I failed to finish the book we agreed to read over the summer. We met in an Indian restaurant last night for our book group meeting and I was the only one who hadn’t finished it. How crap is that. I have had weeks and weeks of summer holiday time and really no excuse at all and actually I don’t really know how I didn’t manage to finish it given that I thought it was an extremely good and interesting book that will definitely definitely be a hugely successful film. Apparently Johnny Depp has bought the rights and is set to play the lead role, which will automatically make it a successful film in my opinion.
The book is called “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. It got the thumbs up from 5 out of the 6 of us. It was written by a convicted Australian armed robber and heroin addict who escaped from prison and fled to India where he lived for the next 10 years. “What I escaped to was the lovely, reckless freedom of the outcast. Like outcasts everywhere I courted danger because danger was one of the few things strong enough to help me forget what I’d lost”.
The story is mostly based in Bombay and the author writes colourfully and vividly about life in the slums and about the characters he meets in the rich diversity of city life in India. He successfully manages to blend fact and fiction. Because of his known history one naturally assumes that the main characters are real. I suspect that they probably are and that he is protecting their identity, but he assures us on his website that they are all purely fictional. The author is typically alpha male, but he has the ability to appeal to both sexes and all ages with his descriptions of places, people and emotions “no one and nothing could really hurt me. No one and nothing could make me very happy. I was tough, which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man”.
I love going out with my friends for our book group evening. We don’t take the discussion of the book section of the evening terribly seriously. It’s more about eating, drinking and talking about life. I know most of them so well anyway that it’s just like wearing a pair of big pants – all cosy and supportive and uplifting. “I’ve had my first dry vagina” announced the oldest member of our group, slightly too loudly. She is convinced that she is going through the menopause. I pointed out that if that was meant to be a sign of the menopause, rather than a sign of not really wanting to have sex for whatever reason, then I’ve been menopausal for as long as I can remember and she’s been bloody lucky.
The evening was tinged with sadness though. We are missing one of our group. In the last 8 weeks she has been through a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She is the one member of the group that I do not know well and consequently it’s difficult to know what to do. I hope that at some point soon she will want to come back. We sent her some books and a card, but when you’re ill, sometimes even reading is exhausting. Apparently she shaved her hair off yesterday as it was all falling out and now she’s wearing a wig. She is being immensely brave and hopefully all the invasive treatment will stop the onslaught of the cancer. Horrible.
For our next book we have chosen something very very slight in size, but huge in context – a bit like “Mice and Men”. We are going to read a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (the guy with the huge beard who died recently) called “One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich”. It is the story of a typical day in a Stalinist labour camp (The Gulag) as experienced by a prisoner called Ivan. It is considered to be a Russian masterpiece and I will most definitely definitely make sure I finish it.
Maggie May
September 11, 2008The books seem interesting but a bit heavy to read quickly! I have to be in the right mood to read certain books (or any book come to that) I like to pick up a book & think "Yes," I have to read that!
Tough for the friend in the reading group. That blasted cancer has split my whole family up. The sooner they find a cure…….
I should imagine that she would find it a lovely gesture whatever you gave her & if you chose a book, she would surely feel well enough to read it eventually.
Val
September 11, 2008Shantaram was a great book – and like all books I love I read it TOO FAST. never jotted down all those fabulous quotes; thought I’d go back but I probably wont. oh well; your blog is great! i shall be back 🙂
Chris
September 11, 2008It was my choice for this months Book Club and I chose The Mitford Letters by Charlotte Moseley. I loved it but the feedback I am getting so far is not looking good!!! quotes like “too heavy to hold up while lying prone” being the mildest!!Well its at my house so I will be prepared to face the onslaught. I might have to up the wine content to mellow them all!! Your next one looks a bit daunting too but the great thing about a Book club is it forces you to try and read the sometimes unreadable!!
Am off to Prague for a wedding so will catch up with news when I return……….dont let the bugger(s) get you down
Frankofile
September 11, 2008I’m evolving a postal book group among English readers in France. The one male who signed up did nothing and failed to post on the book he received and has since refused all contact aimed at getting him to return the book. Fuel to your fire?
Dumdad
September 11, 2008I read Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich many years ago and remember enjoying it. But for a funny precis of it read the following from a blog entitled Chase me Ladies, I’m in The Cavalry:
“They made us read his Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich when I was at school. It’s about some gloomy Russian guy in a labour camp in Siberia, who goes on and on about a spoon he hid in his boot. That’s pretty much all that happens. Our English teacher asked what the spoon represented and the class dunderhead said it symbolised the lack of cutlery under Stalin.”
Janelle
September 11, 2008heh heh..Dumdad’s very funny comment. well quite, really! well lulu. you read it and let me know eh? as for shantaram..i loved it until they got to afghanistan…and it was like horses falling over cliffs at midnight and wars and stuff…and too incredible to believe and our hero surviving unscathed…i was like, oh come ON…puhleeeze… XXX janelle