Mitchell Levene
12-07-2006, 09:10 AM
I'd like to know people's opinion about the book Shanataram.
This book has totally derailed me.
I wrote my own book HARD TO SWALLOW in 1988 (published 2005). Both books have some remarkable similarities. Before you jump to the conclusion that I’m going to accuse the author of plagiarism, I’m not.
I gave a copy of my book to a friend recently and told him it was based on my own experiences in India in 1984/86. Three days later he came to see me and told me he absolutely loved it and he promptly handed me a copy of Shantaram.
“Have a read of this.” He says plonking a big fat book in my hands.
“You’ll love it. It’s about this Australian bloke who escapes from prison and lands in Bombay in 1982 where he joins the Bombay mafia and then ends up fighting in Afghanistan. Like your book, it’s a true story.”
My book is only 150 pages and can be read in a few days so the first thing that crossed my mind was ‘ Sh*t - this bastard’s book is nearly a thousand pages long.’ The second thing, once I had read the synopsis, was ‘ Fu*k – What this guy did in India makes what I did look like a ‘Noddy in Toytown’ adventure’
To say I was depressed would be a slight exaggeration but I did feel like all those guys who watch porn movies and witness extraordinary sexual powers with extraordinary tools with a slight, nonconfessable sensation of inadequacy.
‘Bollocks’ was my third thought when on consulting internet about the book I found that Johnny Depp and Graham King had bought the rights to the book to make a film. Now here’s another interesting similarity – I found out a couple of years ago that Graham King (Traffic, Gangs of New York etc.) was an old school friend of mine ( Littlegrove School , Barnet). I got in touch and he remembered me. Of course I offered to send him a copy of my book and he said he’d have a look at it. Somewhere a long the line I managed to piss off his PA by being a little bit too insistent trying to get some feedback from Graham and that was the end of my Hollywood dream.
I put the book in my bookshelf determined not to read it. He had achieved everything I had ever dreamed of with an autobiographical novel about his adventures in India. My book remained at Nº 500,000 on the Amazon booksales chart.
However my curiosity got the better of me and one day I took it to the loo and started it. Ten days later I finished it. I have to say that I REALLY ENJOYED IT with a BUT.
The writing is excellent – the descriptions of people and places are fantastic – the dialogue was fluent, realistic and at times very amusing. The guy’s story is absolutely fascinating – It’s also dotted with some extraordinary life enhancing spiritual observations. If it were not autobiographical, I would still say that it was a remarkable piece of fiction but that is where my BUT comes in –
Written in the first person and being autobiographical I found that the author lacked humility – I’m sure he is a remarkable person – anyone who has done what he has done and been through those experiences must be a remarkable person BUT I would rather someone else describe him as such and not have to swallow hundreds of pages telling me just how wonderful he is and how much people loved him. I for one -DONT ( and what's more he's an ugly git)
All this must read like sour grapes from an underachieving author of an underselling book. Well, it is BUT I just want to say that my book is funnier, easier to identify with, cheaper, faster and I wrote it before him – so there!
This book has totally derailed me.
I wrote my own book HARD TO SWALLOW in 1988 (published 2005). Both books have some remarkable similarities. Before you jump to the conclusion that I’m going to accuse the author of plagiarism, I’m not.
I gave a copy of my book to a friend recently and told him it was based on my own experiences in India in 1984/86. Three days later he came to see me and told me he absolutely loved it and he promptly handed me a copy of Shantaram.
“Have a read of this.” He says plonking a big fat book in my hands.
“You’ll love it. It’s about this Australian bloke who escapes from prison and lands in Bombay in 1982 where he joins the Bombay mafia and then ends up fighting in Afghanistan. Like your book, it’s a true story.”
My book is only 150 pages and can be read in a few days so the first thing that crossed my mind was ‘ Sh*t - this bastard’s book is nearly a thousand pages long.’ The second thing, once I had read the synopsis, was ‘ Fu*k – What this guy did in India makes what I did look like a ‘Noddy in Toytown’ adventure’
To say I was depressed would be a slight exaggeration but I did feel like all those guys who watch porn movies and witness extraordinary sexual powers with extraordinary tools with a slight, nonconfessable sensation of inadequacy.
‘Bollocks’ was my third thought when on consulting internet about the book I found that Johnny Depp and Graham King had bought the rights to the book to make a film. Now here’s another interesting similarity – I found out a couple of years ago that Graham King (Traffic, Gangs of New York etc.) was an old school friend of mine ( Littlegrove School , Barnet). I got in touch and he remembered me. Of course I offered to send him a copy of my book and he said he’d have a look at it. Somewhere a long the line I managed to piss off his PA by being a little bit too insistent trying to get some feedback from Graham and that was the end of my Hollywood dream.
I put the book in my bookshelf determined not to read it. He had achieved everything I had ever dreamed of with an autobiographical novel about his adventures in India. My book remained at Nº 500,000 on the Amazon booksales chart.
However my curiosity got the better of me and one day I took it to the loo and started it. Ten days later I finished it. I have to say that I REALLY ENJOYED IT with a BUT.
The writing is excellent – the descriptions of people and places are fantastic – the dialogue was fluent, realistic and at times very amusing. The guy’s story is absolutely fascinating – It’s also dotted with some extraordinary life enhancing spiritual observations. If it were not autobiographical, I would still say that it was a remarkable piece of fiction but that is where my BUT comes in –
Written in the first person and being autobiographical I found that the author lacked humility – I’m sure he is a remarkable person – anyone who has done what he has done and been through those experiences must be a remarkable person BUT I would rather someone else describe him as such and not have to swallow hundreds of pages telling me just how wonderful he is and how much people loved him. I for one -DONT ( and what's more he's an ugly git)
All this must read like sour grapes from an underachieving author of an underselling book. Well, it is BUT I just want to say that my book is funnier, easier to identify with, cheaper, faster and I wrote it before him – so there!