The White Tiger
By Aravind Adiga
Balram Halwai, the eponymous White Tiger — or a lump of half-baked clay as he describes himself (and, indeed, all entrepreneurs) — leads us on a journey through contemporary India, from humble beginnings as a tea-shop worker to the head of a successful business enjoying a regular (one-way) dialogue with the Chinese prime minister.
I’m not sure whether it’s just that I’m getting back into my stride with regular reading again, or whether Adiga’s just done a really terrific job here, but I veritably devoured this Man Booker (2008) winner. Taking in a full spectrum of India’s now familiar vistas — the poor and oppressed inhabiting the ‘Darkness’, to the corrupt but shining lights of Delhi and the techno-haven Bangalore — Adiga weaves the tale beautifully, and his protagonist is someone you’re more than happy to travel with, but whom it is very difficult to come to a settled opinion of.
Halwai has all of the characteristics of the classic rebel: he beats the system, beats his boss, and does it all with a swagger, confidence and nonchalance that only true bastards possess. On the other hand he’s also a genuine victim of what he, and thus we, perceive to be a terminally corrupt society riddled with incomprehensible inequality: so what can a guy do but kill or be killed?
It’s this ambiguity that I found most compelling about the novel. Of course you root for him, but at no point is anyone but the Halwai himself justifying his actions and behaviour, and whether it’s read as one man’s struggle against the class-system, or the tale of self-interesied class-traitor, I still think Adiga has something interesting to say here. As a novel about modern India, I can’t really comment on whether what seems to be a rather clichéd mixture of poverty, oppression and corruption is anything more than that: but I can say that it’s a great read, and highly recommended.
