|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 frightening, evocative, but not very sympathetic Nov 21, 2009
A good friend recommended this strongly, and it won the 2008 Booker Prize, so I gave it a try. The Booker committee said "Balram's journey from darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable." I agree with 1, 2, maybe 4, and 3 if you take off the "deeply" and even then only reluctantly.
The protagonist - Balram - is some kind of entrepreneur who is writing letters to the premier of China to tell him about the true India. Balram tells of his rise from poor village boy to tea shop worker to ... well, I won't give too much away. But Balram does not allow himself to be bound by traditional norms of morality around, say, killing. And other stuff. The power in the novel is demonstrating how poverty can breed an amorality that is chaotic and frightening. But I only came to find the protagonist sympathetic towards the very end, up until which I merely found him offputting (and scary). I don't think, if I were to turn back time, that I would read it again.
Note on content: I don't remember reading a book with more f-words. There is violence. There is significant sex talk. This is a dark world of crushing poverty and desperation.
An alllegory Nov 20, 2009
This is a very good book that I describe as an allegory for the vast corruption, and difficulty of living a productive, honest life in India and in much of the developing world. The author is quite angry and does a good job of describing these problems through the fictional character who is the protagonist for the tale.
 didn't love... Nov 18, 2009
I usually don't write reviews, but since I use other reviews to base my opinion on buying a book- I thought I better write one. I loved Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I loved The Help and since those led me to buy The White Tiger- I wanted to warn people. Simply said- this wasn't my type of book.
It is more a statement on India with a lot of symbolism etc.. it isn't an awful book- it just feels like a book that would go along with a classroom discussion and not a page turner like the first two books I mentioned. I never liked the characters or the story much at all and wouldn't give this book a good rating. It is only ok. With so many books out there to read and buy I would pick another...
 Stark and Dark Nov 05, 2009
Amazingly stark description of India. Written in a very different format it explores the corruption and class based society still prevalent in India. Very much like a book version of Slumdog Millionaire - leaves you with sadness about the struggles of the common man in India.
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Punching the Fluffy Black Ogre Oct 25, 2009
Aravind Adiga was born in Madras in 1974. Although he has written for Time Magazine, and has had articles printed in the Independent and the Sunday Times, "The White Tiger" is his debut novel. Impressively for a debut, it won the Man Booker Prize in 2008.
The book takes the form of a letter - dictated by Balram Halwai over seven nights, and intended for the desk of China's Premier, Wen Jiabao. Premier Jiabao, apparently, wants to discover the truth about Bangalore and meet some genuine Indian entrepreneurs. As Balram believes he ticks both boxes, he figures he can help the Premier out. However, since his firm won't figure on the politicians' lists, he decides to contact the Premier's office directly. His plan is simple : by telling the Premier his own life story, the Premier will learn the truth about Bangalore. While he admits to being somewhat lacking in his education, he seems convinced that his methods are the way forward and believes the 21st Century will be the Century of the Yellow and the Brown Man.
Balram's life hasn't been entirely easy : he was born into poverty, in Laxmangarh - a one street village with no sanitation, no electricity, broken water taps and where the most important family member was the water buffalo. People from the lowest classes are expected to serve their masters with absolute devotion and loyalty and, in return, are abused and blamed. Corruption and bribery are widespread, with (naturally) only the rich and the powerful benefitting. Laxmangarh had four exceptionally rich landlords : the Stork, the Buffalo, the Raven and the Wild Boar - and they taxed the villagers according to their livelihoods. Balram's father, Vickram, was a rickshaw driver and he had to pay the Buffalo for using the roads. However, it's the Stork's family who have the greatest impact on Balram's life.
Balram has had several names over his lifetime. He was originally called "Munna" at home, but - as Munna means "boy" - it was his schoolteacher that chose Balram as his "official" name. The book's title, "The White Tiger", also refers to Balram - it was something of a nickname for Balram, chosen by a school inspector. A white tiger is something special, something that only comes along once every generation. Although Balram's education was incomplete, he had been the best reader and writer in his class. The inspector figured Balram was an intelligent, honest, vivacious fellow" surrounded by a "crowd of thugs and idiots." Given that - by the end of the book's first chapter - Balram has admitted to cutting his boss' throat and stealing a bag of cash, his honesty obviously didn't last. In fact, while he introduced himself to the Premier as one of Bangalore's most successful but least known businessmen, that claim wasn't entirely true. Three years before the book opens, his wanted poster had been pasted the length and breadth of India.
Overall, "The White Tiger" is certainly worth reading...it just wasn't quite the book I'd hoped for. If it was good enough to win the Booker Prize, I honestly can't understand why Kazuo Ishiguro has only won it once. (I thought "Never Le Me Go", especially - which was shortlisted in 2005 - was much better than this).
|
| |
|
![Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V%2Beipy8-L._SL75_.jpg "Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]")
![Across the Universe [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T24FuHPEL._SL75_.jpg "Across the Universe [Blu-ray]")
![Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F27VzUl%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]")
![Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RQUEopdlL._SL75_.jpg "Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]")
