A huge story with flaws to match its size.

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	• Shantaram: A Novel Gregory David Roberts St. Martin's Griffin, 2005 - 944 pages average customer review:based on 269 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A huge story with flaws to match its size.

Rarely have I read a book that inspired such mixed feelings. I want to emphasize right away that I really enjoyed this book and I've given it four stars despite exasperating faults because the story and story-telling are so enthralling. That said, I struggled with the faults from cover to cover and they truly detract from what could be a five-star novel.

First, the good. Roberts is a gifted story-teller. He has a knack for parceling out pieces of the story in such a manner that you continuously get new information, but constantly want more of the story. It's the recipe for an engrossing read.

Beyond that, Roberts creates some great characters. Some reviews say the characters are straight out of central casting and/or are two-dimensional. The first claim is frequently true, but the second usually misses its mark. One of the things that makes this book strong is the life that Roberts breathes into many of the characters and their relationships with one another. You tangibly feel Roberts affection for the people he describes and it separates this book from most others, making it a worthwhile read.

The story itself is apparently based on Roberts' own experiences and is gargantuan. This becomes a strength and a flaw. The novel has an epic quality to it, which is great, but by the end, you feel like you've traveled too far, gone too many places and experienced too many things too many times and you're just ready to be done. Making the reader feel the hero's feelings may even be the intention of the book, but if that's the case, it would be better to experience the hero's fatigue because of the prose, not because of its length.

With that, let's move on to the less-than-great aspects of the book. Roberts is absurdly fond of metaphor and deep philosophical meaning and never misses an opportunity to throw in either or - better yet - both. So you get writing like, "The betrayal was an unsharpened butter knife twisting in the part of my gut just blow my ribs, but above my belly button. I knew as the insidious emotion viciously attacked the core of my being that his words had been true; trust never is given for free, it always exacts a price in the end." I made that one up for you, but the book is filled with examples that blow it out of the water on the laughter/nausea meter.

Too many of the characters in the book are amateur philosophers, constantly ready with a treatise on any topic at any time. It rings hollow. Roberts also loves to describe contrasting emotions being present at the same time, "His lips smiled while his eyes frowned." I think some variant of that concept appears about 50 times in the book. Enough!

None of that keeps Shantaram from being a very strong book, it just keeps it from being the book that it might have been and puts it into the category of something a little too over-the-top. Despite the distractions, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.

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Dostoevsky Mated with Barbara Cartland

Overlong, overwritten, over-self-conscious and under-edited, Shantaram is a book that almost sinks under its own weight. While the details on the slums and the criminal underworld of Bombay are fascinating, the second-rate epigrams of Karla and Didier, the endless uncalled-for philosophical symposia, and the final jaunt to Afghanistan all became a bit too much and I was skipping pages by the end. The author has had many unique experiences, but I would have preferred to hear about them without all the fictional-philosophical encrustations. There is an interesting speech on YouTube (search for Gregory David Roberts or Shantaram) where the author recounts some of the same experiences, complete with accents and movement (in particular, head wiggles). It will be interesting to see if the old adage about "Bad Book = Good Film" comes true in this case. How on earth can so much be compressed into an 90 minutes?

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Amazing!

This book was fantastic. I actually got it from the library first and dicided I needed to share it, so bought 2 books and a CD version to give as gifts. The reader on the CD was so very clever with accents and voice control it was as if I was listening to a movie from a different room. Both the writing and reading was so spot on and descriptive, I felt like I was in Bombay. I will probably visit there one day. GET IT!

Everyone Must Read this Book

Finished the book last week and it's the best book I've ever read. I LOVED it so much I started reading it again for all the beautiful insights a few days later and I'm half way through the book again. This is one of those books that changes something little in your life in a good way. It's a great story which includes philosophy, some very very funny moments and some very sad moments. You find it all in this book because that's what life is.

I wish I could tell the whole world about this book.

BTW, Gregory David Roberts does go to Leopold's a few times a week and if you go there and ask the proprietor of Leopold's he'll tell you when he comes around so you can catch him.

I also want to mention how I found this book. I was traveling in India and found this book in a bookstore. I was too long and thick for me to carry around so I put it down. Then I forgot the title. I was reading Amazon reviews of another book by Vikram Chandra and someone recommended Shantaram. When I read what it was about it was the exact book I wanted to get in Delhi but had forgotten the title of. It was pure fate that led me to read this. I truly believe that.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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