TCCDM Dig & Flip: Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts (2003)
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
(2003)
Softcover, 935 pages
NO SPOILERS:
The novel Shantaram is an ambitious adventure loosely based on events that occurred after the author Gregory David Roberts escaped from a prison in Australia. Trying to avoid discovery, he finds himself swallowed up in Bombay, India, where the story begins. Whether this is a 'true' story or one that has been carefully crafted and roadmapped doesn't matter. It rings the bell of authenticity, and I was all in.
The exotic atmosphere of Bombay is captured in the traffic-heavy city as well as the crammed-together, slum-like villages. The prose pulls it all in so tightly I could almost feel it, taste it, and smell it. It's heady stuff. Descriptive and emotive, dozens of characters pass through the pages, and I never lost track of a single one. It's beautiful here and dangerous there. Sometimes both. And at least two of the characters I will not soon forget. The book is 900-plus pages, but the author gets it mostly right. There is beauty in the disgusting and misdirect in the danger. All the highs and lows of trying to maintain. It all can be found in Shantaram. Indulgent, for sure, but there's magic to be had.
"Taste Of India" - "Aerosmith / "Nine Lives" (1997)
Comments