Shanti Bloody Shanti

September 9, 2013
Following a messy divorce, a bad rebound romance, and a drug dealer's death threat, Smith heads to India on an impulse, aiming to "study yogaâ¦bathe in the Gangesâ¦try to get a part in a Bollywood film, and party on New Year's Eve on the beaches of Goa." What follows is a drug-fueled journey, with Smith's attempts at enlightenment often derailed by harsh reality. Along the way, he encounters an ever-changing group of tourists, travelers, and ex-pats from all over the world, a colorful assortment of people who become friends, confidants, even lovers. From Merav, the Israeli girl who gives off mixed signals, to Charlie, his old friend who reinvents himself as "the Kobra," to Dhalia the Swedish Ice Queen, they come and go with dizzying regularity as Smith follows his heart and soul from one destination to the next. His impression of India seems to be one of a giant, dangerous playground, full of communes and yoga studios, drug dealers and quick paths to enlightenment, and though he sees the everyday reality, it doesn't quite intrude into his personal journey. But as he summarizes, India is "a country of sublime paradox," a place with "a durability, resilience, and endurance like no other." Smith's tale is part travelogue, part psychedelic journey, part coming-of-age, and strangely engrossing. He writes with an honest energy that makes up for his narcissism and frequent digressions.

October 1, 2013

A drug dealer's contract on his life forces Australian ex-punk rocker, playwright, actor, and journalist Smith to do the sketchy bail (Australian for "leave in a hurry") to India. Thus begins a romp along the hippie trail of the new millennium. Along the way, the author meets an international cast of characters who wander like a tribe, parting and reuniting at all the well-known spiritual watering holes along the trail. Drugs are cheap; the travelers lodge in fleabag hotels and endure bouts of diarrhea. Contact with locals is minimal. But face to face with poverty, Smith observes, "How frivolous and conceited of me to come here from my more affluent but spiritually effluent culture on my little spiritual safari." Then in the Himalayas--at the glacier that's the source of the Ganges--the stoner's picnic swiftly turns into tragedy. VERDICT Smith's knowledge of India and Hindu mythology is shaky, but the narrative of this spiritual quest/drug-fueled odyssey is striking and even lyrical, and the tension builds rapidly to a haunting end. Readers who are intrigued by the lives of contemporary Western hippies in India will appreciate this book. It will also appeal to fans of Rory MacLean's Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India and Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.--Ravi Shenoy, Naperville, IL

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