The White Tiger (Atlantic Cult Classics)

by Aravind Adiga

Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master.

The White Tiger presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.

• ISBN10: 1843547201
• ISBN13: 9781843547204
• Publish Date: 1 March 2008
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Atlantic Books
• Edition: Main
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[gmcgregor]

I have a soft spot for books, like Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger, that tell you their big plot twist right up front. We know at the end of the first chapter that our narrator Balram, a former servant turned entrepreneur in India, killed his former master. What unfolds over the rest of the book is the story of why. It's the story of India in the modern day, a place of desperate poverty but also extravagant wealth, where ancient temples are just as much a part of life as smartphones. Balram is born into poverty in a rural area, and even though he seems destined to become a laborer, he resists the forces (including his family) that try to keep him in the underclass as long as he can. He finds himself a position as a driver for an upper-class landowner, and eventually moves with one of the landowner's sons to New Delhi to be his driver there.

New Delhi fundamentally changes both that son, Ashok, and Balram. Ashok has been educated in America, and treats his servants more or less like people. As he gets more and more sucked into the mire of his family's business (they're in the coal industry, and Ashok does a lot of running around with briefcases full of money to drop off with various politicians and officials), he becomes harder and harsher. When Balram is nearly forced to take the fall for a bad accident caused by Ashok's wife's drunk driving, Balram realizes that even as far as he's come from his roots, he's still not really safe. As long as he's poor and a servant, he'll always be expendable. But in order to get out of his situation, he needs money, and the money he has the easiest access to? Those briefcases that he's driving Ashok around with.

It's a dark satire, and after reading a lot of Serious Literature, I appreciated its wit and liveliness even more than I otherwise might have. But I would have enjoyed it no matter what. It's an epistolary novel (Balram writes to the prime minister of China, who is visiting India at the time, to explain India's entrepreneurial spirit), which allows it to skip around in time a little for maximum impact...we know that he's committed murder and gone on to start his own business, but how (and why) did he do it? How did he get away with it? What exactly does he do now? The organic tension propels the book forward without being too mysterious. Balram is an indelible character, and I really appreciated the way that Adiga developed Ashok as well, portraying his moral decay even though we only see him through Balram's eyes. It's a quick read that manages to be thought-provoking while still being entertaining.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

The White Tiger is the splendid debut and Man-Booker Prize winning novel by Aravind Adiga which gives the world a glimpse of the life of a servant in modern day India trying to escape the darkness and become free. The book covers the harsh truths of a modern global economy and its crushing effects on the working class. With themes ranging from poverty, religious tensions, families all the way to political and police corruption in this booming country.

The protagonist, Balram Halwai is a thinking man, an Entrepreneur, telling his story of escaping the darkness and coming to the light. I really love the analogy of been in the darkness (referring to being a part of the working class and living in the slums) and seeking the light (rich and well off). Balram become a driver for a wealthy business man in the coal industry where he learns about the ways of the world and the classes. Balram tries to be a good Indian, looking after his family, been a good servant, not drinking, praying to his gods. But slowly corruption seeps in and you can see Balram been effected by this new world around him as he slowly sinks into this world; while trying to escape pressures of been a servant.

This book has a mix of dark elements and comedy, continually provoking thought and insight into a world that is unknown to me. It also jammed back with phrases I’ve heard and not heard before while in my job as a technical support agent, for example I’ve heard the phrase ‘do the needful’ before but never outside of a support ticket that has been returned from a vendor in India, so it was weird and comforting to know that it is an actual phrase in India. I really enjoyed this book and while I may not read it again, it was defiantly worth the journey it took me on.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

The White Tiger is the life story of Balram Halwai living in modern day India and gives the reader an account of his life on how he became a successful entrepreneur by lying, cheating and even killing his way to the top. While this sounds like this would be drama driven book, which it is to some extent, The White Tiger keeps you reading even though you know from the back cover that Balram eventually kills his employer, he is a driver for a wealthy family. Personally, I consider this book to be a dramady as even though there is a tragedy around the corner, Aravind Adiga still has you laughing at little wittisms and descriptions of everyday life in India told through the eyes of a working class citizen.