Yichen answers “I am nearly at page 100 and I am really...”

Anne Earley asked this question about Shantaram:

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?

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. Her…moreFor 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(less)

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