It seemed that everywhere I went in South America every gringo I met had read Gregory David Roberts’s ‘Shantaram’. It must a be a travelling reader phenomena, similar to Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’, where the backpacker searches for inspiration amongst written texts - inspiring them to take journeys, searching for the backpacker nirvana; a quest for complete liberation from the drudgery of their everyday lives.
Well, I have already digressed. Recently, I managed to knock ‘‘Shantaram’‘ off my large ‘to read’ list and it was quite pleasing to do so.
The premise of the book is based upon the experiences of former heroin addict and wanted felon ‘Lin’ (Robert’s assumed name) after he escapes from an Australian jail, and manages to flee to Bombay, India. Determined to rebuild his life, Lin drowns himself in the culture of his new adopted home, and attempts to bring back some sort of meaning to his existence, which had all been but stripped away by drugs and crime in Australia.
Lin forms a tight friendship circle including other foreigners as well as natives. Many of his new friends dabble in crime, being involved in black market money scams, drugs, document forgery as well as common mafia activities. Many don’t, simply living out humble existences in the slums of Bombay. Despite choosing to participate in some the morally questionable activities, Lin also manages to wrack up some serious karma points by providing health care facilities for the poor (despite having no medical training!), and going out of his way to help the communities he inhabits. It is his choice to dwell amongst the poor as well as the criminals that Lin manages to realise, or at least hypothesise, about the true nature of India, as well as the true nature of being human. Lin revels in the joy expressed by the everyday native Indians, despite their comparatively poor lives, realising that while they may be poor by western standards of success, Indians had so much more joy, honour and loyalty in their hearts than the average westerner.
Lin sees through the stereotypes to the virtue of the individuals who enrich his life. In Lin’s mind, these ‘criminals’ have only turned to crime because society has failed them. A skeptic might think that perhaps Robert’s was trying to justify his own reasons for turning to crime and their might be some traction to this claim – Lin does commit crimes in the book with little thought of the consequences. Indeed, Lin seems to remain apathetic to the consequences. Saying that, the character does seem to be wholly regretful for the crimes he committed in his previous life, which seems a slight bit strange - it almost says to me that because it is acceptable for certain people to commit certain crimes without fear of vengeance within certain societies, and thus it is OK for Lin to be involved without fear of moral reprisal.
It is quite a large read, coming in somewhere around 835 pages in its paperback format and that alone may be imposing for the average reader. However, after completing it – it doesn’t feel like an overly long read (I managed to read it in a week and a bit), and the reason for this is simply because it is a ‘ripping yarn’ so to speak. Most of the intertwining events and stories are very interesting, particularly Lin’s time in prison, as well as his experiences as a slum doctor – they are engaging and keep the reader turning pages. The only parts that were frustrating were the overblown discussion on philosophy, and perhaps Lin’s adventures in Afghanistan could have been shortened. One part of the story that I thought would have been really interesting would have been a discussion of Lin’s crime’s and family in Australia. A lot of the time, I found myself asking “what kind of relationship breakdown could scar or change a person this much”, and I was keen to know more. Unfortunately, you don’t get much more than “Lin was a bad husband seemingly with commitment issues”. Gregory David Roberts has written that ‘Shantaram’ is only part of the complete story. Presumably he is working on the rest.
Still, ‘Shantaram’ is a great read, particularly for long arduous tube journeys to and from central London each day!
Rating: 
