The White Tiger

Our hero, Balram (he goes by a couple other names too) found his way out of the handcuffs of caste, but I don't recommend his methods.

The story is told in the form of a letter Balram writes to the Chinese Premier in which he details his climb from being the son of a kind and loving rickshaw driver to being a successful Bangalore entrepreneur. This gives a whole new dimension to the concept of startup mindset. Be prepared to embrace moral relativism. At turns laugh out loud funny and chest-tightengly tragic, and sometimes both of those things simultaneously, this is an unvarnished look at 21st-century India.

It is hard to write good satire, but Adiga nails it. There are some pacing issues in the middle. This is not an overlong book but show more Adiga spends too long with Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam in my opinion. I got tired of the same fight, the same tension between Indians in India and in the US. I liked the storyline but a trim would have improved the flow. Still a very worthy read. show less

Balram Halwai rises from truly abject poverty to be a driver and general servant to a very wealthy man. He desperately wants to escape from this prison of servitude, but doesn't quite see how to manage it. After years of observing the actions of his "betters", he learns how to effect his escape, and becomes an entrepreneur.

Adiga brings the contradictions of Indian society to vivid life. Although there's a lot of anger in this book, there's also compassion for the Indians trapped by their society and government, no matter what their level of of wealth or social status. An amazing plus to this sad story is that it's also full of humor, some of it laugh-out-loud funny.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone.

Written so simply and dynamically that you could be fooled into thinking that the story is just the ravings of a mad antihero. Instead, this surprisingly fast and powerful read manages to dissect the complex inner workings of the socio-political system in India, and expose its hypocrisies through extreme juxtaposition.

What fascinated me the most was the master-servant relationship between the weak US-educated Ashok and the barely-educated but wily Balram. They're both trapped and struggling against their caste system, trying to not let it define them yet perhaps also finding comfort in the confinement of their respective cages.

The novel is full of small blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenes where the casual acceptance/snubs and reminders of show more the caste system rear its classist head. The most poignant scene for me was when Ashok misunderstood Balram's reticence in asking a question as request to get married and gets out his wallet, unprompted, to give him money and visibly lowers the amount that his initial generosity was going to give Balram. show less

This winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize was a real surprise for me. I understand that this book was Aravind Adiga's first book, and it is a masterpiece in the satire genre. It's fresh, hilarious and very different, with one of the most likeable narrators you'll ever meet--Balram Halwai introduces himself in his letters to the Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, as an entrepreneur and then proceeds to tell him of his rise from a poor boy in a very poor village in northern India, and how he made his rise to be a gentleman of substance in Bangalore. We never hear about Mr. Jiabao's reaction to these letters, or if he even received them, but we do learn all about Balram's remarkable life. Balram spares no punches as he describes the show more grubby and corrupt underground of his country, and the depravities that people of power partake in. He also doesn't shy away from explaining how he, a poor Indian boy from a small village, made it to the big time in Bangalore, and how he stopped at nothing to get there. The main force that drove him was that he did not want to be a servant all his life. The narrative is outlandish, irreverent and unsparing in his descriptions of the injustices that he observes and endures. But it also heartwarming and endearing as we see all sides of Balram. It certainly describes a lot about India and its politics and religions. And illustrates how a quest for power can change a human being. The language and the satire are exquisite in this book. A brilliant tour-de-force. show less

Utterly savage tale, bitterly funny and utterly horrifying. A portrait of India corrupt and superstitious and stricken with poverty while oceans of money pour in through American outsourcing and Chinese investment. The filth and the squalour permeates every level, from the backward village where our anti-hero is born to the glamorous suites of the wealthy where he labours as a servant and finally breaks free in a deliberate act of violence. Fast-paced, sharply written with a precision of language and a cheerfulness of tone that belies the ugliness of the mess it depicts. It's essentially a crime novel: Jim Thompson or Donald E Westlake might have written something vaguely along these lines. It's superbly written, though I don't suppose show more that in itself would be enough to catch the eye of Booker judges. I suppose the social portrait of class and servitude set against the backdrop of high-tech capitalism in a teeming post-colonial setting attracted the attention, and it's hard to argue with that. The philosophical digressions probably didn't hurt either. Anyway, cracking, terrifying, angering read. Post-colonial, post-boom Ireland don't have it nearly so bad as some. show less

The main character was called Munna by his father, which meant "boy," and given no other name. Using a series of letters to the Chinese Premier-- speaking as an equal, maybe even a friend-- he tells the story of rising from a poor servant to a rich entrepreneur in modern India. The voice is compelling, the story absorbing, and even as he does terrible things you can't help but understand... a little. Both playful and deadly serious, he illuminates injustice in India, how it can change, and why it won't change. It's entertaining and enlightening. This may be the best novel I've read this year.

This is a really funny book that was even better on audio than I imagine it would be in print. It's the self-narrated story of Balram in a series of letters written to the Chinese Premier about how he rose from the slums of India to be an entrepreneur. His observations about life as a poor man in India are irreverent and hilarious but also pretty revealing.

This book is a little out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed it, especially as an audiobook. Its dark humor makes some uncomfortable topics bearable but doesn't gloss over the dark side of life in India's rigid caste system.

Thanks to Nickelini for picking this book off my shelf for me to read this year when I asked!