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| Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul William Roberts
Publisher: Stoddart Publishing,Canada
Category: Book
Buy New: $6.31
Buy Used from $6.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  (14 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3975933
Format: Import
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
ISBN: 0773757791
EAN: 9780773757790
ASIN: 0773757791
Publication Date: August 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 mixed blessings....ha ha! September 1, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I started off thinking this was brilliant, read bits of the Rajneesh chapter in the bookshop, and was well into the book by bedtime. The first half is all rather good. Then came the break and suddenly I find myself wondering about it all.
There are some quite appalling factual errors that undermine all confidence in the author. The worst is that he mistakes a very different prayer though well known for the Gayatri mantra not once but three times.....a little like a student of Christianity mistaking the Apostle's Creed for the Lord's Prayer and that from someone who claims to have studied sanskrit at Benares University.
At another point he claims ignorance of a story he has told himself in great detail in a previous chapter. His Hindu philosophy is sketchy and seems pulled from other books.
The set pieces in the second half become rather trite and the dialogue farcical as the book descends into poor travel writing from a poor travel journalist.
Thinking back from the end it can all be seen as a tall tale. Likeable yes, funny quite often, but remakably without substance.
For the hippie travel stuff you would be better served by "A Season in Heaven", and for India travel William Dalrymple and Mark Tully are great straight bats.
 exceptionally funny and well written! December 2, 2003
Paul William takes you on a memorable journey through India. If you loved (or even hated) your last stay in India, this book is for you.
Fascinating and frustrating November 23, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book really varies in subject matter and in the author?s perspective. A lot of that is due to the nature of the book: half based on India in the 1970s and half based on India in the 1990s. But I think it is also due to the author having a lot of ideas and impressions he wants to communicate, but none of them able to entirely stand on their own. The book has a remarkable beginning with the author?s account of the time he spent in Sathya Sai Baba?s ashram in the 1970s. I found it extremely moving and very well written. My hope was that the book would continue on similar themes, but instead it took a nosedive toward drugs and sex and tales of conspicuous consumption. These can certainly be engaging at times, but at other times Paul William Roberts comes off as a little pompous or at least lacking in integrity. Over and over he finds himself in situations where people are being dominated and denied dignity. After chronicling all the gruesome inhumanity of the scene in detail, he think distances himself from it and attempts to present himself as the detached observer, bearing witness to others? pain. You don?t stumble into the backrooms of seedy bars where young girls are sexually enslaved by accident. The book hits its lowest point in an odd chapter where the author goes to visit Mother Teresa. He more or less attacks the woman, interrogating her over the sincerity of her actions. Though an interesting subject and one perhaps worth discussing, I failed to see what the point was of literally confronting the woman. It came off as petty name dropping and an attempt to show the reader how fearless the author is ? but the nature of the attack was unjustified. In the chapter he goes on to glorify a wealthy owner of a private social club in Calcutta, clearly implying that this man?s life choices were of a higher moral standard than Mother Teresa?s. Did I miss something in this chapter, or does it strike others as strange and tactless? I am curious to know what others think. This all sounds quite bad. It has to be said that Roberts is continually engaging and entertaining and even when I was questioning his subject matter, his writing ability never wavered. Sathya Sai Baba reappears twice more in this book ? once in the middle and again at the end. We are told very little in the first of these (and I suspect that is because the author had nothing of value to say) and I was fairly let down by the second. In my opinion, this book revolved around Baba and his apparent grip on the author?s life. Roberts says as much. That being the case, I was left wanting more about Baba and how his presence affected the author twenty years after their first interactions.
The real deal July 28, 2002
Roberts is both a true seeker and a masterful writer. You owe it to yourself to check this one out.
That Sense of Place March 19, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Roberts absolute tenacity regarding his subjects and complete dedication to every word he writes ensures readers feel themselves present in every encounter and experience. Availing himself full range of expression to write and live as cynic, mystic, adventurer, good friend, and seeker, Roberts takes us on strolls through the beautiful, humor-filled, and the bazarre. His concept of displaying in this work varying perspectives between two different trips to India that are seperated by decades of time as well as personal growth offers readers great awareness of the country and more so the man writing of it.
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