Book Number: 05
Book Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Publisher: March 1st 2008 by HarperCollins Publishers India a joint venture with The India Today Group
Category: Fiction, Indian
Binding: Hardcover, 321 pages
Date of completion: 15th December, 2008.
Short description / Book summary (www.goodreads.com): Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer. Over the course of seven nights, but the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells his story...
Born in a village in the dark heart of India, the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coal and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape - of breaking away from the banks of Mother Ganga, into whose murky depts have seeped the remains of a hundred generations.
His big chance comes when a rich village landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son, daughter-in-law, and their two Pomeranian dogs. From behind the wheel of a Honda, Balram first sees Delhi. The city is a revelation. Amid the cockroaches and call-centres, the 36,000,004 gods, the slums, the shopping malls and the crippling traffic jams, Balram's re-education begins. Caught between his instinct to be a loyal son and servant, and his desire to better himself, he learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. As the other servant flick through the pages of Murder Weekly, Balram begins to see how the Tiger might escape his cage. For surely any successful man must spill a little blood on his way on top?
The White Tiger is a tale of two Indians. Balram's journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable.
My Thoughts: The book introduces the utterly refreshing theme of modern India and all its flaws for generations of future writers to try and mimic in the years ahead. The White Tiger touches upon almost all the things that make up the country so to speak.
The book is gripping and clear, forming perfect scenes in the head with its crisp imagery and chilling sense of humour. The book tells the truth in every way, in a manner to make you sit up straight and attempt to change your ways.
The story of the protagonist is extremely familiar, that which can be weaved into many lives of Indians today. Through the book, his struggles become the reader's struggles, his faith becomes the reader's faith and his success becomes the dream of millions of others like him.
I don't know if it deserved the Booker, but it's a great read nonetheless.
Characters: Balram Halwai, Mr. Ashok, Pinky Madam, Kishan, Mongoose, Buffalo, Kusum, Dharam, driver with the diseased lips
My rating of the book: ****
Next read: Septimus Heap Book Three: Physik - Angie Sage
Jumpman Rule #1: Don't touch anything - James Valentine
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