The White Tiger by Aravind AdigaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The White Tiger is an exception to my usual readings of post-colonial, anglo-indian writers that I have known and loved. While my big guns (Rushdie, Seth, Ghosh, Chandra etc.) dabble in magical-realism and genealogies, this book wanders towards social realism in a way that can be at times called demagogic. However, the story is riveting, the narrator very interesting and the emotions do, even though at times smacking of much too much sentimentalism, go somewhere real that we all share. The social concerns of the author are revealed openly in passages like the following: "[...] The story of my upbringing is the story of how a half-baked fellow is produced. But pay attention Mr. Premier! Fully formed fellows, after 12 years of school and three years of university, wear nice suits, join companies,and take orders from other men for the rest of their lives.
Entrepreneurs are made from half-baked clay."
Or in another passage, the author's philosophy, albeit "half-baked", comes through:
"Iqbal, that great poet, was right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in the world, you stop being a slave. [...] If you taught every poor boy how to paint, that would be the end of the rich in India."
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