Author: Aravind Adiga
Publisher: Free Press
Set in a raw and unromanticized India, The White Tiger—the first-person confession of a murderer—is as compelling for its subject matter as it is for the voice of its narrator: amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.
I chose this book for monthly
keyword reading challenge. The requirement of January is to read a book which
title contains the word
winter/snow/silver/white/cold/shiver/smoke/fire/freeze/breath. I chose this book
randomly so I didn’t know what this book is about. Turns out this book is
mainly about poverty in India. Reading this book makes me feel grateful that I live
in my country.
The White Tiger is a story about
a man’s journey from Darkness into Light. In India, caste is a strict tradition
that sometimes makes people there don’t really have a choice in life. But,
Balram Halwai makes his own choice to break away from the rooster coop of
Darkness. He became a successful entrepreneur after killing his master and took
his master’s money.
This
book is written in epistolary form. It’s narrated as letters which addressed to
the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao. Balram tell the story in a humorous and
sarcastic way. Sometimes he makes a point of ironies that happen in India too.
See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of? Losing weight and looking like the poor.
The white tiger that’s in the
title refers to the main protagonist, Balram. He calls himself as the white
tiger after an inspector in his school called him so, and that was happen
before he dropped out from school.
In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals—the creature that comes along only once in a generation? The White Tiger.
Balram really makes his way into
the Light. There’s a price to pay for his success escaping the Darkness.
Situation and condition corrupt him until he decides to take a man’s life so he
can break away. This book makes me do a lot of thinking. I give 5 out of 5 for
the White Tiger.
Sounds like an interesting read. Might have to add it to my ever growing list...
ReplyDeleteVisiting from the monthly keyword challenge link-up. I have heard good things about this book and I'll add it to my list for the ARound the World in 80 books challenge I am doing as well.
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