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It's interesting that Adiga has written a review on Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" because in many ways White Tiger feels like some of the thoughts and ideas of Invisible Man applied to an ironic Indian "entrepreneur." It's a first person account (in this case written to a Chinese Minister) of how the White Tiger became an entrepreneur. Invisible Man wrestles with issues of race and politics in postwar Black America and ends up with an angry intellectual in a hyperilluminated basement room. This book ends (and I'm not giving anything away here) with a confident entrepreneur in a chandelier illuminated apartment that represents some kind of empowerment. The main character in White Tiger is similarly undefined in name, going by no name and then "Munna" (which means boy) until he comes up with a later name. He is born into a low caste family but has a strong desire to escape the lack of options and possibilities for someone of his caste. His family pays someone to teach him how to drive and he fortunately finds himself a driver who is eventually chosen to accompany a westernized son of a coal magnate to Delhi. To gain his utter freedom he chooses to murder his master and the book focuses on motivating why he chooses to murder his master, whom he clearly respects and put us as readers in his morally ambiguous shoes. Despite the heavyhanded foreshadowing by the narrator, the book is laugh out loud funny at times and we believe his account of an India whose lower classes are held in a "Rooster Coop".
Ultimately, I found the main character to be heroic despite the sometimes morally bankrupt nature of his decisions. He's clever. He learns. He understands the vice he is in and he is willing to do anything to overcome it. If we buy into his view, that a caste driven India dooms him to break coal for the rich, we understand better how he is willing to sacrifice family and values to build a better life for himself and gain the necessary freedoms to be an "entrepreneur".
As a story and as a plausible work, this book really works for me. I'm not sure it's Booker Prize worthy because I don't think this book rocks the foundations of literature. It does, however, introduce you to a particular character in India and make you see his world and wrestle with his feelings and choices. Those who know India better may be better qualified to question how believable this is and whether the westernizing influences and form of the novel compromise an authentically Indian voice.
I dug it and I give it 4.5 stars.
--SD
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"The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)" Feature
- ISBN13: 9781416562603
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
"The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)" Overview
Introducing a major literary talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen.
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.
Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.
Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.
Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation -- and a startling, provocative debut.
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