It is only fitting that the novel which (momentarily) took me out of a reading slump was one of the less appreciated winners of the Booker prize (2008). Who cares though, I loved it. “The story of a poor man's life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.”Prompted by the Chinese Premier’s visit to India, Balram Halwai decides to write a (very) long letter to the politician, in which he shares his success story. Somewhere in the beginning, he confesses that he was an entrepreneur. “Apparently, sir...

No country and human being in this world are perfect. There are negatives in every country and its people, and it should be criticized. I am happy that the author, who happens to be an Indian by birth, was brave enough to criticize some of these in this book. But there is a big difference between criticism and outright lambasting. If you are a patriotic Indian, there is a high probability that this book will permanently damage your feelings.The amount of grandiosity that the protagonist possesse...

- ما اروع ترجمتك يا "سهيل نجم"، لو غيرنا الأسماء (المدن والناس) الى اسماء عربية لكان من المستحيل على احد ان يعرف انها ترجمة لنص آخر (بعض الكتّاب المشهورين فعلوا ذلك بالمناسبة وافتضح امرهم لاحقاً).. ترجمة مقتدرة.- الرواية... الفقر يتكلم من جديد، وهذه المرة من الهند... نوع جديد، يتشابه مع فقرنا العربي، لكن لديه مميزاته الخاصة تبعاً لتقاليد مجتمع لا تشبه تقاليدنا، لكن الرابط المشترك يبقى حاضراً في الأمعاء الخاوية والذل!!!- يعرض الكاتب بسخرية جميلة، لاذعة في اماكن وتهكمية في اماكن اخرى، قصة طفل من ا...

I'm not sure what I expected going into this book but it wasn't really this. The book was very tongue in cheek and I could completely sympathize with our narrator even at the end. The idealistic part of me was a little horrified and upset by a lot of it but I think it's pretty realistic and really made me think about the servant/master dynamic in a way I hadn't considered before. I'm just torn about whether to rate it four stars or five because the ending felt a little anticlimactic but at the s...

The "White Tiger of Bangalore" is cunning, fast, intrepid-- the perfect symbol for this perfect novel that reminds the reader of characters like Scarface & friends-- Antiheroes all. Adiga's yarn is utterly engrossing; it's a mystery unraveled in the purest tradition of classic storytelling. It has that picaresque quality (which is one of the hardest tricks for a novelist to pull off, truly, really) needed to balance out all the heaviness of a constant train of melancholic events (violence an...

This review contains what may be spoilers. Even though I do not think it will spoil your reading experience, I am putting the warning here because one reader pointed it out.--------------------------------------Before I begin my review, a statutory warning to all my patriotic Indian brothers and sisters... this is India-bashing, large scale. If you are the sort of person who gets all worked up when any aspect of India is criticised, this book is not for you.That said, Arvind Adiga bashes India w...

The perfect companion piece to Slumdog Millionaire, and if you didn't like that movie, you won't like this book for the same reasons. It's a no-nonsense bulldozing mordant splenetic jackhammer of a story written as a tough slangy 300 page fast-reading monologue. It's a novel of information, not art. It tells you all about modern India with a traditional rags-to-riches fable. Our hero murders his employer unapologetically, and that's how he gets his riches. This is not rocket science. This is sma...

They remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful in this world. That’s the truest thing anyone said…Even as a boy I could see what was beautiful in the world: I was destined not to stay a slave. The White Tiger is a grim, biting, unsubtle look at 21st Century India, stuck in the mire of a corrupt, cynical past, and debauching and slaughtering its way into a corrupt and cynical future, told by a working class fellow who, through ambition, intelligence, and a willingness to be utterl...

Well the stories of murderers and psychopaths are generally like cakes to most of us(and i am no exception). I either love such protagonists or hate them whole-heartedly. Coming to Balaram, the situation is different. I had never felt anything for him even after reading 300 pages. I didn’t even hate him and I was completely indifferent towards him mainly because I felt that his character is artificial and inconsistent. Every time I read a cynical work or a satire I feel that I have become a bit ...

Balram Halwai grew up in the Darkness -- the immense swath of rural India where the poor vastly outnumber the rich and where the right of the rich to oppress the poor is rarely questioned.By dint of his intelligence and ambition, he becomes the No. 2 driver to a local landlord nicknamed The Stork, and when he discovers the No. 1 driver has been hiding a secret, is able to displace him and eventually move to Delhi with the landlord's Westernized son, Mr. Ashok, and his modern wife, Pinky Madam.Qu...