"The measure of a book is how carsick I'm willing to get reading it." - Brett Thomas-DeJongh
I got pretty sick reading Shantaram, a novel about Mumbai (Bombay) and an Australian escaped convict trying to survive there. One reviewer called it a "glorious wallow of a novel," and it certainly is that.
Nearly a thousand pages long, it is a mostly autobiographical account of living off the grid in Mumbai, taking crazy risks, and nearly always paying the price for them. Beyond the adventure story lie the themes of redemption, freedom, loss and most of all, love. The authors love for Mumbai - his love for the the Indian spirit and culture - make Shantaram worth reading.
The story is most absorbing when the main character takes up residence in a Mumbai slum. He finds a role there as a slum doctor, giving free first-aid to the slum dwellers. Roberts' fascination with the slum's cast of characters and his awe at how they live in relative peace in such squalid and crowded surroundings lends this part of the book an authenticity and a unique perspective.
I found myself feeling disappointed when the hero left the life of a slum-dweller to become a jet-setting mafioso. I got over it, however, when the realized the story traded the colorful characters of the slum for the slicker and richer but no less interesting characters of the Mumbai underworld.
Roberts' intense introspection and meditations on grief, loneliness, and redemption could only have come from a man who has lived the life of the protagonist. And here, the broad strokes of Roberts' life create a sweeping yet deep story.
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this book is the dog's dangley bits
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