Gregory David Roberts
Looking forward to watch the movie based on this book, and then on to its sequel,
Verdict: A must read, This book bugs.
Of course, I knew that I could have defeated the stoned, terrifying swordsman with just my fists,
Fortunately, my friends had given me a gigantic firstaid kit before I left, so I had enough medicine to cure the scores of burn victims.
The guards had given methe dangerous convict doing hard laboran extralong, heavyduty extension cord that I was able use to scale the prison wall.
I saw in his eyes the shining crowning glory of a soul at utmost peace and his radiant love flowed into my heart of hearts.
I had no idea what to sayI was utterly at a loss, So I said exactly the right thing and everybody laughed,
I was lonely and terrified in the huge crowd, So I went up to the scariest person in the place and made friends with him, . .
What a crock,
This book would be a lot easier to take if it weren't for the bogus bio the author offers, which is clearly supposed to make gullible readers believe that this fantasy is somehow autobiographical.
I feel like I betrayed myself, my family and some of my friends because I did not like this book more, My statement seems a bit rough but my heart is really heavy, This is why!
I started this bookyears ago while on a trip to Mumbai, Where else! As I was studying in Italy at that time I bought the book in Italian, I remember that I loved what I read but dropped it somewhere at pagein order to read it in the original language, English, I do not know how and why butyears have passed before I finally got to start again, In the meantime, I recommended the book to my grandma became one of her favorite books, read it multiple times, my father loved it and some friends which all enjoyed it.
I was so sure I will love it as well, Well, I did like it but I did not love it,
For the good part, it is a ambitious adventure book with interesting facts about the Indian culture and it was mostly entertaining,
My main issue with this doorstopper is that I hated the main character, That is a problem as the book is all about HIM, The book is a slightly autobiographical novel about an Australian armed robber who escapes from prison and lands himself in Mumbai, There, he moves into a slum, starts a free clinic and gets involved with the citys mafia, Many things happen to the guy and between those extraordinary events multiple philosophical ideas are inserted who tend to be quite repetitive, His struggle between his good part savior of the slum and his bad part criminal activities with the Bombay Mafia take many boring pages, It felt like the narrator tried very, very hard to convince the reader to have a good opinion of him, that even if he is a criminal he is one of the good guys and his acts are justifiable.
He has two full chapters in which he presents his philosophy of what is really evil and what is a decent crime things like passports falsification, money laundering etc.
To me Shantaram was a pompous, selfabsorbed prick who tried more than half of the book to look like such a wonderful person, some sort of “messiah” for the residents of Mumbai.
Really! How had those Indians survived without him Everybody loved him and respected him, He was welcomed by everybody in their homes and heart, Also, for half of the book all the characters were wonderful, with no apparent defects, I mean, even the criminals were loving, heartwarming philosophers which felt really odd,
On the bottom of page: "And it was quiet, in those dark, thinking moments: quiet enough to hear sweat droplets from my sorrowed face fall upon the page, one after another, each wet circle weeping outward into the words fair.
. . forgiving punish and save "
I give Shantaram,stars. I understand it took the authoryears to write, given the substantial amount of details to remember from a life most of us are thankful to never have experienced, I can understand why,
How did the man have 'time' to write
Gregory David Roberts is wise intelligent man/writer/, and very unique amp wonderful human being! forgiveness comes into thought: Good people have done wrong things,
These same people have done GREAT things,
An interesting life this man had!
He needed to write a book, . .
I needed to read it, . .
Ask me if I cried YES, . . but only onpage out ofpages, I don't think anyone would guess the part I cried in either, However: for my friends who read this book, . .
Come back and ask me, I'll tell you later!
I have spent the last two weeks in Roberts's seductive, chaotic, slum filled, audacious Bombay, full of vibrant, wonderful, charismatic characters.
This is a grand, sprawling, intelligent, autobiographical novel, elegantly written and splendidly evocative of an India I would otherwise never know,
As I sit here trying to decide how to best sum up just what this novel is about I realize that it is about everthing.
All of life's many lessons are here in this huge, sweeping, monumental story but mostly it is about love and forgiveness and one man's searing search for redemption.
Above all, perhaps, as Pat Conroy says "it is a grand work of extraordinary art, a thing of exceptional beauty",
Do not let the size deter you, I was hooked from the very first sentence and stayed that way through to the final word.
Simply one of the most thrilling and touching novels I have ever read, .
by Gregory David Roberts is a huge yet hardtoputdown novel, The blurb says it is based on the life of the author, but is also part fiction, Several seemingly unnatural events corroborate the fact, Fiction or not, the book kept me hooked for the entire duration,
The simplistic writing style results in a nearperfect narration of the epic story that is Shantaram, Various intricacies, including the subtle ones, that make up the Indian culture are beautifully captured, The detailed description of Mumbai, both literally and figuratively, is sure to make the reader fall in love with the city, given they aren't already in love with it.
The characters seem as real as they can get special mention to Prabaker, the protagonist's friend, The theory related to the Big Bang, the matter, and how everything in the universe is approaching towards a common goal, is mesmerizing,
Most if not all of the emotions known to man are covered in the story, It is an epic tale of love and friendship, of crime and poverty, and of revenge and exile,
The prose is full of wise quotes throughout, It makes one reflect on the way we look at life, Few instances:
"wisdom, in one sense, is the opposite of love, Love survives in us precisely because it isnt wise, "
"The truth is a bully we all pretend to like, "
"What we call cowardice is often just another name for being taken by surprise, and courage is seldom any better than simply being well prepared.
"
"And I'd learned, the hard way, that sometimes, even with the purest intentions, we make things worse when we do our best to make things better.
"
"the cost of knowing love, is sometimes greater than any heart would willingly pay, "
"I think wisdom is very overrated, Wisdom is just cleverness, with all the guts kicked out of it, "
"I was too young, then, to know that dead lovers are the toughest rivals, "
"Guilt is the hilt of the knife that we use on ourselves, and love is often the blade but it's worry that keeps the knife sharp, and worry that gets most of us, in the end.
"
"It's isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts, "
"Hate is a very resilient thing, you know, Hate is a survivor. "
"it's impossible to despise someone you honestly pity, and to shun someone you truly love, "
"People haven't stopped believing in love, They haven't stopped wanting to be in love, They just don't believe in a happy ending anymore, They still believe in love, and falling in love, but they know now that, . . they know that romances almost never end as well as they begin, "
"It's a fact of being in love that we often pay no attention whatsoever to the substance of what a lover says, while being intoxicated to ecstasy by the way it's said.
"
"love cannot be tested, Honesty can be tested and loyalty, But there is not test for love, Love goes on forever, once it begins, even if we come to hate the one we love, "
"'Sometimes it is necessary to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, The important thing is to be sure that our reasons are right, and that we admit the wrongthat we do not lie to ourselves, and convince ourselves that what we do is right.
"
"You can't kill love, You can't even kill it with hate, You can kill inlove, and loving, and even loveliness, You can kill them all, or numb them into dense, leaden regret, but you can't kill love itself, Love is the passionate search for a truth other than your own and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever, Every act of love, every moment of the heart reaching out, is a part of the universal good: it's a part of God, or what we call God, and it can never die.
"
"Love is a oneway street, Love, like respect isn't something you get it's something you give, "
"It's bad,
loving someone you can't forgive, "
Looking forward to watch the movie based on this book, and then on to its sequel,
Verdict: A must read, This book bugs.
Of course, I knew that I could have defeated the stoned, terrifying swordsman with just my fists,
Fortunately, my friends had given me a gigantic firstaid kit before I left, so I had enough medicine to cure the scores of burn victims.
The guards had given methe dangerous convict doing hard laboran extralong, heavyduty extension cord that I was able use to scale the prison wall.
I saw in his eyes the shining crowning glory of a soul at utmost peace and his radiant love flowed into my heart of hearts.
I had no idea what to sayI was utterly at a loss, So I said exactly the right thing and everybody laughed,
I was lonely and terrified in the huge crowd, So I went up to the scariest person in the place and made friends with him, . .
What a crock,
This book would be a lot easier to take if it weren't for the bogus bio the author offers, which is clearly supposed to make gullible readers believe that this fantasy is somehow autobiographical.
I feel like I betrayed myself, my family and some of my friends because I did not like this book more, My statement seems a bit rough but my heart is really heavy, This is why!
I started this bookyears ago while on a trip to Mumbai, Where else! As I was studying in Italy at that time I bought the book in Italian, I remember that I loved what I read but dropped it somewhere at pagein order to read it in the original language, English, I do not know how and why butyears have passed before I finally got to start again, In the meantime, I recommended the book to my grandma became one of her favorite books, read it multiple times, my father loved it and some friends which all enjoyed it.
I was so sure I will love it as well, Well, I did like it but I did not love it,
For the good part, it is a ambitious adventure book with interesting facts about the Indian culture and it was mostly entertaining,
My main issue with this doorstopper is that I hated the main character, That is a problem as the book is all about HIM, The book is a slightly autobiographical novel about an Australian armed robber who escapes from prison and lands himself in Mumbai, There, he moves into a slum, starts a free clinic and gets involved with the citys mafia, Many things happen to the guy and between those extraordinary events multiple philosophical ideas are inserted who tend to be quite repetitive, His struggle between his good part savior of the slum and his bad part criminal activities with the Bombay Mafia take many boring pages, It felt like the narrator tried very, very hard to convince the reader to have a good opinion of him, that even if he is a criminal he is one of the good guys and his acts are justifiable.
He has two full chapters in which he presents his philosophy of what is really evil and what is a decent crime things like passports falsification, money laundering etc.
To me Shantaram was a pompous, selfabsorbed prick who tried more than half of the book to look like such a wonderful person, some sort of “messiah” for the residents of Mumbai.
Really! How had those Indians survived without him Everybody loved him and respected him, He was welcomed by everybody in their homes and heart, Also, for half of the book all the characters were wonderful, with no apparent defects, I mean, even the criminals were loving, heartwarming philosophers which felt really odd,
On the bottom of page: "And it was quiet, in those dark, thinking moments: quiet enough to hear sweat droplets from my sorrowed face fall upon the page, one after another, each wet circle weeping outward into the words fair.
. . forgiving punish and save "
I give Shantaram,stars. I understand it took the authoryears to write, given the substantial amount of details to remember from a life most of us are thankful to never have experienced, I can understand why,
How did the man have 'time' to write
Gregory David Roberts is wise intelligent man/writer/, and very unique amp wonderful human being! forgiveness comes into thought: Good people have done wrong things,
These same people have done GREAT things,
An interesting life this man had!
He needed to write a book, . .
I needed to read it, . .
Ask me if I cried YES, . . but only onpage out ofpages, I don't think anyone would guess the part I cried in either, However: for my friends who read this book, . .
Come back and ask me, I'll tell you later!
I have spent the last two weeks in Roberts's seductive, chaotic, slum filled, audacious Bombay, full of vibrant, wonderful, charismatic characters.
This is a grand, sprawling, intelligent, autobiographical novel, elegantly written and splendidly evocative of an India I would otherwise never know,
As I sit here trying to decide how to best sum up just what this novel is about I realize that it is about everthing.
All of life's many lessons are here in this huge, sweeping, monumental story but mostly it is about love and forgiveness and one man's searing search for redemption.
Above all, perhaps, as Pat Conroy says "it is a grand work of extraordinary art, a thing of exceptional beauty",
Do not let the size deter you, I was hooked from the very first sentence and stayed that way through to the final word.
Simply one of the most thrilling and touching novels I have ever read, .