KDP and Shantaram

Fermented horse's milk is not all it's cracked up to be, according to KDP, the Kazakh Desert Princess, in a letter brought this morning by a virtual rider on a digital camel. KDP has now returned to Shymkent, Kazakhstan after spending two weeks with her sister D.C. Niecie in Beijing. So what did she have to talk about? Chinese food, of course -- the Peking Duck in one place and the fermented red bean paste in another and the Texas BBQ and Guinness (!) in a third. Apparently, the girl is 'way over greasy meat and no veggies.

After eating her height and weight in China, KDP is back to her current reality. These long stays in foreign lands are never easy, and by now the novelty has probably worn off for her, so the longer, tougher part has begun. Plottie wishes he could bring her a carne asada taco and arugula salad.

Meanwhile, Plotnik finally finished Shantaram, 1000 pages after the adventure began. It's one of those unforgettable masterpieces an author only does once, and even this one, as good as it was, dragged towards the end, which it seemed like the author maybe added on, after he had his book deal and was being told to keep it going, to create more characters and adventures for the movie.

But wow, what a tale. Supposedly the first 600 pages the author wrote were destroyed in prison when he was recaptured after the events of this story ended. He served nine years and is now released, living in Bombay and, yes, working on another book.

Plotnik has never read anything like it and recommends Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts to everyone. Mummy P. is reading it on tape now and, amazingly, with all the violence, she loves it too.