“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga:
The White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, and there must have been some reason for the judges’ choice. Maybe they thought it avant-garde, new, fresh, socio-political relevant or eye-opening.
I’m not condemning the novel. It is a light, especially in the beginning, often amusing and entertaining read with a fresh, cheeky voice. And for a debut novel quite an achievement. It is a satirical bildungsroman, a vicious critique of contemporary India under global capitalism. I recognize it for what it is meant to be, a parable, a satire and mirror of Indian society in change. But it left me only with the reinforced feeling that I would never want to live in India.
It is the story of Balram Halwai, now an Bangalore entrepreneur and part time philosopher, then a poor boy in a village in the north of India. His family is too poor to afford letting him finish his education and he has to work in a tea shop and wipe tables until one day he manages to be hired by a rich man as a chauffeur and goes to Delhi.
There he immediately becomes aware of the immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. The India portrayed is one of bribery, corruption and huge social injustices.
So he makes the decision to murder his master and start a business of his own from the money robbed. With apparently great success.
That is the newness of the novel, the voice of someone who is amoral, cynical and unrepentant. And getting the reader’s endearment and sympathy in spite of that.
Still, it left me with nothing more than a little smirk in my face, soon to be forgotten.
#robertfaeth, #painterinBerlin, #painting, #art, #bookblog, #bookreviews, #literaturelover, #poem, #poetry
No comments:
Post a Comment