Great novel. I read it while I was in India and that makes it even more impressive ( )

Dominique LaPierre is among the world's best nonfiction writers for a popular audience. In this international bestseller that was later made into a film starring American actor Patrick Swayze, he lived in Calcutta for a time to research his topic.
from back the cover: "In the seeming hell of one of the poorest and most crowded quarters of Calcutta, Dominique Lapierre found more herosim, more love, and ultimately more happiness than in many a city of the West. Above all, he discovered that this inhuman slum has the magical ability to fashion saints. Saints such as Mother Teresa, but unknown saints, too -- such as Stephan Kovalski, a Polish Catholic priest who made his home there to care for the poorest of the poor. Lapierre slept in Kovalski's hovel, a shack without ventilation or light, infested with rats and cockroaches. His neighbours were a community of eunuchs, the godfather of the local mafia, a leper colony . . ."

Reading this book really will make you laugh (a very small amount) and make you cry, as if someone has stabbed a knife into your stomach and is twisting it with each character that graces the pages. A fabulous insight into Indian slum living and the corruption and cruelty that accompanies power.

Similar to Eastern style in it's disjointedness (when compared with western novels) it will ease people into this style of writing whilst still allowing subjectiveness and a strong development of characters

Text for the India Lighthouse trip I lead. I guess it was ok. I think the movie made the life of India come to life more than the book. It's based on a true story but stylistically I thought it moved a little too slowly. ( )

The story is built around two main threads: the experiences of a young Catholic priest who decided that in order to best understand and help the poor, he must live right amongst them in the slum; and the struggles of a refugee family from the country, who find themselves starving in the middle of the city until their father finds work as a rickshaw puller. The lives of these two characters come together near the end of the book.

The City of Joy has such a wealth of material. Many side stories of friends and acquaintances are described, giving the reader a broader sense of circumstances in the city. There is no end to the deprivation, squalor and disease the poor suffer. Yet even living in such poverty and suffering, the people had so much joy and compassion in their hearts. This book is a moving tribute to the greatness of the human spirit, shining here though the darkest of shadows.

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