The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I found this book on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I started working on this list because it’s very easy for me to get stuck in a reading rut. Having a reading list (especially one so massive) has been helpful for me to broaden my horizons a bit. So far I’ve only read about forty of them, so I have a ways to go. Luckily, I have (at least) 50 more years to work on it.

The beauty of the list is that it leads me to books like The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a book I probably would never have picked up otherwise. And I am very grateful that I did. It is an excellent book, full of contrasts. Our narrator, Balram, is from a very poor village in India. The book tells his story about how he became a servant and eventually made his way into upper class, owning his own business and being his own master. We see his journey through “the Darkness” of rural India to the bright lights of Delhi and Bangalore. Adiga does an amazing job describing all the different levels of society, not just the rich and the poor, but divisions between the rich who have power and the rich who are struggling to hold on to their power, the hierarchies among the poor who are servants and the poor who are living on the streets. Balram himself had very little formal schooling and yet is extremely intelligent, coming from a one room hut living with many family members and a water buffalo to eventually live in a beautiful home with lots of chandeliers.

It would be incredibly inspirational, if he didn’t have to kill his old employer in order to make it happen.

This book is incredibly gritty and shows the naked determination of this man to find a way to better his situation, to escape what he calls “The Rooster Coop” of poverty. It doesn’t make what he did right by any means, especially since the man he killed was one of the few masters who had been kind to him, in his own way. The violence of the deed just emphasizes what extremes a man can be forced to go to in order to break free of what society dictates is rightful place. Balram is an anti-hero who, despite his horrible deed, you can’t help but cheer for and hope that his endeavors are successful.

Another thing that is interesting is that the book is written as a series of letters that Balram is writing to the Premier of China. He uses it to explain the differences in the two countries, although whether or not the letters are meant to be sent remains unseen. Still, it made for a very dramatic backdrop on an already vivid story.

This is a great book that really makes you think. I highly recommend it.