Rating: 
Summary: A Moving Epic
Review: The City of Joy follows the lives of the impoverished inhabitants of one of the most neglected sections in Calcutta. You really begin to feel like you know the characters, be they Indian, or Western idealists who come to help them. The priest, the nurse, and the doctor who do so are saints, much like Mother Teresa herself. One word of warning: It is not at all like the movie. In fact, it is much better. Another triumph for Lapierre. Those who liked this should also look at "Freedom at Midnight."
Rating: 
Summary: cardboard cut-out disease porn
Review: The theme of this book is really worth to read. A missionary comes to India to service poor people and live with them, participate in their joy and sorrow of them really makes you gel with the book. But I don't understand the view of the foreigner's about the sanitation condition of India(from Seinfeld to this authour). They always view that as an adventure(true it is disgusting in some places, including where I lived) and wanted to explain that ad nauseum, but my suggestion would be India is not a land of lacking sanitation and dirt as the media claims in the other side of the world. It has its true colors and history and people who dedicated their life like Mother Teresa. Please write about them. Another thing to mention about is referring Kama Sutra(like mentioning drug cartels in most of the south american books). Please note that in majority of Indian home, Kama Sutra book is viewed as Playboy or PlayGirl in a conservsative american home.Apart from that, this book never wavered from the reality. About a peasant's life, how his life turns upside down when the city takes him in, how the missionary adapts the life in India and how the rich and poor view their life has been well documented. Definetly worth to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical westerner's view of India?
Review: The theme of this book is really worth to read. A missionary comes to India to service poor people and live with them, participate in their joy and sorrow of them really makes you gel with the book. But I don't understand the view of the foreigner's about the sanitation condition of India(from Seinfeld to this authour). They always view that as an adventure(true it is disgusting in some places, including where I lived) and wanted to explain that ad nauseum, but my suggestion would be India is not a land of lacking sanitation and dirt as the media claims in the other side of the world. It has its true colors and history and people who dedicated their life like Mother Teresa. Please write about them. Another thing to mention about is referring Kama Sutra(like mentioning drug cartels in most of the south american books). Please note that in majority of Indian home, Kama Sutra book is viewed as Playboy or PlayGirl in a conservsative american home. Apart from that, this book never wavered from the reality. About a peasant's life, how his life turns upside down when the city takes him in, how the missionary adapts the life in India and how the rich and poor view their life has been well documented. Definetly worth to read.
Rating:
Summary: cardboard cut-out disease porn
Review: There is no context or depth to the one-dimensional, facile and perverse moralizing in this book. I read it over a decade ago, before travelling and speakign with people around the world. For a suburban college student, it was a shocker. As an adult, I found it to have the exact lack of context, multi-dimensionality and context as pornography. Substitute graphic sex for graphic disease and you have City of Joy. A huge disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: City of joy is a salutation of the goodness in us, humans.
Review: This book is a classic. It can change the way you look at life, it will bring out the altruistic being in some. It moved me to tears. City of joy is about how an induvidual hailing from the luxuries of a developed nation undergoes a metamorphoses into a saint after coming in contact with people who are cursed with poverty and squalor. It brings out tthe beauty within you. It tells us how the poorest of the poor come to together when a calamity strikes and put on a brave face even when their destiny offers no respite from the misery. This book can change you. I being from India can relate to this book as i see glimpses of this pain everyday. Its ubiquitous here. It has made me want to make a difference .This book touches your soul . This book is a treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was recommended to me by a teaching colleague. I bought it in Chennai and I started reading it eagerly. I got to the end but I found it an unsatisfying read. The subject was worthy and would normally have held a lot of interest for me but I just found Dominique Lapierre's skills were not up to the task. Perhaps I was spoiled by having already read A FINE BALANCE by Rohinton Mistry which was a superbly constructed book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was recommended to me by a teaching colleague. I bought it in Chennai and I started reading it eagerly. I got to the end but I found it an unsatisfying read. The subject was worthy and would normally have held a lot of interest for me but I just found Dominique Lapierre's skills were not up to the task. Perhaps I was spoiled by having already read A FINE BALANCE by Rohinton Mistry which was a superbly constructed book.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read For Everyone - An Eye-Opener
Review: This classic book, will take you away to the streets of Calcutta, India.. A page-turner that wisks you away into the lives of the City of Joy slums, and impacts you with an experience that really makes you appreciate your life. No matter how poor you think you are, you will appreciate & be thankful for the smallest comforts that life has to offer, after reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: A book that changed the way i see the world.
Review: This is a book that everyone should read and pass on. The book gives the best picture/definition of joy that i have ever read. The wonderfull truth that hope, love and faith is life, not the things we keep around us. Read and reread this book. I wish i could say more. PS do not settle for the movie. It is good, however it missed the message of faith of the people in the book had. this is something that while makeing a good movie... does not reflect the story.
Rating:
Summary: Thank God for compassionate people.
Review: This is a great spiritual story. Thank goodness there are people with this much care, compassion, love and kindness for their fellow man. It has made me seriously consider life as a missionary. I will take the lessons learned in this book and apply them to my job as a firefighter/paramedic. I pray that we all may find more compassion and paitence when dealing with each other.
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