. A private conversation. An intimate tete-a-tete. Each one a gem that beckons to admire, to be amazed by the turn of phrase, but above all to reckon with the total honesty of the dark underbelly of the real story.
If you want to delve into a page turner, be swept away into an other-worldly delight, and fall helplessly into a literary rapture, read this book!
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: If you like to study people, read this book...
Summary: 5 Stars
Gregory David Roberts' strongest characteristic is that he loves people. This book may be read as a 'true' story of the adventurous life of an international fugitive, of crime, of life in the slums, of real-life action/adventure, of the city of Bombay. This book may be read as a philosophy about war & violence, about love, about survival, about crime. This book may be read as a compilation of invaluable street wisdom. However, I think this book is best read as a story of people.
If you read the 900+ pages of this book with any other expectation, there would be sections where the book might lose you. However, as the story of human nature, it is immensely rewarding at every step of the way.
Dave has a deep appreciation, compassion, understanding, and (most of all) love for humans. That is the characteristic that makes him the human he is. Whether he talks about people he loves or hates or ignores, or of people who love him, hate him, or ignore him; his characterization of the persons, their behavior, and their inter-personal relationships is intimate, deeply romantic, and personal. The author weaves the spine-tingling story of his unique life in a way that you see the world from the perspective of each human involved. The author also demonstrates unbelieveable intellect for a person with his on-paper resume. Actually, that also holds true for many other characters in his book.
The first half of the book may seem more fiction than fact to those who are unaquainted with the city of Bombay. As a Bombayite, though, the book is so real that it proves the phrase: sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. The first half is a must-read for all Mumbaikars.
Book Review: Good 'whiteman among the natives' story.
Summary: 4 Stars
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is quite a good book. It's sort of a new-age rendition of Papillon set in Mumbai/Bombay instead of South America. There are also a good deal of similarities with the style of stories that are about white men coming to benighted non-white societies and changing them for the better.
The story is based on the true life experiences of Roberts. Nobody knows exactly how much is truth and how much is fiction.
Although Roberts has great respect for India and Indians, he cannot escape the traditional "White man saves poor natives from themselves" theme that all stories about white men living among non-white cultures share.
White Australian Lin, the Roberts stand-in, is capable at everything from martial arts to medicine to withstanding torture and comes across as almost a superhero. Most Indians and other Asians in Shantaram come across as lovable goofy 'babu' like Prabaker, or mysterious 'wise man' stereotypes like Khader Khan. All Asians are constantly smoking hashish in practically every scene. To be fair, so is the white hero. Roberts has Lin fall in love with a white European woman instead of an Indian one, like Tarzan & Jane or Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist.
The descriptions of Mumbai/Bombay are vivid and fascinating. One can see the streets of this ancient, teeming city as one reads. I'd never really had an urge to visit India until I read this book, and now I would love to go.
While Shantaram would like to think of itself as having a new level of consciousness for non-white cultures, it's still Tarzan or A Man Called Horse at heart. Great read, though!