Shantaram

"The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love."

This was about 200 pages too long for me, but I desperately wish I had read it before I went to India. A truly brilliant insight into what makes Mumbai tick, and an extremely interesting story at that. Was thrilled but ultimately not surprised to discover in the About the Author at the end that it was semi-autobiographical.

What I liked: great writing on prison, hatred, fighting, drug use, and wartime medicine. Roberts also made good on him being a fool and ignorant around people in India, good touch.

All in all this was an interesting story, but not one for our modern age. 21st century literature this is not, but a thought out story nonetheless. Karla stuff was nonsense and not needed, however.

Excellent read that places the reader in the richness of Mumbai and India and really fleshes out the protagonists' experiences there. Effortlessly weaves in discussion of morality and good vs. evil. One of my favorite books.

Abandoned after 100 pages. This book had been recommended to me by several people, but I just couldn't get into it. After the 4th time the narrator says "I didn't know it then, but..." I realized that 100 pages of foreshadowing meant I was going to be living with this 900-page book for a long time. It was time to abandon it or dig in. I just didn't think it was good enough to slog on. Maybe another time.

A truly epic and satisfying read. Gave me more fuel for my desire to travel to India. Part thriller, part romance, part philosophy book, part travel memoir; overall this is a unique and interesting novel that celebrates themes of forgiveness and freedom. While a bit graphic (language and violence especially), I'm glad I read this and may even return to it in the future.

Two stars? Three stars? Difficult book to rate. Despicable narrator, pretentious language, but an outrageous (in a good way) story. At 936 pages, it's a good effort.

I took me a whole lot of time to finish this one. I read several books in between, but the story of Lin was always somewhere in my head. At the end, I was always coming back to Mumbai to experience his adventures and stories with the Indian underworld. Shantaram is great. It gave me hours of entertainment and insights on the underworld of Mumbai. Even though I have never been to that city, I lived in India and understood some of the codes expose in the story. Shantaram is a huge debut novel, taking you to experience every single emotion a person can have. It could be with Prabaker, talking and smiling before going for "sexy business", or in the small hospital in the slums, killing nigerian mobsters, falling in love with Karla or thinking you're about to be dead in Arthur Road Jail. At the end though, I felt the story was losing its spell. Only the few last pages turned out to be exciting, but the last 3 chapters were "skippable" . Overall, great book.

Eat, Pray, Love for everyday carry dudes. Too many words

Good characters, great use of place and culture, and a satisfying story arc. It would be hard to edit this book, because every part seems to feed productively into the wrap-up. But it would be stronger with some careful cutting.

This book is epic. By turns beautiful and bleak, this book takes you on a journey that you will never, ever forget. Through the slums of Mumbai to the rich palaces of the Indian mafia to the terror and hardship of war, i feel like I've been on about ey after finishing. Now of course, it's not perfect-- there's a fair amount of philosophical pontification, a lot of stereotyping, and storylines that weave loose ends in and leave them hanging, but I found it very interesting if not always enjoyable. Very enthusiastically recommended, particularly the audio version, which is expertly read by Humphrey Bower. Truly an epic, marvelous work.

This is a sort of Eat, Pray, Love written by an Australian thug. It’s a novel, not a memoir, although the lines of truth and the lines of creation seem to dip and sway and merge into each other creating things that were and could have been with things that might have been better left unsaid. While this novel is not as poetic or even as compelling as A Fine Balance and White Tiger I certainly am glad I did not let the length of this book keep me from reading it. The descriptions of savage dog packs, stampeding rats and open sewers did not make me feel I could fall in love with Bombay as easy as our heroin addicted author, but I did like learning about the Indian head wiggle, the standing Babas and the lives of the slum and pavement dwellers. I also wasn’t bathed in understanding how Lin could admire and love the petty and entrenched criminals he consorted with. However I do admire the author for writing such an epic half-truth filled novel while serving time in an Australian prison and, if the descriptions in the novel are correct, being beaten, stabbed, and tortured. I also look at holding this big book overhead as I attempted to read in bed as perfect training for reading Infinite Jest in January.

Sì, ok....complimenti, capo, per le tue peripezie. Ma quanto era eterno questo libro? Possibile che tutte a te capitassero, capo? Situazioni impensabili con picchi di delirio degne solo di Orange is the New Black (TV). L'unico personaggio simpatico è morto! Meh.

300 pages too long. Ultimately I felt no attachment to any of the characters and the author's voice creeps in too much with his heavyhandedness in trying to convey his opinions.

Interesting, but also unnecessarily long. (It didn't help that I took my time with the book, because it got a little frustrating when I'd read so much, but there was still so much left to read.) But anyway, here's a brief overview on the things I liked + disliked in the book: Yay: Bombay nostalgia (this hit even harder in lockdown); author's writing/way of expressing himself in some places; some philosophical/thought-provoking lessons. Nay: book length (so.many.words!); multiple plotlines, some of which felt quite unnecessary/like a force fit. Overall, a decent read. But not one I would recommend so much, for sure. PS: I do believe the book would have been at least 500 pages shorter if only Roberts had social media (specifically, Twitter) 🤭