Name: The White Tiger
Rating: 3.704663212435233 (193 reviews)
ISBN: 9781416562597

Aravind Adiga

Relocating to New Delhi when he is offered a new job, Balram Halwai is disillusioned by the city's twenty-first-century materialism and technology-spawned violence, a circumstance that forces him to question his loyalties, ambitions, and past. A first novel. 75,000 first printing.

The White Tiger

Niyathiiii

A raw read. The truth about Indian democracy is explained to the point, for example The Rooster Coop. Need more authors to follow such format rather than sugarcoating the truth

When he relocates to New Delhi to take a new job, Balram Halwai is disillusioned by the city's materialism and technology-spawned violence, a circumstance that forces him to question his loyalties, ambitions, and past.

A Novel

ikkychan

Just finished reading "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga. This book is such a page turner i barely couldn't stop reading once i started. The story opens with a monologue from our titular protagonist, Munna, alias Balram, a.k.a The White Tiger, or Ashok Sharma, sending a heartfelt messages in his letter to a Chinese official Premier Jiabao, to welcome him and tell him a thing or two about essential India, particularly of their courageous spirit of entrepreneurship. He describes his rags-to-riches journey, right from the start where he grew up dirt poor in the rural village of Laxmangahr, all the way to where he is now, living the dream life of a successful businessman, complete with a chandelier in his spotless toilet in Bangalore. He paints his chronicle with a sense of dry and cynical jokes that at times i don't know how to react to his tale: to laugh or to cry. Because you see, all comedy is tragedy, if only you look deep enough into it. Well, you don't have to look that deep to gather the general idea of harsh life of India rural area, especially for a young child. The history of his life is the history of names, the series of aliases that were attached to him throughout his life. First, as Munna. Munna itself doesn't mean anything other than usual term for 'boy', reflecting how insignificant Munna's existence is, even to the point of lower than a water buffalo that his family keep in the house. He defined India as a two individuals: Light and Dark, not only as a demographical distinction but also served as economical gap between the rich and the poor. The poor, living in Darkness, are so desperate that they are willing to do almost anything to get out of crippling poverty and come into the Light. Simultaneously, the rich are so far removed from the plight of the poor that they become desensitized and corrupt. This social gap draws the internal conviction of Munna's character and reflected his motives in every part of his life. As he began to attend school, the teacher gave him 'Balram' as the new name so that he could register him as a student. With the newfound identity, Balram gain his sense of self bit by bit and grew more conscious of his surroundings. Growing up in Laxmangahr, one of many villages of the Darkness, he observes the behaviour of the people around him: his control freak grandma Kusum, his illiterate, rickshaw-driving father Vikram, his unresolved older brother Kishan and the many aunties in his household who care more for money than the well-being of the family, and the general dog-eat-dog way of life that everyone around him religiously demonstrating. Take his teacher, Mr. Krishna, for example. Believed the government didn't pay him enough to do his service in this rural, backwater school, he began protesting in earnest. But instead of sending open letter or went full-swing to the bureaucracy office, he did it in the most depraving, corrupted way possible by stealing government aid set aside for the poor student's uniform and lunch money while refusing to do anything productive in class other than napping and spitting into the classroom wall (how exemplary, don't you think?). However, contrary to popular moral judgement, Balram actually sympathized with Mr. Krishna. As someone who is equally desperate, he knows by heart that the only way to survive in the jungle of Darkness is to steal from others, even from those poorer than you. One day, a visiting school inspector was so impressed by Balram's academic promise and integrity that he gives him a new defining title: the "White Tiger", the most noble and intelligent animal in the jungle, as he perceived it most suited Balram's own disposition in the depraved school. Adapting to the newly discovered recognition, he developed a more superior identity as someone more special than others, and he believed he was destined for a better life, much compared to his peer. He reflected that all of the poor people in the Darkness live in a suppressed state, called as "The Rooster Coop". Much like the chicken which live in a dingy and suffocating small coop with utmost obedience only to be slaughtered one by one, India's poor people live in pretty much the same way as they were crushed day by day by the wealthy and powerful, defeated by the dehumanizing inequality of Indian society, unable to escape. Ironically, the poor actively upholding the social inequality alive by stopping each other from escaping the coop, either by willfully cutting each other down or by keeping silent as the rich have their way through a culture that makes them expect such abuse and servitude (like the way Balram's neighbor assured the Stork to hire Balram as the new servant at his house by noting the fact that they "know exactly where they live", in case Balram did something wrong, the Stork can hold his family as ransom). It was openly demonstrated by Kusum Halwai, Balram's grandmother, who got so used of living under the burden of such harsh abuse that she does not even aware of her own oppression and unconsciously brings her family down with her, like the time she commanded Balram to quit school and start working in the tea shop to help relieving the family debt resulting from his cousin's marriage. In the mind of young Balram, his grandma's decision betrayed his late father and mother's wishes to encourage him to pursue education and become the first person in the family to graduate school. As Kusum indirectly hindered Balram to achieve his adherence to the "White Tiger" purpose of life, his view of his family has became more and more sinister and ruthless. Entering an even more raucous stage of adulthood, Balram kept on inventing new ways to elevate the quality of his livelihood. According to Balram, one principal characteristic of an entrepreneur is his ability to repeatedly transform himself and reinventing his identity, not only in terms of profession, uniform and outward presentation but also his very individuality, in order to rise up in the world. This concept of versatility and fluid sense of self is best presented by his personal childhood hero Vijay, a pig farmer's son turned wealthy politician, who through hard work (and no doubt crude corruption) become the first man Balram had known to break out of the "Rooster Coop". Aspiring to be the next one, he started as a chauffeur to a son of the wealthiest man in Laxmangahr, who just came back from America, Mr. Ashok. This is also the most pivotal course of his lifetime, as he witness first-handed the wrongdoings of his filthy rich masters, who are corrupt and arrogant. He was exposed both to extreme poverty and fantastic wealth, Light and Darkness, as he maintains his servility in the spotless dwelling of his master and at the same time hang out with the other drivers who also came from the same region as he does: the Darkness. Balram's unique perspective uncovers immorality in the servant class as well as the master class, and thus further enhance his belief that immorality is justified as long as its action helps him get ahead in society. He started by revealing that his rival servant is a Moslem so that he could become the only chauffer available, then siphoning off gas for the car and taking the car to corrupt mechanic who overcharge and split the extra cost away, tracing any possible way to gain a sense of winning from his rich masters, no matter how petty it is. He then use the money for booze and prostitute despite threatening letters from Grandma Kusum, demanding him to send back his salary home. In this idle (but lucrative) routine, opportunity knocks in the form of a branded red bag containing seven hundred thousand rupees, originally prepared by Mr. Ashok to bribe corrupt politician from the ruling party to smoothen his coal business in Laxmangahr. Feverish both with excitement and dread, Balram contemplated this once-in-a-lifetime golden chance and drives him to commit the most atrocious crime of murdering his master and stealing his money to start a new life in Bangalore as his newest identity, the rich start-up businessman Mr. Ashok Sharma. Throughout the novel, Balram argues that the people of the Darkness has no choice but sacrifice everything, including attachment to traditional ideas of good versus bad and even one's family in order to break out of the chicken coop and make something out of themselves. Balram murdered, stole, and sacrificed his family. He then use the seven hundred thousand rupees to bribe the police and set up his new chauffeuring business in Bangalore, becoming a member of the upper class. In many a way, he is a carbon copy of his late master, symbolized in his adapting the name "Ashok". Once he come to be a part of the Light, he was presented with more freedom and choices, not only financially but also morally. When one of his driver, Mohammad Asif, accidentally killed a poor young boy on the job, Ashok Sharma was willing to compensate his family and admit responsibility to the crime, rendered him different than his former master who tried to pinned the similar crime that Pinky Madam, Mr. Ashok's wife committed, to Balram when he was still their driver. The stark difference of Balram's sense of moral ground when he was still a servant compared to the later part of his life accentuate the difference between the rich and the poor, essentially the part where it is the privilege of the wealthy to control the morality of the penniless. Social commentaries are often quite hard to digest, especially since they expose many of the negative, immoral aspects of society. Through Balram's life and his triumphant retelling of the murdering of his master, showing lack of repentance, Adiga paints a grim portrait of Indian society as this dog-eat-dog, one giant fierce competition where people are willing to harm each other in order to succeed. Brilliantly, his humour and wit has rendered this bleak tale easy to take.

Atharv Gupta

extremely thought provoking... very well written!

Eva Ströberg

I watched the film before I read the book and I'm impressed that the film didn't deviate much from the book and that the actors chosen for the film fit the characters in the book.

This book is very entertaining and it kept me glued to the pages, even when I read the book fully knowing what happened (after the film, of course) and that the fact that I read it in Danish (I only managed to reserve from the library). So five stars from here, especially if you like to read about India and the life over there.

Shape Mismatch

This book is all about the setting it portrays, the one which we inadvertently ignore because someone from our family made it out of the murk. The book, and a lot of movies/books create the assumption that most of the Indians were deep into murk, a swamp (the rooster's cage or something, Adiga calls it), four decades after independence and people have been trying to get out of it, by hook or by crook. It's this murk that the book describes by the means of an interesting character who waddles through it, and a barebone plot that guides the character and tries to keep the reader hooked. I find the plot, passable but the setting (this swamp) is nothing short of surreal. Personally, it's the description of the setting which kept me going ahead with the book. 

The tone of the book is a grim Indian noir (you know what I'm talking about, right? No? Go read this book right about now) which doesn't feel refreshing or original but fitting for the setting.

Rohit Arondekar

I haven't until this book read any fiction by Indian authors. I wanted to remedy this and so asked for recommendations of which I got plenty. I decided to start with The White Tiger because it is an award-winning book and a short read. I was a little suspicious at first mainly because of the dark theme. Once I got into the book, however, the story just flowed. The narrator is somebody you will care about and that drives the book. You want to know what he thinks, how he'll respond to the lemons life thrusts at him and how he eventually gets out of servitude. Even though it is a work of fiction I loved the commentary on society and life in India especially the relationship between a master and their servants. I'm glad I started with this book and can't wait to try more fiction by Indian authors.

This is one of my favourite books of all time. It is such a beautifully written, strong book. 

Aadya J 

Cristian Garcia

I heard about this book many moons ago and unfortunately, I never could find it on the Kindle store.
Over the weekend I spot it in a small book shop in Oxford and I got it straight away.
The White Tiger is a raw, dark story about what the unseen India is like. This is the story of a Bangalore entrepreneur who came out off a village in the middle of nowhere, drop out of school, became a driver, moved to Delhi with his master and...got his heart poisoned by the capital of India.
The book is a page turner, the life of Balram Halwai is complex yet simple. His mind is convoluted, ambitious, twisted, innocent and cold. All at once. The letters Balram writes the PM of China (the whole book is made out of the letters he writes) are absolutely raw and visceral; there's nothing hidden, nothing is really pretty and he pours his heart out here.
I read the book in 2 days and I wished the story was longer, more detailed, with a sequel. Something.
As a former inhabitant of India and Bangalore, I did not see this reality, but I sort of glimpse it thorough the people I met during my time there.
An amazing debut novel. Loved every page of it.

Arianna M

This book is undoubtedly well written, let no one tell you otherwise. It really makes you feel the struggle of the narrator - but I cannot say I liked it. The fact is, I hated the narrator, and his descriptions of the Ganga river made me almost throw up several times. I would've probably abandoned it if I didn't have to read it for school — it's good because I learnt something I wouldn't know in my everyday life without it, but it still felt like a punch in the stomach: which was probably the point of it all.
Maybe I just didn't like the narrator; maybe the descriptions were so vivid they made me feel sick; maybe the system made me feel sick, or all these at once: dear Mr. Aravind Adiga, you did a very good job with this book. Very good. Because I can smell the stench and feel the dirt of the Indian streets, its "paradises" and its smog-filled big cities, and never want to pick up your book again, but I won't forget about it.

Kate R

Someone might have to explain the ending of this one to me.

En indisk forretningsdrivende sender en række breve til den kinesiske præsident i anledning af dennes besøg i Bangalore, og i dem fortæller han om sit liv, der har formet sig som en både komisk, tragisk og amoralsk rejse ind i det nye teknologifikserede Indien

Stefanie Sugia

Review not available for now.
*Haven't got time to write one;
hopefully i will, someday.*

Trevor Berrett

I wasn't expecting a lot from this book, even though it was just longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. But it turned out to be one of my frontrunners for the prize.

For my complete review:

http://mookse.wordpress.com/2008/08/0...

SOON TO BE 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.

S.F.Moreira

 "Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of 7 days, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how we came to be a success in life - having nothing but his own wits to help him."

📖 After seeing the movie and reading " Last Man in Tower", I knew I had to read this one. And like the other, I had to take my time. We know from the beginning what is going to happen, so most of the time we are thinking maybe it will be now, but never is. This is an interesting idea to show the general public more about the rapid change that has happened to India's economy, how politics work, and how the caste system is in some places still applies. Adiga shows us how a "sweet-maker" transcends his caste and becomes an entrepreneur,  in a nation with a history of poverty and underdevelopment, he can represent the tomorrow of India. Or he could if he didn't murder someone.

While I loved the perspective around Indian society, I almost hated the main character. Balram, for me, is just an artificial and inconsistent character, and while humans can be both of these things, something just didn't add up for me. But I do recommend this book if you would love to see a new perspective on Indian society.

Shantesh Patil

A good read overall. The author tells us about India as it really is. The only weak aspect was the primary motivation behind the characters' one main action.

John Philpin

a view of india - that we in the west don't appreciate. maybe because we view the world a little too much through those rose coloured spectacles, blinkers or even ignore. There is a good humour - and later I will find a great quote from it.

About the Book : - Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008 Meet Balram Halwai, the 'white tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer Born in a village in the dark heart of India, the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram is taken out of school and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coal and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape. His big chance comes when a rich landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son, daughter-in-law, and their two Pomeranian dogs. From behind the wheels of a Honda, Balram sees Delhi and begins to see how the Tiger might escape his cage. For surely any successful man must spill a little blood on his way to the top' The White Tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balram's journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable.

The White Tiger Pb English

Amy Buckle

The White Tiger, also known as Balram Halwai, is an entrepreneur (and murderer) and this book is his story. Growing up in poverty, he works in a teashop and dreams of a better life with more money. An opportunity presents itself and he finds himself working as a chauffeur for a landlord. Once he starts this work, he’s exposed to a different side of India, one with more opportunity but also a seedy underbelly. But as he learns every day, if he takes advantage of this underbelly, he might be able to succeed and buy his ticket out of the life he was born into, but he may have to break the law along the way…

A big element of this book was the juxtaposition of the dark and the light. Especially towards the beginning of the novel, this dichotomy is one that Balram often mentions and one that helps the reader understand how he sees this divide in India. What he witnesses are two extremes – the poverty he was born into with schools in which the teacher was stealing the money, to the wealth of his boss and the regular shopping trips he and his wife indulge in. This class divide becomes the crux of this book and its story and I like how Adiga used his book to show this.

I listened to The White Tiger as a audiobook and while I don’t regret this decision, there are elements of this book I think I would have rather skimmed over than heard crudely spoke in my ear! The book’s main allure is its dark humour, but that often manifests itself in very visceral descriptions of things such as body parts and bodily fluids which is something I’d rather not dwell on! I do think however, this technique did help reinforce the poverty that Balram lives in – yes it’s not comfortable, but there are people living it every day.

As I listened to this as an audiobook, I feel less aware of specific quotes and writing, however, a line I wrote down as soon as I heard it was: “But to be called a murderer by the police, what a fucking joke.” This felt particularly poignant because the whole book deals so deeply with issues of class and injustice, and this sentiment not only can be applied to Balram’s story, but also to many occasions in real life. Police brutality is unfortunately very real and there’s a lot to be said for one man taking justice into his own hands, after all, isn’t that what law enforcement do every day? So why are they any more right than he is?

From banal traffic jams to repeatedly mentioning the 4 great poets (but always forgetting the last) there’s such a unique humour to Balram’s narration and one which is certainly not forgettable. This tone and humour was cemented even more for me by the audiobook narrator’s Indian accent which made The White Tiger even more immersive. If you’re looking for a book that’s unexpected and totally different, then read this and I promise you won’t be disappointed!

The White Tiger

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