Minutes May Book: The White Tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

(Chosen by T-Rex)

T-Rex chose this book because it attracted her attention when it won the Man Booker Prize in 2008, and she then watched it sitting in the bestseller lists for weeks.

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) in 1974 . He grew up in Mangalore and studied at Canara High School, then at St. Aloysius High School. After emigrating to Sydney, Australia, with his family, he studied at James Ruse Agricultural High School. He studied English literature at Columbia College, Columbia University in New York, and also studied at Magdalen College, Oxford

Adiga began his journalistic career as a financial journalist, interning at the Financial Times. He was subsequently hired by TIME, where he remained a South Asia correspondent for three years before going freelance. During his freelance period, he wrote The White Tiger. He currently lives in Mumbai, India.

The White Tiger is his debut novel and won the 2008 Booker Prize. He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the prize, after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai.

(general biographical detail from Wikipedia)

What the publisher says about the book:

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.

What we discussed about the book:

• Is this a political book? Can a book which deals with issues of class and society be anything but political?
• Is this a particularly insightful book for a writer of such a young age (he is in his 30s)
• The impact of the writing about the water of the Ganges. The way in which the writing evoked response on a number of levels.
• The use of the rooster analogy throughout the book. What was the purpose and effect?
• The issue of the disrespect Balram showed his family - is this credible? Was it that he needed to show this disrespect and lack of tradition in order for his story to work? Was he the only one who would have done so?
• What we thought has happened to his family in the end.
• Did Balram have a conscience?
• Did the language within the book change as he challenged the status quo...in what ways did the language create a sense of chaos and disruption?
• In what ways did the device of using the letters to the Chairman to tell the story influence the language used?
• Comparing the method of dealing with Miss Pinky's driving accident and that of Balram's employee later in the book - what did that tell us about each group's values and behaviour?
• Did the end justify the means? If Balram had just stolen the money but not killed, would that have been acceptable? Where do we draw the lines on behaviour?
• Did Ashok get corrupted by his environment?
• What did Balram mean when he said the power of the world would be in the browns and the yellows? Do what extent is this true?

And then we were sidetracked into:

• Does a power imbalance corrupt even the best of intentions?
• Are the Indian domestic classes "invisible"? (i.e. mentions in the book of them standing against the wall, almost unseen etc)
• Democracy vs communism...is there ever a possibility of a perfect society? In what ways do human foibles undermine any attempts?
• Would we prefer to be poor in India, or poor in China?
• CH's experience of reading this book while on holiday in India and her experience of seeing a country consisting of of two worlds.
• Did Slumdog Millionaire glamorise India?
• How is it possible within any society for 1 percent of the population to force the remaining 99 per cent to live in servitude?
• Tensions in developing nations between a rapidly rising middle class and the working class supporting them.
• Is the vitilago that is mentioned often in the book the same condition Michael Jackson claims to have?

And in other news we discussed:

• Whether judges and lawyers found guilty of criminal charges should face a greater sentence than the average man/woman.
• The blinging flash from the bling across the room, as we celebrated T-Rex's impending marriage.
• Should you be charged extra for a blow dry when you get your hair cut?
• Clothing manufacturing sweatshops. How do you know whether retailers are using suppliers who have sweatshops or not?
• The price of jeans. Are comfort and price inversely proportional?
• How amazing it was to have an ABSOLUTE FULL HOUSE at bookclub - possibly for the first time in around nine years. And not only that, everyone had read AND finished the book. Gold stars all round!

Ratings:

Ratings range: 8 to 9

Ratings average: 8.45

Next book: The Slap by Christos Tsoilkas (chosen by Domestic Goddess)