The White Tiger

I know I read The White Tiger soon after it came out in paperback and my OH bought a copy from Waterstones. It's even got a rating on my Goodreads. Unusually for me though, reading the synopsis brought back absolutely no memories of the story and I didn't have a single deja vu moment throughout this re-reading. I'm not sure what that says about the book. Obviously I got to enjoy it this time around without suddenly realising that I knew how it would all end, but I wonder whether it wil fade from my memory so completely second time around!

For what essentially is a murderer's confession, The White Tiger is very funny. There is frequent dry humour covering all aspects of Indian life from well-known stereotype characters to unexpected scenarios and I liked Balram's voice which is convincing and sympathetically portrayed. Adiga does highlight disturbing moments of extreme poverty, violence and corruption, but the overall lightness of his writing mean these swiftly slip from view, much like Balram's driving past countless homeless beggars in his sealed car. Is this a good thing? From a distant Western reader's point of view, it meant I wasn't distracted by thoughts of needing to Do Something About This, but thinking back now to write this review, the extremes of social station are shocking.

While I certainly don't condone murdering your employer to get ahead, Balram's story leads neatly and understandably to that point, and the previous exaggerations and seemingly outlandish occurrences make his actions seem perfectly natural, all things considered! I didn't like the overarching device of emails to the Chinese premier and found this increasingly irritating as the book progresses, but it crops up mostly only at the beginning of chapters so can be pretty much ignored and I did find The White Tiger to be a very entertaining novel.

"Why can't [insert country here] get their act together? It's so simple! If only they would [insert solution] ..." We've all thought that some time, about some country or another.

It should be so simple! Adiga shows, vividly, why it's not. His depiction of modern-day India shows the cultural stasis, class boundaries, corruption, resentment that shapes its people and all their interactions. The image of broken manacles is a frequent ironic motif. As a child of a different third-world country, I found myself nodding in recognition at the world he describes. So many possibilities, so tragically limited by its own people. I wonder what first-worlders will think of the world he describes?

I've never read Fukuyama's [b:Trust|57980|Trust The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity|Francis Fukuyama|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51djbFJ7b%2BL.SL75.jpg|56475], but I think it's time for me to do so now. I expect to find many parallels.

(Oh, a note about the audio CD: the reader is exceptional.)