in love with books

THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THIS BOOK AND WHAT I THINK ABOUT IT

Now, I understand why some people may see this book as being controversial. It is, after all, mostly a novel about  black women but written by a white woman. However, I have to point out something. The Help is a novel about a white woman writing a book about black woman. So, it is not like it is trying to present itself as something that it is not. There are three protagonists in this novel and everyone of them matters. The narrative is told from a perspective of three different woman: two black woman and a white woman.  A white woman is the one that is trying to write the story down, but it is obvious she can't do it without the help of the black woman. So, the critique of this novel on the basis of the fact that the white woman wrote it to make her seem like a hero seems misplaced to me. The Help is semi-autobiographical and it is obvious that the young white woman who is trying to write a novel about this subject i…

Before I get into this review, I'm just going to say that I don't regret reading this one. There were a lot of things about Shantaram that I didn't like, but I'm still glad I gave it a shot. Despite its shortcomings, I think this novel deserves to be read.  
Truth be told, I didn't want to like this novel. What I read about it (on the covers) put me off, the fact that it was written by an ex-criminal and all, but when I read the first paragraph, I was hooked. That first paragraph speaking about forgiveness had such a wise ring to it that I was sure there had to be some wisdom in this book. I was right. There is some wisdom in this book. Not as much as I would like, but enough to make the reading worthwhile. There is also a fair share of annoying pseudo-wisdom in it. Some parts of this novel are rather pretentious in their claims, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. There were times when I had to make myself read forward, when the story seemed to not only drag but also …