I didn't expect the ending as it is due to a lot of fanfare around this book. It was certainly ahead of it's time. It fit perfectly in my current reading phase i.e. dark, gloomy, slightly depressing subjects. The psychoanalysis of the protagonist seems very real but as we know about the author's life, it had to be surreal. Depression and mental illnesses are serious issues, which have been ignored since beginning. We only consider physical ailments as "respectable" and mental illnesses are "unholy" for us. This needs to change. This book depicts the world though eyes of a depressed person and I could see how tough and colourless it gets. Sometimes in narrative, I could almost feel what she must be feeling. That is the strength of the author and this book.
Rare are those books which hold you and vigorously shake the apathy out of you! In this fast world of materialistic ambitions and pleasures, we try to ignore pain; pain, which is dancing naked in streets, homes, offices and our eyes. We develop philosophies and mind-tricks to help us tackle the drudgery of day to day existence. We convince ourselves that we're happy and everything is OK. But then, somehow, somewhere, something slips through the cracks created due to our inherent empathy. In those cracks, We see glimpses of the barbarity, gratuity, and just blind cruelty of humans. It may leave us hopelessness and gloomy depression but some rise and stand. They fight, many times unsuccessfully and the next one takes the baton. There are undying hope and optimism in humans which separates us from animals and it can be a boon as well as a bane. We try to imagine and strive towards a better tomorrow. This book proves that fact is stranger than fiction. I paused reading many times to digest the gory and devastating incidences that are depicted graphically in this book. It will reveal to you the other side of the Kashmir conflict, the one which is often ignored and suppressed. It will make you be thankful for all the privileges you have had that you didn't find special. It will make you stop whining about flimsy problems in daily life. It will make you thankful for living in your home and being alive.
I read 'Shantaram' four years ago. It was an enlightening experience for me, in terms of literary beauty as well as philosophy. But four years is a long time in which your inclinations, beliefs, degrees of innocence change. With more than faint memories of 'Shantaram' I started this book and admired GDR's style of writing very much, but I got stuck and irritated at parts where he professes philosophy like it's the only right way of life and there could be no alternative theories. I agree that he has done a massive reading and research in the philosophical field, but I'm just not in that phase of accepting philosophies as the bible. So, due to that attitude, I couldn't fully enjoy the book. But, that's just a small part. The whole book is written beautifully with very elegant prose. Sometimes, you have to reread a paragraph to fully understand it and sometimes you just have to accept that you won't be able to get it. Yes, it happens. There were more than one instances in the book when I wondered what this dude was smoking while writing this. It's maddeningly complex and beautiful. Some sentences are written in a very show-offy way but one could discount it as the author's harmless ego. Overall, I'm glad I read this sequel and would recommend it to people who liked 'Shantaram'.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita
The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts