The White Tiger: A Novel

Aravind Adiga

Apr 2008 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

The stunning Booker Prize–winning novel from the author of Amnesty and Selection Day that critics have likened to Richard Wright’s Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India’s caste society. “This is the authentic voice of the Third World, like you've never heard it before” (John Burdett, Bangkok 8).

The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.

Recalling The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, The White Tiger is 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.

Ratings and reviews

Contains all ingredients for a book on India for non-Indians. Flat characters, stereo-typical 'Indian' scenes, and a string of unbelievable or unconvincingly presented incidents. The lead character is almost a joke - tries to be everything for the reader. Also likes the feeling of being closer to books... Take a 'modern India' plot, mix contemporary scenes and colors, create situations which are novel yet not too disturbing for a 'sophisticated' reader, create characters which are billboard quality in depth, add some cute and interesting observations based on access level, and of course, talk of Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai... Adiga might write a good book. We need to wait.

A fascinating insight into the desperate survival choices that impoverished Indians make behind the affluence of India's rising stars. We must of course remind ourselves that "The plural of anecdote is not data." (Roger Brinner) and explicitly imaginary anecdotes at that. Nevertheless, we find it hard to resist the power of the story to stand as an explanation for what we then subsequently read in the news. Novels are indeed one of the powerful shaping forces behind our world view and philosophy. A passionate and exiciting read.

On 14 October 2008, the Booker Committee announced in London that Aravind Adiga will get the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, ‘The White Tiger’. The writer, Aravind Adiga claims in an interview: “At a time, when India is going through great changes and with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society.” He added that criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens in the 19th century helped England and France become better societies [1] In a single breath, Adiga takes upon his young self the huge responsibility of highlighting all the ‘brutal injustices’ of India, while feeling proud enough to compare himself with Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens. One should be cautious while making self-comparisons with great personalities. Dickens wrote about London and English society as it was. Almost all his characters from David Copperfield to Oliver Twist have an autobiographical ring. Adiga is thrice removed from the society and events he talks about in his book. Born in metropolitan Chennai, educated in Australia, the UK, and the US, he has nothing in common with his protagonist, Balram, a ‘low-caste’ driver from Bihar. This un-authenticity of narrative doesn’t bother Adiga. Indeed, he thinks it is a duty of a writer to go beyond his own experience; to take a leap beyond reality; to plunge into pure fantasy. He believes in writing by remote-sensing. “I don’t think a novelist should just write about his own experience. Yes, I am the son of a doctor. Yes, I had a rigorous formal education, but for me the challenge as a novelist is to write about people who aren’t anything like me.” [2] Dickens’ works are not a judgment on English society. His worldview evolves in his works. If we put them chronologically, we can see the intellectual development of Dickens, an observant mind becoming mature. Evolution vs. Ideological Revelation What we see in Adiga is not natural evolution, but sudden ideological revelation. He is not trying to learn anything. He knows it all. The ideas are pre-arranged. In the absence of cultural roots, he has ideology to guide him - Secularism. Fantasy and remote-sensing makes up for reality. Worn-out formula-writing replaces creativity. Adiga has hitched his wagon to a star – the star called Secularism in Indian heavens. It is THE Ideology. Flaubert, the other writer Adiga compares himself with, is as distant from him as possible. Madame Bovary is a psychological drama of an individual, not a statement about French society, while Salambo is a purely artistic venture recapturing a remote event of history. No one who has read even a single work of Flaubert dares to compare him with any writer with a social agenda. It appears that Adiga just threw some random names of writers while being interviewed, without probably having read them. Balzac is a different story. Again, Adiga has nothing in common with Balzac in the style and grasp of subject matter. Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. So-called progressive writers in India are fond of comparing themselves with great realistic writers like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, Dickens, Flaubert, Balzac etc as they think Indian society is in eternal need of a Bolshevik-style revolution. Taking realism as the most abject form of self-denigration, Indian writers harp on ‘social injustices’ and feel proud positioning themselves amongst great writers. Poverty of Style On the level of language too, Adiga falls far too short. The style of narration doesn’t match the projected aim to point out the ‘brutal injustices’ of Indian society. His style takes him nearer to the post-modern writing while his aim is as ambitious as of a Communist ideologue. For this purpose Adiga inserts some of the most famous secular slogans in Balram’s speeches, but his narration being post-modern, is personal and individualistic. Adiga betrays

About the author

Aravind Adiga was born in India in 1974 and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. He is the author of the novels Amnesty; Selection Day, now a series on Netflix; The White Tiger, which won the Man Booker Prize; and the story collection Between the Assassinations. He lives in Mumbai, India.