I am nearly at page 100 and I am really...

Bo A painful waste of time. It is unbelievable to me that it has favorable reviews. Narcissistic, sophomoric, and tedious.

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Yichen Wang For those of you who aren't enjoying, could you provide more detail on why?

I'm about 20% through the book so far and I've enjoyed it from page 1. Here's MY reasons why I like it:

- I relate to the environment: I've never stepped foot in India, however my ancestral background is China, and I've visited China on multiple occasions. I have seen myself what villages, crowded cities, and a rapidly developing economy in a heavily populated Asian country look at, and so I can easily put myself in Lin's shoes and understand his descriptions and thoughts from the POV of a westerner (I am an American)

- Characters: I see some comments about how the characters are shallow. But let's be honest, in our day to day lives, none of us really understand the in-depth personalities of most of the people we meet. In the book, Lin meets a lot of people, and while he really speaks to the character of some he's closer to, others get a couple of sentences of a snapshot description. That's usually how things work in real life. What I get out of all this is experiencing how characters interact, live, and think within a completely culture from ours. And from the hundreds of mini-interactions, we learn a lot about the social and cultural dynamics of India - there is nothing more genuine and human than that because that's how an open-minded individually absorbs information and learn about new things in foreign land. Keep in mind that this book is about the POV of an individual, and tells things how one person saw things.

- POV excellence: To continue from my 2nd point about characters, the book does a great job of providing a HUMAN experience. You see a new world through the thoughts, fears, and emotions of a flawed, but open-minded Westerner. You experience the stories through the lens of inherent human bias, which is why the learnings are so powerful. When Lin comes to a new revelation or when his eyes open up to a new understanding, you really UNDERSTAND, because you traveled along the same emotional pitfalls, sorrows, and thought processes of a normal human being

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Rosemary Winks I loved, loved, loved this book and even read it twice. If I was stuck on an island and had to choose one book to take with me, this would be it. It baffles me to no end that others do not like it. I will defend this book to my last breath.

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Smita I finished this book in 10 days flat! The initial few pages seemed to drag but once i crossed that it was almost unputdownable for me. I loved the book & all the characters. I guess i was fascinated by the trials of this foreigner, branded a criminal in his country who lands up in India, starts living & working in the slums and all of the experiences that follow. Maybe people outside of India wouldn't be able to relate to the characters & the setting. But it is based on a true story albeit fictionalized. There was some talk of it being turned into a movie but nothing materialised. It would be great to see this book being turned into a motion picture.

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Gloria The entire book is down hill.

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Julia Kaylock I finished it recently and never got to the enjoyment stage. There are some lyrical passages but I found his 'meaning of life' stuff ho-hum and I never warmed to any of the characters, they all seemed so flat. Some had the potential to be endearing, like Probaker, but Roberts never got inside their skin well enough for us to really seem them shine. I don't feel any of the characters gained much insight - that is probably reality, but without internal growth you don't have much of a story.

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Kat Walter If you are not enjoying it STOP. I liked it better as it continued, but then it got tedious again. It is written as a novel, but I think it is biographical. A narcissistic read

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Sarah Have you tried the audiobook? I probably wouldn't have made it through this one, but the audiobook performance added so much to the story IMO.

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Nancy Colello I think the discrepancy in likability has something to do with what generation you are from. I am in my 50's and did not find the characters individuals I would like to spend time with. I think this book seems to be meant for a male, 20-something year old. I hate to stereotype, and perhaps I will get a lot of heat for doing so here, but the whole time I read it, I couldn't help but think that. In the end, I did find the story ok and he had some good insights to share.

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Mayank Tiwaari Shantaram will go with its own speed. For me, it took a huge time and when I consumed almost 90% of it, I didn't want it to end. Don't stop reading, you will love it.

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Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) Unless you absolutely have to read a book for a given purpose (such as a class or your job), the nice thing is that you can put it down, take it back to the library or the person who lent it to you, sell it on or give/throw it away.
Life's too short, and there are too many books you might enjoy, to waste time on books you know you don't like.

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Sabina It gets a little better when he moves away from that ridiculously stereotyped bunch of friends but I am still not convinced... I‘m at chapter 9. Some parts are really interesting and engrossing, some other are ridiculous and the work of an absolute amateur writer! Examples, ridiculous or incomprehensible metaphors:
„…a dream is a place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare“. Whaaaat? No...
„Smoking the charras had relaxed the muscles of her face and shoulders, but there were tigers moving quickly in the eyes of her soft smile“. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?? Eyes of what? Where do you see the tigers? 🤢

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Kathleen I'd say "no." Life is too short to read books you don't like. I will say that once I started listening to the book as well as reading it, I began really enjoying it. I picked up my pace and now can't put it down. The narrator is over-earnest in places, but the experiences are life-altering.
Find a book you love and dig into it!

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Martin Shantaram. This is a real Bollywood film of a book. Written as if shot in 900-page widescreen, it is opulently orchestrated, a whopper of a story, besotted with love and rhythm and violence, brimming with colour, humour, drugs and spice, also teeming with the warmest, strangest, magically fated human encounters.

The tale is quite literally a "movie", its narrator (and author) being an ex-convict who fled Australia via New Zealand to work for the Indian Mafia anywhere between Kinshasa and Kandahar, but based in and thoroughly enchanted by the Metropolis of Bombay. Here the story is squarely placed on the city's shady or squalid side.

Though packed with action, this is also a look behind the mirror. The author is something of a stream-of-consciousness poet, a loquacious enthusiast with a penchant for hippy philosophy, also romanticizing what should be an outrage. Even so, after ever so much flower power he never fails to turn a phrase so deftly, that any self-respecting singer-songwriter would want to steal just that.

To give thanks to this author I now need to learn the Indian-style head-wiggle. I should also thank the Australian and Indian penitentiary systems for not quite killing him off.

I am still pretty divided on that weird book. If you are a conscientious reader, goodness me, you will not like it.

I just realized I have a favourite book. Scott Turow's Personal Injuries. I pretty much fell in love with all the characters in that book, even though none of them were asking for it. In Shantaram, all the characters are begging. But I understand the author was enchanted by his personal experience, Survival as a fugitive will do that to you.

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Anca Atrocious. Badly written. I wanted it to work for me, but it sadly didn't. If a book doesn't captivate you, persevere. If you feel the same after 300+ pages, you are wasting you time. I was wasting mine.

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MICHAEL A It doesn't get much better. I finally gave up on the book after grinding through 400+ tedious pages. There are a few good ideas, but the plot is contrived, the prose often overly florid, and as someone else commented, the whole thing feels self-indulgent and repetitive.

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Linda Parker Try the audio book. It's great on audio, and you can read it while preparing dinner, while walking, while doing laundry, or picking up the kids from school. That's why I love audio books--you can time-share. I love the accents of the Indian characters as well as the accent of the Australian protagonist. Not difficult to get into at all on audio. Some readers object to it because the protagonist is opinionated and not necessarily "the perfect citizen." For me, it was an opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes, someone who is unlike me or my friends. That's a great value of novels, they put us in places we've never been and with characters we have never met in real life.

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Valerie Brown I found the book just too long and tedious, I gave up about half way though.

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Debu Majumdar This is an excellent literary book I have read in a long time. It is difficult to read at the beginning because of the many characters. I used to get lost as to who this character is, etc. I'd suggest that please start from the beginning again and you will connect with the characters. Then you will enjoy the book. I have finished the book, but I have started to read it again and enjoying it more.

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Zak Plummer It's definitely you.

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Helen Jenny I want to tear down people who tear down this book. I feel their sight is short and pathetic. Is it what everyone wants? No. Is it a fantastic and eye-opening read? Hell yes. I advise you to enjoy, lose yourself and your pretensions. Sure he may get preachy at times, but that doesn't detract from the work as a whole and isn't the driving force.

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Stefan Koepeknie I give it an hour every few days. Its torture at points but have enough brilliance that I'm sticking it out.

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Jackie I am thinking of you don't like it now, you probably are not going to like it any better as you read on. I didn't like it that much, but I can see why some people did. I listened to the audio version. The narrator did a great job. I don't think I would have finished the book, if I just read the text.

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Shobhit M I request you to be patient and persevere. The book initially drags a little as it is plotting the characters and drama. I bet you won't regret sticking till page 962 ;)

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A I feel the same - I've made it nearly halfway through but it's been difficult. I want to put it down after a few pages every time I pick it up, the writing never pulls me in, the descriptions are excessive, and the characters seem to exist solely for the purpose of presenting their life philosophies to Lin.

I've tried to understand this issue as well; I think the book is just divisive, a love it or hate it novel.

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Allen Horne You know, I don't care what anyone says about a book. If I like it, who cares and if I don't, who cares? I recently bought Stoner and I find it boring and yet it was just published by the Library of America and it's gotten rave reviews. Another example—I believe that Scarlett O'Hara is the greatest female character in all of literature. Most likely this is because it was written by a woman. Others think I'm nuts and many intelligent friends haven't read it. I've read Bovary, Karenina, Archer, I'm talking about sweeping novels and not shorter ones. But male characters, well, starting with Hamlet through Raskolnikov, Pierre and Andrei, Prince Myshkin, Frederic Henry, Prewitt, Huck Finn. Theys are so great that they are bigger than the novels in which they appear, Tom Joad. But women characters, well, there aren't many. Especially in the theater, that is until Shaw and then Williams and Inge and O'Neill. What I'm getting at is, no one agrees with me. No one knows that the only great novel about the Warsaw Uprising was written by the son of Christian missionaries and was born in China. The great novel that has been forgotten. Oh, The Wall is the title. Incidentally Mila 18 copied its style. But of course Leon Uris cannot write characters. He's good on action, somewhat, but human beings, no. I have to add that I am a poet and have a comic view of the world, unlike other poets, unlike any other poets. They are just not hilariously funny. I am. So naturally editors have no idea what I'm doing since they usually have no sense of humor. And, sadly, we live in a time when humor is needed. Desperately needed. Actually if I weren't a humorist in my life and in my writing, I'd probably be institutionalized. Don't laugh, you didn't have my parents. And once you lose track, the farther you go, the farther away you are from your identity. I grew up in the 1950's, the Eisenhower years. Anyway, I'm just venting. I wonder if anyone feels the same?

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Mehran Reza it is honestly too long for no reason.

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Juliette I am about 100 pages in, and am both listening to and reading it. I think listening to it enhances the enjoyment of it; the descriptions, while sometimes self-indulgent and too detailed, are more texturized with the voice. The accents (particularly Prabakar) really bring it to life, and it is very funny at times. I've a long way to go, but this method of getting through 1000 page book so far has been great.

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Andy Echo What dont you like? Its outrageously interesting, its mysterious, and its beautifully written - The prose is a heroin-induced poetry that is simply gorgeous.

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Anand I love this book. I can understand that not everyone can relate to the context that this book encompasses. You really have to be in the context and in the shoe of a person who has for first time set foot in environment very different from developed countries. It is not a easy read because this book has several themes. Understand that life in developing countries is not straightforward and almost always convoluted to many degrees. Unlike developed countries where life progresses in 1 or 2 directions, here in developing countries life progresses in 100s of different directions.
So you have to be in the context before you will understand the book.

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Henry I've begun this as an audiobook and now I'm worried. Perhaps I should cash in. There are certain writers I've dabbled in and found rather flat: James Michener, Bryce Courtenay, Robert Ludlum. Usually they're straight up narratives often with an epic sweep, but they don't say anything. But I do like an adventure well told, like 'Treasure Island'.
How do you think I'll do with this? The first hour or two were certainly amusing and fairly well written. But with audible I'm allowed to bail out early and restore my credit, so I need to make a decision.

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Nancy Yes - stick to it. It is such a rich story. I highly recommend the Audible version which captures all the accents and dialog so perfectly.

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Rory Socket It dragged on near the end but overall quite good

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Melanie Blaauw Dear Anne,
Seeing as it's about 4 years later, and I feel exactly the same way, I wanted to know if you ever did finish the book, or did you leave it? A friend gave it to me, and was so impressed with the book, that I keep thinking there must be something wrong with me, that I do not like it. Every page is a struggle to get through, and it's not like I'm a slow reader. But I can't believe I'm only at page 136?? Finding myself skip entire paragraphs. My OCD just wont allow me to stop, hehe.

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Deepankar Das Just keep on reading, I am sure it will not disappoint you. There must be some reason why this book is a mass favourite.

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Kipbot I enjoyed it immensely, even though I found the author tedious. Some wonderful scenes of life in Mumbai and the countryside. But if you're not feeling it at the beginning, I doubt you'll feel it farther in (when it loses some of its strength and the self-referential stuff becomes hard to overlook.)

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Naoise I left this book at about that distance… and I was actually travelling through India! Can't remember the particulars of my decision but I am not the one to leave books half way.

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Cecile Pham I couldn't read it either. I got about 3 chapters in and couldn't stomach the western savior drivel and the romanticizing of Indian culture derivative of those who don't fully understand the system it exists in. Yes there's beauty as well as atrocities there but depicted through this narcissistic, sheltered eyes was not a journey I wanted to take. UGH so annoying.

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Jeffrey Lieberman suggest u persevere, it takes a while to get into the rhythm and flow, hard to absorb the plot and story line at first, but worth the effort

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Pam Walter Good Luck. I am 100 pages into it, and see this author waxing philosophical in the vein of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot", which I did not enjoy at all. I am going to continue for a while. I don't usually quit a book unless it just totally bores me. This is not my review of "The Idiot", but I wish it was!! http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Th...

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Chaitanya Karthik It's fairly good until a point and after that it gets a little painful. You'll be relieved that you finished the book

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Shannon King A friend just recommended it to me, but I think I'll wait until I get a new Kindle PaperLight or the new, upgraded Kindle e-reader, because it can chart where each character appears and also search words, so I don't get bogged down flipping back to try to remember who a character is, since reviewers say it has so many.

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I am nearly at page 100 and I am really not enjoying this book! This is disconcerting as everyone else raves about it! Is it me or is the book? Should I persevere?

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