The Mountain Shadow

It's not an exaggeration to say that Shantaram, Roberts prior work to this novel, is one of the finest novels I've ever read. I think I can say the same of this book. Though Mountain Shadow carries some key characters forward from Shantaram, making it beneficial to read Shantaram first, this book is a quality effort and stands on it's own merits. The storyline is deep and the characters rich and well developed. I highly recommend it for all the same reasons I recommend Shantaram. In addition to the storyline and characters, the book is sprinkled with philosophical statements which are past genius, perhaps inspired, and though the author has withdrawn from public life, I'd dearly love to discuss his sources for the philosophical content of his books. If you enjoyed Shantaram, you owe it to yourself to read The Mountain Shadow also.

Let's begin at the beginning: This book is not Shantaram. It will not be Shantaram part two. If you read it expecting it to be Shantaram, you will be one of the many disappointed fans. But if you read it with the understanding that it is an entirely different book that just happens to have some of the same characters, you will find it mostly enjoyable.If Shantaram was a painting, Mountain Shadow is a pop song. Other reviewers have noted that it relies heavily on dialogue - and this becomes problematic for a few reasons. If Mountain Shadow were a movie, then the smart-assed, quick-whip lines would be a lot of fun. But in a book, they read amateurish: the ellipses (ie. "O...kay", "And...so?"), and repetitive broken thoughts (ie. "I-- " inserted in between lines, when a character begins a thought but doesn't finish it, multiple times).I hesitate to call it lazy - that sounds harsh - but a book is supposed to set up the tone of the conversation thru prose; it's supposed to *tell*, rather than just show. By contrast, a film should show rather than tell ... But you're not writing a film, GDR!Also mostly gone from the dialogue are the accented agrammatisms that give a cultural context to the language: the book is written in English - but English isn't everybody's first language in the story, na? Shantaram included intentional peculiarities of how an Indian would speak English, whereas Mountain Shadow often fails to make it clear when English is being spoken vs Hindi/etc. It makes everybody seem like a clever native speaker, cleverly firing their clever lines. And it's done at the expense of nuanced character development. After a while, they all sound the same.Another issue with the dialogue is that it's often redundant: We would read a line of Lin narrating his thoughts, and then he'd repeat the same thought aloud as dialogue to a character. Why? And it happens way too often. This is something a good editor should have pointed out. I think GDR intends for this to be a stylistic choice, but honestly it reads a little arrogant.And speaking of redundant (and arrogant... and lazy) ... Where the dialogue *is* broken up by prose, the prose itself is often stiff, abridged, and too colloquial, like how a millennial would text "o man, that's crazy!" to just about everything, rather than reach for a descriptive narrative of the situation. When I recommended Shantaram to my friends (and I've actually bought copies as gifts), the word I used most often to describe it was "sumptuous." The city of Bombay came alive in smells and sights, in philosophy and metaphor. But the Bombay of Mountain Shadow is distant and impersonal. Yes, a lot is changing around Lin, and perhaps GDR's decision to pull back from the tugging on his readers' heartstrings when he describes the Island City was intentional, to set a more menacing tone. But you know what? I didn't like it. There's a lot of action happening around, scenes skipping from one place to another often within a few short pages, and without the rich description I have don't have as much fun following that journey.One more thing to put out there: GDR isn't shy about killing off his characters, obviously. But in Shantaram, he made us fall in love with them first. In Mountain Shadow - partially because of all the violence and characters dropping like flies every few chapters, and partially because of the lack of rich prose - I found myself growing numb to it all. Several important Shantaram characters were killed off in the middle of the novel, after making only a brief appearance at the start, and their death seemed random, like GDR didn't know what to do with them so he killed them off. He seemed not to care about them, and that was evident in the jumpy brevity of the revelation of their deaths. Even toward the very end, when a beloved Shantaram character dies, I didn't feel it as much.You guys should know, it takes 300 pages for Karla to finally show up ... And when she does, the action kinda gets going. All the stuff before that seems like prelude, like Lin is sleep-walking thru life... Which he is! But GDR, come on! WE are not supposed to be sleep-reading thru it!!!I understand GDR was in a different place in his life when he wrote Mountain Shadow than Shantaram, but the book read a little like he was giving up; like he had a screenplay going in his head rather than a novel.Some of the things I did enjoy very much? The philosophical meditations in the chapters with Idriss. In fact, if GDR wrote an entire novel expanding on these philosophies and their origins, I'd read that (and, I think he is). And I'd probably read a follow up to the Lin story, too, if it ever happens... But I would like less smart-assery and more substance.As a fan, I also bought the ebook that has a bunch of extras (deleted scenes and dialogues, illustrations, poems, etc). NOTE: THE KINDLE VERSION SOLD ON AMAZON IS NOT THE ONE WITH THE BONUS MATERIAL. THAT EBOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE THRU GDR's WEBSITE.And I loved all the bonus stuff, and especially applaud GDR for including the earlier versions of a chapter to illustrate its progression. As someone who writes, I feel rarely brave enough to show a finished work, nevermind an earlier draft. It takes a lot of courage to do that, folks. Thank you, GDR, that was a treat!

I loved Shantaram so much that I immediately picked up The Mountain Shadow. I was reluctant because so many other reviews had said it didn't measure up to Shantaram. I was glad I read it, because I felt it came darned close to living up to its predecessor. Some of the reflection to earlier events seemed unnecessary, but other times I needed to remember who was who. It also tied up some loose ends for me and in unexpected ways. I've moved on to my next books, but I'm honestly missing these.

This is the extraordinary follow-on to the best-selling Shantaram. It is difficult to write a great book after already launching a literary bombshell but Roberts accomplishes this. Only the best of writers could have pulled this off. Roberts' use of metaphor is unlike that of any author I am familiar with. Who would even think to use the image of the Queen of Hearts to indicate a woman's state of mind and heart? Many of the insights in the book mirror those of the more scholarly, God Has Skin in the Game: How a New Understanding of Politics and the Soul Could Change America. While The Mountain Shadow writes about Bombay, much of what goes on in Bombay mirrors the complex and decaying civilization that many parts of America have come to be. The gangsters of Bombay, as portrayed, would in many instances, find a place on the hard streets of America's tougher cities. Robert's depiction of the hilarious homosexual Didier is also thoughtful, while at the same time ringing true. His character cries out to be discovered in a movie of the same name. Don't miss The Mountain Shadow for any reason. It is one of the best books of 2015 in my estimation.

I absolutely loved Shantaram as did probably most everyone else. So this book had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver. It had nowhere near the excitement or suspense of Shantaram and somehow the writing didn't evoke the place nearly so well, either. I felt fully immersed in the Bombay underworld with Shantaram. Not so with this novel which kind of felt detached all the time somehow. There was a bit too much philosophizing for my taste, Ayn Rand lite if you like. I managed to plow my way through it and finish it but I can't really say I enjoyed it or cared all that much about the characters. If you want to find out what happens to everyone from Shantaram, then read it. But if you want to preserve the joy of the first book, maybe just leave this one alone. Perhaps simply find out from someone who's read it how each key character gets along and whether they live or die so you don't have to wade through the book itself!

I was expecting more. After the wonderful journey Shantaram took us on I hoped for something inspiring. Unfortunately this book could have been condensed into half its size. Painfully philosophical with meandering prose. I was constantly hoping it would get better until the very end when I think even the author got bored and wrapped up everything nice and neatly in the last few pages. If you hold Shantaram in high regard you do not need to read this book. It's painful. Avoid.

Shantaram was a truly mind blowing book for me, so I was really looking forward to reading this. I re-read Shantaram before eagerly picking up The Mountain Shadow but I hate to say I was thoroughly disappointed. First off; I'm not even sure what the point of this second book was?! The story line was weak and non commital and i felt like the only aim of the book was to simply cash in on the success of Shantaram!!! I found the writing incredibly clichéd and at points just downright 'cheesy'! The characters were shallow and underdeveloped and I came to actually dislike most of the main players, finding nothing of the 'humaness' and 'connection' in the first book! The only saving grace being Didier, whose lavish and camp quips made me chuckle throughout! Most of the leading characters come across as bigoted and self absorbed with Both Karla and Lin really starting to grate on me after a while!!! Lin and Karlas dialogue throughout is a shambles of clichés, pretentious philosophical meanderings and ridiculous aphorisms which made the writing feel somewhat tacky. God knows what the editor did; as the amount of word overuse and lyrical repetition was rife! Violence, killing and so called 'gangsta cool' saturated the book alongside soppy, 'lovey dovey' crap more akin to what you'd find in an amuteur American teenage novel!! Aside from this rather harsh criticism, there were moments where Roberts rich descriptive narrative shone through in his magical portrayals of India ; however I got bored towards the end of this book and was not surprised when it ended on an all too 'happily ever after' note!!As much as I wanted to love this book- it was a total flop for me!! Fingers crossed that Roberts redeems himself with his next one!

This book was an amazing sequel to shantaram. Following Lin and some of the characters in Shantaram, it's a story of crime, revenge and redemption in Bombay in the 1980s. Lin journeys to the mountain where he finds wisdom and friendship in a spiritual philosopher and teacher. This book explores deep philosophical ideas and paints them in a beautiful picture, I felt engaged and understood many of the ideas due to its excellent style of writing. Amazing characters with interesting stories and a fast-paced plot made this book un-put-downable! would definitley reccomend both mountain shadow and shantaram for a life chnaging read.

This is a beautifully written and totally engaging story. I would recommend reading Shantaram first though as the story is continued in The Mountain Shadow.This is a story for anyone. There are parts that contain violence (but not out of context) but there are so many well written and thought provoking parts that these far outway the bits that are tougher to read. The two books together are probably my favourite reads and I recommend them often.

I loved Shantaram and had high expectations for the sequel which made reading this drivel very disappointing. There is no real plot, the protagonist seems to be doing nothing but riding his bike from venue to venue and the whole is interspersed with brainless dialogues and tedious banter. I am amazed any editor would let this mindless meandering and boring story go for publication.