The book is as rare as the name it mentions. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. I had the opportunity to read this book when I was travelling for my master’s from New Delhi to Chennai. Recently, I watched the same book’s movie adaptation. I will admit that the movie left me feeling underwhelmed, so I decided to revisit the classic instead.
It is the story of our protagonist? Balram halwai! A man born out of muddy homes, big families, and underprivileged poverty. This son of a poor Rickshawalah makes a way out while sacrificing his ancestry. A character so well-crafted that we as readers struggle to relate yet want him to succeed.
The story begins when Balram Halwai writes a letter to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, describing his story with complete reality. He refers to his ancestry and surroundings as “the darkness,” and he was seeking light. His journey from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, to a self-proclaimed Bangalore entrepreneur, is full of “darkness,” yet you see a light when he cares dearly for his nephew.
The book has everything: satire, love, inequality, casteism, classism, poverty, illiteracy, bureaucracy, emotions, and yes, even “action,” yet it is about neither. It is about the mean-spirited, naive character and his observations, struggles, and the unbridled fervour.
The book keeps surprising you when you least expect it. It keeps you on the edge till the end. The novel left me wanting to know more about his life in the shadows.
One can hardly imagine a book about a poor man’s struggle can attract international readers but Adiga managed to achieve it. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
I am taking away one star because I felt the story could have taken a more elaborate take on his early life.
The End
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