As the juggernaut of the Indian elections gathers speed, what better book to pick up than White Tiger, the debut novel by Aravind Adiga and this year’s Man Booker Prize winner. This book, written by a well-travelled – and well-off – young Indian man, delves into the world of a poor and wily character with a range of names, White Tiger being just one of them. Through the undulations of life for this son of a rickshaw-puller, we get a glimpse of the caste system and India in action in the present time.
White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
(Atlantic)
As the juggernaut of the Indian elections gathers speed, what better book to pick up than White Tiger, the debut novel by Aravind Adiga and this year’s Man Booker Prize winner. This book, written by a well-travelled – and well-off – young Indian man, delves into the world of a poor and wily character with a range of names, White Tiger being just one of them. Through the undulations of life for this son of a rickshaw-puller, we get a glimpse of the caste system and India in action in the present time.
From very early on, the protagonist realises that he needs to find a way to break out of what he refers to as the ‘Rooster Coop’, something that’s considered more than impossible as the coop is guarded from the inside. That is, each person becomes her or his own jailor by the status they are born into, and anyone who has other aspirations will be punished so severely that it simply isn’t worth even thinking about.
Out of desperation and circumstances, White Tiger is eventually forced to commit the only act that will break his bonds of servitude – murder. However, once the bonds have been broken, and while remaining in India, there seems to be no other place to go than back to the Rooster Coop, albeit on a different level, where new people need to be bribed and placated.
There is a deep anger as well as melancholy to this book, and the story, to a certain degree seems to suggest that the jailor’s cruellest torture instrument is that of hope, which is therefore something to be avoided. Nevertheless, White Tiger himself seems to think that even hope is a too humane a trait to have any place in India. The more human one might reveal oneself, the more likely one is to suffer the consequences.
White Tiger is fully aware of the pain he has caused by his selfish actions, but the only nightmares that he wakes up to are the ones where he had not taken the only chance he had to break out of his previous position. His misery now is nothing to the misery he was in then, and now he’ll be able to live more humanly, and longer.
But don’t get me wrong – this book is not all doom and gloom. It’s packed with tragicomical moments, and the storytelling itself is full of fun and flair, despite the overarching philosophy. It is a welcome contradiction to the prevailing ideas of what India might be; especially to foreigners, but maybe also to those who might be locked into the system that the book speaks of, in comparison to the usual well-balanced and well-meaning almost fairytale India portrayed in popular culture.
Nevertheless, the fact that the central character at times seems to be a composite of so many ideas and human strengths and weaknesses is what gives this book a very universal appeal.
Review by Jeanette Rehnstrom
Jeanette Rehnstrom is a freelance journalist and writer who has written extensively for GCN for almost three years, with two columns by her featuring in the magazine every month. More information about her work and the Irish Writers’ Exchange can be found at irishwritersexchange.com
