The White Tiger – Arvind Adiga
Published – October 14, 2008, by Free Press
Length – 276 pages
Other – Paperback
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life – having nothing but his wits to help him along. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn’t create virtue, and money doesn’t solve every problem – but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.(Blurb, back of book)
I read The White Tiger over the weekend as a change from the fantasy books I have been reading lately. This was an impulse buy as it was recommended on Goodreads and decided to give it a shot. Munna aka Balram Halwai spends the series of seven days (and nights) writing a correspondence with the Premier of China about who he is, how he got there and what India has. It was an interesting delivery of the main character allowing comparisons of India and China (veiled), and basically telling how he would do anything to get ahead. The copy of the book I own contains a book club discussion as well as an interview with the author that allowed me to think about some of the situations and ideas in the book and also get clarification on some things. This is a book I would read for a second time to read it with a different perspective, it was a quick read but if I were to read it again I would take more time to think about things on a whole rather than just reading to find out what happens.
4/5 stars
-Side Note: In Canada we just had a long weekend and for it we were going to visit my boyfriends parents. We decided to take our cat Simba with us, now we took the cat on some small trips prior and had the car all set up for him, had his carrier, towels, blankets, and toys, but that was not good enough for the cat. Simba was not happy with my boyfriend (he kept allowing him to stick his head out of the carrier but not come out fully), so he peed in the carrier, which made me miss the exit I needed (unnoticed by either of us) and spent the next twenty minutes driving around our city before realizing we were going the wrong way. Finally we stopped to get everything sorted out, put the cats stuff in a garbage bag, swapped driving, turned off our audiobook (Insurgent by Verconica Roth) and I got to calm the cat for the rest of the drive. What a nightmare. We learned from that though and for the drive back I was once again the passenger and got to soothe Simba (he likes me a smidge more), had a calm cat and got to listen to some of the audiobook. Not sure how many trips we will take with the cat, its like travelling with a child, all his things (scratching post, litter box, food, litter, toys, etc), and the fur in my car drove me nuts.
–Meaghan
readingandcats 