The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga was a winner if the Man Booker Prize in 2008 but I bought it because I like reading books set in India. It's a little over 300 pages in paperback and the story keeps you going back for more.
The book is split into eight parts, basically each part represents a night over a period of week (the Sixth day is split into day and night, hence eight parts). Written in the first person by a man who has had many names. As a child born in the Darkness his parents never got around to naming him and he was just called Munna, meaning boy. Now known as The White Tiger he is writing to His Excellency Wen Jiabao, Premier of Beijing who has been invited to visit Bangalore and wants to let the Premier know what India is really like as opposed to what he will be shown on his visit and from the glossy tourist leaflets. As it is written like a letter the narrator speaks directly to the reader. In these nightly letters he pours out his story to Mr Jiabao of hopes dashed, the poverty, the feeling of being in a chicken coop, of being a yes man, being pulled out of education and shunted around as the family saw fit, the corruption of government and employers and people's need to survive. The White Tiger sees an opportunity to escape but to do so he has to do something most terrible.
The character comes through everything to make his own start-up business, as he calls it, by the same means as every other employer in India. Yet he has a conscience and does right by his staff. All the while there is the possibility that his past will catch up with him but as a reader it was good to see he make it.
The book really shows the life blood of India, the poor set against the rich and the lack of choices those at the bottom of the pile have. The story is told well and with humour. I couldn't put it down for long.
The book is split into eight parts, basically each part represents a night over a period of week (the Sixth day is split into day and night, hence eight parts). Written in the first person by a man who has had many names. As a child born in the Darkness his parents never got around to naming him and he was just called Munna, meaning boy. Now known as The White Tiger he is writing to His Excellency Wen Jiabao, Premier of Beijing who has been invited to visit Bangalore and wants to let the Premier know what India is really like as opposed to what he will be shown on his visit and from the glossy tourist leaflets. As it is written like a letter the narrator speaks directly to the reader. In these nightly letters he pours out his story to Mr Jiabao of hopes dashed, the poverty, the feeling of being in a chicken coop, of being a yes man, being pulled out of education and shunted around as the family saw fit, the corruption of government and employers and people's need to survive. The White Tiger sees an opportunity to escape but to do so he has to do something most terrible.
The character comes through everything to make his own start-up business, as he calls it, by the same means as every other employer in India. Yet he has a conscience and does right by his staff. All the while there is the possibility that his past will catch up with him but as a reader it was good to see he make it.
The book really shows the life blood of India, the poor set against the rich and the lack of choices those at the bottom of the pile have. The story is told well and with humour. I couldn't put it down for long.
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