book review
Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
# of Pages: 304
Summary (from amazon.com): In this darkly comic début novel set in India, Balram, a chauffeur, murders his employer, justifying his crime as the act of a "social entrepreneur." In a series of letters to the Premier of China, in anticipation of the leader’s upcoming visit to Balram’s homeland, the chauffeur recounts his transformation from an honest, hardworking boy growing up in "the Darkness"-those areas of rural India where education and electricity are equally scarce, and where villagers banter about local elections "like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra"-to a determined killer. He places the blame for his rage squarely on the avarice of the Indian élite, among whom bribes are commonplace, and who perpetuate a system in which many are sacrificed to the whims of a few. Adiga’s message isn’t subtle or novel, but Balram’s appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling.
Now Reading: Not quite sure what to expect from this book, I was surprised not only how I was so taken in by the story, but also completely unaware of how the story I was reading was going to play out. It starts as a letter to the Premier of China, we learn that the narrator is an entrepreneur, former driver, and a murderer on the run. What follows is a well written and intricate tale of class, status, cunning, and the politics of 'two India's'. The author is both witty and introspective without losing the grittiness of the setting. I love stories set in either China or India, so this was a pleasant surprise by a new author to me.
Now Reading: The Magicians by Lev Grossman
x-posted to books