The City of Joy

Sconvolgente. Non facile da leggere per le tematiche molto crude, senza dubbio è uno dei libri moderni che meritano di essere letti. Un racconto romanzato che però deriva da una profonda conoscenza di persone vere, a cui credo l'autore si sia ispirato moltissimo. Ma ci vuole stomaco forte e animo aperto a comprendere la sofferenza e a farsi influenzare da essa. Altrimenti fa un brutto effetto e alla prima scena cruda ti viene voglia di mollarlo. Se però si riesce ad andare avanti, lascia dentro una traccia profonda.

An incredibly moving novelisation of the lives of people in a slum in Calcutta, based on interviews. This allows the reader to be immersed in their stories, histories, and economic struggles. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to understand 1960s Calcutta.This edition includes an Afterword describing the making of the Warber Briothers film starring Patrick Swayze, but also the impact the film had on the policy of the Indian Government, and also international attitudes towards India.

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 show more 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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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

"Living in the seeming hell of one of the poorest and most crowded quarters of Calcutta are the saints of today: saints such as Mother Teresa,, saints such as Stephan Kovalski, an unknown Polish Catholic priest who made his home there to care for the poorest of the poor, and Max Loeb, an American physician dedicated to fighting disease.

The City of Joy, the story of these saints, is a testament to the human spirit unbowed by the most wretched of circumstances".

Read this in the late eighties. There are very few books that have moved me to tears and this is one of them

Quite engaging. You can't get it out of your mind when you finish. Which is actually a good thing in this case. Recommended.