“The story of a poor man's life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.”

Ezra stalks Little India. Singapore, May 2017.

The White Tiger is a novel presented in the form of a long series of letters from our protagonist – the entrepreneurial Balram Halwai – to the visiting Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao. In it, we learn the life story of Balram, a transformation from the humble son of a rickshaw puller in deepest, darkest, most backward region of India to a confident businessman in the prosperous south of Bangalore (via a blossoming in Dehli).

This is a dark, funny book that does not shy away from modern, globalising India's cruel realities. It explores the issues at the heart of the Indian experience: the tensions inherent in religion, caste, loyalty, freedom, duty, individualism, greed, corruption and poverty in a country that creates numerous multi-millionaires while so many remain trapped in the most desperate of circumstances.

Tackling issues of masculinity, class and sexuality without fear, there are no simple dichotomies of good and evil or neat and tidy resolutions. It is a hard book. Cruelty exists on every page, yet done so with an incredible lightness of touch.

I loved it. This book hums with energy and throbs with tension and is alive with India's smell, vigour and noise. How the novel stoked my passion and righteous anger! How it led me to accept many of the barbarous and misanthropic justifications of our very flawed narrator as just an fair!

This one is a must-read.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Comments

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This will hurt me...

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