Udhaya's Reviews

This novel interested me for its thorough indictment of Google and the Uber-social, share-everything-with-everyone society that we're becoming. Many of the points were well honed and aimed. The writing itself was staggeringly plain like a blog. While the depth of technological excess is well addressed the protagonist is such a sorry-ass ditz that it outrages one far beyond the intended reasons. It's still worth a look for those who have thought that all this technology is wonderful.

I arrived at this tome long after the missives had piled up either anointing it or debasing it. Reading Shantaram is not just a journey or a launch to a faraway place, it is a committed residence at an exhilarating vantage point. The mind that I followed, the voice that I listened to, the heart that I bled for, the shoulder that I leaned on, the spirit that I inhabited, the humil iation I shared, the despair I felt, the joy I embraced, the exhaustion of letdowns I endured as my own, the anger I expressed for his unlearned mistakes as if he were my own were all palpably real. Yes, that was the most remarkable thing, the unmistakable feeling like the narrator were my own. The kinship I felt with the narrator, I have never felt in any other book I have ever read. A dreamer soul beats at every turn and save for a few self-destructive turns, the narrator and central character always forges ahead and never shies from life. The way he treasures the little gestures of people and the wa...