Thursday, December 9

How not to write an Amazon review

When we came back from Nepal I noticed three people in the plane reading the same book. No, each of them had an individual copy. And yes, I do notice what people read. Actually, I make it a point to notice. Anyway, these three people were reading "Shantaram" by some Roberts guy. The book has rave reviews on Amazon, so I thought I would give it a try.

However, the way it is written (that is, the construction of the phrase etc - e.g. "the eviscerated shelves", "eyes the color of the desert before the rainstorm" - wtf?!) is so annoying (at least to me) that I just want to stop and kill the guy. I guess this is also because I know I can't really last 1,000 more pages of this shit.

So I went back to amazon to read the reviews. And I found this little piece of Internet wisdom. All are excerpts from the same reviewer.

"I found Shantaram at Target just days after returning from India. You may have well already imagined that I had fallen in love with the countries. I know what a dichotomy, France and India as two of my favorite cities. Surprisingly there were plenty of French on vacation in India. [...]

Shantaram is not a memoir, yet is a memoir. While author Roberts does not write his story, the book is based on his story.

[...]

For me a good book is one that appeals to my senses. "

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