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The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga

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What Members Thought

Aug 11, 2013 Lilisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, around-the-world-2016-lilisa-s-chal, favorites, audio-read, india, booker

I had passed on this book several times - it didn’t seem to grab me, until my brother-in-law convinced me to read it — and I’m glad he did! Amazingly riveting, I couldn’t stop listening to it - what a compelling story Aravind Adiger has created about the life and times in India - the struggles of those trying to climb out of poverty and make it, and the rich who work hand in hand with corrupt politicians to keep the wheels of corruption turning. So how does Balram, a lowly servant from the villa ...more

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May 22, 2019 Ankit Agrawal rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, contemporary, armchair-travels-2019-challenge

After having read many of the reviews for this book before picking it up, the main thing people criticised was that Aravind Adiga has put many negative shades of India in this book. But none of the reviews was convincing enough for me to say that the people who criticised this aspect could genuinely say that whatever Adiga has said in this book is untrue to what actually happens in India. This is the main problem with us Indians, we only like the people who do the talk and not the one's who do t After having read many of the reviews for this book before picking it up, the main thing people criticised was that Aravind Adiga has put many negative shades of India in this book. But none of the reviews was convincing enough for me to say that the people who criticised this aspect could genuinely say that whatever Adiga has said in this book is untrue to what actually happens in India. This is the main problem with us Indians, we only like the people who do the talk and not the one's who do the walk. In India, It only maters what you say, Not what you do.

The White Tiger is a brutally honest and grim look at 21st Century India, stuck in the mire of a corrupt, cynical, unjust past and debauching and slaughtering its way into a corrupt and cynical future. It paints a bleak picture, offering little optimism for an India that will be any cleaner, fairer or more humane than the India it is replacing.

The book takes you through a tale of the class difference in India narrated by a small village man called Balram Singh. On it's way it also exposes the many corrupt a man becomes a successful entrepreneur and once he's achieved that objective how he can just rule anything by showing cash. For example: (view spoiler)

Class difference and corruption and injustice isn't the only thing though. This book also highlights how much the difference there is between the Modern India (which is the big cities) and the traditional India (the small cities, towns and especially villages). How almost no development whether it be education, facilities, infrastructure, roads, sewage, employment, business etc...is happening in these parts of India, whereas the fake and modern India is just developing every day. The difference is so stark it's like living in two different universes. This is something the Government of India should look at but it doesn't. Instead we live in a totalitarian world.

"Apparently, sir you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, ‘’does’’ have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneurs—"we" entrepreneurs—have set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now."

“Please understand your excellency, that India is two countries in one; an India of Light and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings life to my country, every place on the map of India near the ocean is well-off, but river brings the Darkness to India-The black river.”

I liked the fact that there was no real hero in this book. There are no winners in a society like this. This book is engrossing, shocking, humbling and eye-opening but it is narrated in such a way that there were laugh-out-load moments too. Any foreigner who wants to know the real India, and not dwell on the falsely portrayed picture of India, should read this book. Antidote for the pastel lyricism of most mainstream narratives coming out of India to make a fake grandeur of India around the world and a wonderful social satire with savage bit.

The reason I don't give it 5 stars is because the narrator and protagonist is weak and unconvincing. I could not really recognize, Balram as someone who was from the region of darkness and deprived. Like many other readers, I also found his voice and tone superfluous. And it's not just the protagonist's character which is unconvincing, you can pick any of the 5-6 characters in the book and they will all give you the same feeling. That's where this book lacked the punch. The character development is poor and you feel no apathy towards any character.

Still I would say it's a must read for anyone who wants to confront "The Real India" ...more

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