Shantaram

[Vlad!]

I just finished the novel Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. A friend recommended it to me a while back. I bought it on Amazon because I needed something about ten bucks to put me over the free shipping limit. I started reading it on the airplane flying from Cleveland to Nashville because I was bored and tired and didn't feel like playing video games.

The next thing I knew, we had landed. It caused me pain to put the bookmark in and walk to the terminal, whereupon I moved to the gate for my next flight (two gates down, or I might have been read-walking) and began reading again. I got home, threw my bags on the stairs, and continued reading. I think I read nearly five hundred pages over the course of two days last weekend. I finished the other four-hundred-odd pages over the course of this week.

Shantaram is far and away the best book I have read this year, and I have read a lot of good books this year. But more than that, Shantaram is one of the best books I have read ever. I laughed, quick snorts of surprised laughter, sly "I see what you did there" chuckles, and great guffaws that I couldn't hold back (the latter, fortunately, did not occur on the plane). I cried. I put the book down because it was too painful to read on and then picked it up a minute later because it was too painful to not read on. I sometimes had to pause in admiration at how artfully the story had been woven. My bookmark is half its former length because i kept tearing chunks off to mark particularly poignant passages.

The friend  who recommended the book to me told me that it was his favorite book. I can understand why. Not that it's a good book--which it is, as I hope I've made clear--but that it makes a lasting impression. It's the sort of thing that pops into your head when people ask you what your favorite book is. Even if it's not your favorite book, you find yourself seriously considering it just because it's the sort of book that sticks with you. When I said that I've read a lot of good books this year, I thought back and a few stood out in my mind. There are probably twice as many which lie forgotten, unrecalled. But I am sure that I will remember when it was that I encountered this book.

I'll stop gushing about it now, and if I were one to give numerical reviews then I'd have to go do something else for a bit so that I didn't start inventing new numbers or letters to apply to this book. As it is, this book is the reason why those who do give quantitative reviews often hold back the top score, because when something like this comes along, you want to give it the praise it deserves, unsullied by...hrm, I said I would stop gushing. Sorry.

So yeah. Recommended.

[Aaron]

So what is the book about? I think you forgot to say that amidst the praise!

[Vlad!]

So what is the book about? I think you forgot to say that amidst the praise!

Heh, my goal was a review, not a plot summary. It's also the case that the story unfolds so artfully that I don't want to detract from that by giving anything away (I'm the kind of guy who doesn't even like to read the blurb printed on the book cover because I prefer to let authors tell their own story in their own way).

But in short, it's a quasi-autobiographical book about a guy who is on the run from the law and winds up in Bombay, India. He experiences all sorts of things, and the book chronicles both what happened and what effect it had on him. It's a fascinating look both into Indian culture and into the mind and experiences of the protagonist. If you want to spoil it for yourself any more than that, there's a Wikipedia entry you can peruse.

[Aaron]

But in short, it's a quasi-autobiographical book about a guy who is on the run from the law and winds up in Bombay, India. He experiences all sorts of things, and the book chronicles both what happened and what effect it had on him. It's a fascinating look both into Indian culture and into the mind and experiences of the protagonist. If you want to spoil it for yourself any more than that, there's a Wikipedia entry you can peruse.

Thanks. That's all I was looking for!