I finished Shantaram this weekend and I loved it, it had me hooked and it rekindled my love affair with those fresh crisp printed pages bound in a glossy cover with a story to tell. While a lot of people usually get put off by the volume of a book. I look for them. I like thick, voluminous books running into thousand pages resembling more a saga then a story. A Suitable Boy, War & Peace & Atlas Shrugged are the kind of books that attract me at the first glance rather than put me off.
There is something about these multi-character, multi-track storyline spanning years that get me and I think it is usually the alternate reality that they transport you to. The character in the books are like friends in your real life, they don’t endear themselves to you immediately, it’s not before 100-150 pages have passed before I usually start warming up to the characters and start getting into “what happens next” mode. The novellas or short stories don’t give me that kind of luxury. Just after Shantaram, I picked up this collection of short stories by Yiyun Li and I must say that the two of the stories I have read so far are good reads but by the time you getting to sketch that mental image of Mrs. Su or Mr. Fong, you have come to an end. In no ways, am I saying short stories are any lesser. I myself dabble in them sometimes and I know that for lot of ideas and thoughts, that’s the best style of prose but I think am just wondering aloud why I love those thick books.
Back to Shantaram, the beauty of the novel is it’s such an intimate portrayal of Mumbai. I have spent some time in Mumbai and though I have just walked by the Leopold at best or been to World Trade center building once or twice and my only experience of slum is to look at them as my auto used to speed past the S.V.Road but still there is a certain sense of belonging to the settings of this novel which got me hooked as soon as Linbaba got down from the minibus in Colaba.
Though I can’t but admit that the novel did take a few artistic/bollywood-istic liberties but it was still one hell of a tale to tell. It may still not compare to two of my favourite novels set in Indian milieu – A Suitable Boy and A Fine balance, but it indeed completes a quartet of Indian novels (together with Midnight’s Children), I would strongly recommend to anyone who wanna form a reliable picture of India through fiction.
And now I start my similar journey to learn about China through fiction, about years of Cultural Revolution and the reality of modern China beyond tall towers of Beijing & Shanghai. And I am sure Soon I will find something to rave about.
PS: Just noticed this is the 100th post on this blog, just like Tendulkar it got a bit slow near the century but well, it’s time to look up the sky and take a fresh guard :)
And so just for the sake of old time’s, here’s a song recommendation for the day – a piece of nice poetry I heard in the latest movie “New York”
Jo tune na kaha woh main sunta raha
Khaamkhwaah, bewajah khwaab bunta raha…
Sunday, June 28, 2009
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4 comments:
congrats for the 100th post! keep it going...some people are still reading on ;-)
Well, I read Shantaram last year just after I finished another Mumbai epic 'Maximum City'. I remember I liked the later one at that time but then it was more of a documentary and that too from a Journalist's eyeview. I found Shantaram much more involved, thorough and genuinely close to the heart. It shouldn't matter but the fact that it comes from a non-Indian makes it all the way more lovable.
I was told Mira nair was making a movie out of it starring Johnny Depp and Amitabh but never really saw any progress. Hope it comes true someday.
Shantaram - oh!! where do i start?? One of the most beautiful books I've read in the recent times. Seriously I have spent barely a month in mumbai but it sent me on a trip too... :). Fav quote "The size of your room is inversely proportional to your happiness"
Do you remember walking down the chowpatty beach and talking about books?? :). That was a nice post by the way.
- Shweta
Thanks for reading Bill...I :) Let me target 200 now, going by current pace I must give myself atleast 5 years :))
Siddhish...Buddy, I have Maximum City stacked up in my book shelf but would pick it up only after a few months - don't wanna overkill Mumbai. I had resisted picking up Shantaram for a long time coz one everyone seem to liked it and two i thought it would be a bit standard fugitive hiding and doing good routine but how wrong could I be :) And movie, sorry but I don't wanna see it - I don't think 2 hours could do justice to this saga and smile of Prabhakar who could replicate that :)
Thanks Shweta...Indeed i remember, we have had some great time in Mumbai. For me too, the most interetsing bit was Lin's stay in the slum, he really made it look worthy of a life time experience. But there were so many 'clever' lines in the novel that I would have to do re-read to find my favourites :)
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