Shantaram: A Novel
by Gregory David Roberts
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Book Reviews of Shantaram: A Novel
Book Review: Entertaining story, engrossing world, but amateurish writing
Summary: 4 Stars
This book was good enough to get me through 900+ pages, which is an accomplishment, because I simply don't read that many books. I think the biggest appeal is for Westerners like myself to enjoy a band new world. Like Pandora. Or Hogwarts. Exotic places, interesting people, great adventures.
However, rather than concentrate on the positives, this review will defend against the negatives. I think the negative reviewers have a few things right: reading his prose, it's just like he's trying to hard. It also just doesn't seem all that believable for all these things to happen to one guy. I mean I'm sure there are people in the world who get into knife fights alot, and know and practice karate, but I think they probably think it's a big deal when it happens. Anyway you get the point - in the story he's a tough guy with a heart of gold, and everybody loves him, everything about him is sympathetic- the correct term i'm seeing is self-aggrandizing.
I think all that can be forgiven though, he actually seems like someone I might know in real life, who had this happen to him. So he should tell his story, but I don't know that I should be expecting him to be Mark Twain. As far the self-aggrandizement goes, well, i think most people in the world are self-deluded, why not him? It isn't too annoying, and keeps the story moving. The guy actually did go to prison, I don't think sensitive emo personalities survive there too well.
In the end, the story is well worth the read. There's action, humor, heartbreak, philosophy, history, relation to current events, a lot of great stuff here.
Book Review: a high-kicking adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
'Larger-than-life', 'over-the-top', these are some of the expressions that have been used to describe Shantaram.
Let's get the basics down first: Shantaram is a quasi-autobiographical novel by Australian author and ex-convict Gregory David Roberts. The facts narrated here, just like the characters, are fictitious but ther are largely inspired by the author's admittedly wild life.
Shantaram is a plot-driven novel, thick with action, suspense and a large cast of intriguing characters. It is approx. 933 pages long yet it doesn't feel one bit too long.
The narrator escapes from a maximum-security Australian prison and subsequently lands in Bombay, where most of the action takes place. There, among other things, he ends up living in a slum, where he sets up a free health-clinic, falls in love with a mysterious Swiss-American woman, starts working for the Bombay Mafia, strikes a unlikely friedship (although things are more complicated than that...) with its ueberpowerful don, launches a movie company and fights in Afghanistan alongside the Mujahedeen (this is the war against the Russians, not the recent one).
Roberts is no stylist so dont expect Pulitzer-level writing here, yet he's far from being an ignorant ex-convict. As a matter of fact, before getting the habit (heroin, that is), he was some sort of left-wing intellectual and his writing, while not overly sophisticated, is elegant and, yes, at times even poetic.
A deeply engrossing novel, the perfect complement to a relaxing holiday.
Book Review: Beyond Words!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Shantaram is a beautiful novel written by a foreigner who has seen India from his eyes...especially Bombay, the toughest city for survival. Linbaba is not a character, not fiction but a man who loved the challenge the city provided him, along with came love, bounding for Indian people. I really loved reading it, the novel is more beautiful because of Prabu in Linbaba's life, and the pages come to life by his innocent charm and honest laughs. It could be that I myself an Indian felt flattered by reading it cause this is the first time I came across a foreigner "Gora" acquaint our lives and not only befriend us but lived among us and saw us from the inside. The author's reflections of India are so positive even the most shadowy businesses (gangsters, drugs etc.) are shown with a reality in their characters, not only they are humans but they also possess certain qualities which we've never heard or read ever before. The good part is that it's not fiction, it's all so real. It has the power of Indian people and author did nothing to hide it infact he flashed it. May be I'm being patriotic and the love for my country speaks in my review but I must say that if anyone wants to know....what is India...what are its people.....what actually is the life in India then read Shantaram! The book is so complete and thorough, charismatic and consuming that you won't even notice.... when you started it and when you finished it!! Books like these are not written everyday.....a lifetime book!
Book Review: Confused
Summary: 3 Stars
When I started to read Shantaram, I absolutely hated it. I cursed my two friends who were reading the book at the same time who were all praises for the novel. For me, it was an exceptionally slow read, too many descriptions and what I thought to be too cliche a look at the world.. about the poorest slum dwellers being the happiest yada yada yada. Yet, there was something about the story that made me stick with it and continue reading it. Finally the pace picked up and a funny thing happened... I looked forward to finding out what happened next, in Lin's weird and twisted existance.
Whether you hate the book, like I did at the start, or love it, you have to admire Lin for the life that he has led and somehow still managed to maintain his sanity. He is a man who has lived with slum dwellers, villagers, murderers and mafioso, and still has managed to see beauty and love in everyone he met. Moreover, he was a great friend to all and treated each person with respect and dignity. If that isn't poetry, I don't know what is.
I gave the book three stars because of its slow begining and mind-numbing descriptions. For all his conviction, i still think the author went into way too much detail into his own thoughts and philosophies on life. Yet, if you like me don't like the start too much, I would suggest you persevere on because the book will provide you with enough twists and turns at the end to transform it into a real page turner.
Would I buy the sequel? Most definitely!
Book Review: Rich and satisfying
Summary: 4 Stars
A rich and robust giant of a story, the kind you search for and rarely find, enthralling and a can't-put-down. I read it slower and slower, dreading the time this would come to an end. This book deals with an escaped Australian criminal's arrival and life in Bombay, how he survived, the fascinating characters he met, the lessons he learned about honor among thieves, and the steaming underbelly of Bombaby's slums, the dwellers therein and the rich lives lived in the dire poverty of the denizens of the underworld. The writer hs the rare gift of bringing the reader into the life he describes, and what a life it is - criminal, generous, unforgiving, honorable, veined throughout with heartfulness, the nature of love, encounters with evil snd betrayal and how such things are dealt with in the culture. He at first lives in the vilest slum and finds himself, a white man, looked upon with surprise and then acceptance as he labors with others to heal himself and the other dwellers, learning from wise men of all stripes and professions, funny, heartbreaking, constantly being tested by his life and circumstances. A wonderful read and an experience that will stay with me for a long time, full of wisdom and suffering and transcendant joys, unsparing descriptions of every possible experience - a natural and remarkably gifted writer who wastes no words and uses those words he has chosen to paint a picture that will stay with the reader long while after he has come to the final words.