Book Review : The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

Hi,

Once again, I am on my Operation Novel 2010. Yah, I have completed “The Man Booker prize” 2008 winner “The White Tiger” written by Arvind Adiga.

Authors described dark side of India. The White Tiger (narrator) of The White Tiger (novel) narrates the story to Wen Jiabao, premier of China, about How he murdered his master, How he grown from half-baked villager to entrepreneur, How India shining quotation is worthless with the point of behavior of politician and corrupt government department like Police department, How 70% India is different than 30% India with reference of “this India” and “choice India’. Every page is turning point. I love story narration.

I have noted down some key points from the novel as below:

• “Please understand Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of light and an India of darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well off. But the river brings darkness to India-the black river.“
• “To break the law of his land-to turn bad news into good news- is the entrepreneur prerogative.“
• “I don’t keep a cell phone, for obvious reasons- they corrode a man brain, shrink his balls and dry up his semen as all of us know.“
• “To sum up-in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with big bellies, and men with small bellies. And only two destinies: eat or get eaten up.“
• “These are three main diseases in this country: cholera, typhoid and election fever. The last one is the worst; it makes people talk and talk about things that they have no say in.“
• “So I stood around that big square of books. Standing around books, even books in a foreign language, you feel a kind of electricity buzzing up toward you, Your Excellency. It just happens, the way you get erect around girls wearing tight jeans.“
• “Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.”
• “Iqbal, that great poet, was so right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave. To hell with the Naxals and their guns shipped from China. If you taught every poor boy how to paint, that would be the end of the rich in India.“
• “I gather you yellow-skinned men, despite your triumphs in sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, still don’t have democracy. Some politician on the radio was saying that that’s why we Indian are going to beat you: we may not have sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, but we do have democracy.”
• “If I were making a country, I’d get the sewage pipes first, then the democracy, then I’d go about giving pamphlets and statues of Gandhi to other people, but what do I know? I am just a murderer!“
• “The story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.“
• “The trustworthiness of servants is the basis of the entire Indian economy.“
• “Incidentally, sir, while we’re on the topic of yoga – may I just say that an hour of deep breathing, yoga, and meditation in the morning constitutes the perfect start to the entrepreneur’s day. How I would handle the stresses of this fucking business without yoga, I have no idea. Make yoga a must in all Chinese schools – that’s my suggestion.“
• “It’s amazing. The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.“
• “If only a man could spit his past out so easily.“
• “There is no end in India, Mr. Jiabao, as Mr. Ashok so correctly used to say. You’ll have to keep paying and paying the fuckers. But I complain about the police the way the rich complain; not the way the poor complain. The difference is everything.“
• “But isn’t it likely that everyone in this world…has killed someone or other on their way to the top?…All I wanted was a chance to be a man–and for that, one murder is enough.“
• “…the future of the world lies with the yellow man and the brown man now that our erstwhile master, the white-skinned man, has wasted himself through buggery, cell phone usage, and drug abuse“
• “Do we loathe our masters behind a facade of love – or do we love them behind a facade of loathing?“
• “I don’t understand why other people don’t buy chandliers all the time, and put them everywhere. Free people don’t know the value of freedom, that’s the problem.“
• “One day a cunning Brahmin, trying to trick the Buddha, asked him, “Master, do you consider yourself a man or a god?” The Buddha smiled and said, “Neither. I am just one who has woken up while the rest of you are still sleeping.“
• “The dreams of the rich, and the dreams of the poor- they never overlap, do they? See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of? Losing weight and looking like the poor.“
• “When the work is done I kick them out of the office: no chitchat, no cups of coffee. A White Tiger keeps no friends. It’s too dangerous.“
• “This city (Bangalore) has its share of thugs and politicians. It’s just that here, if a man wants to be good, he can be good. In Laxmangarh, he doesn’t even have this choice. That is the difference between this India and that India: the choice.“

I love this book. I am giving 4/5. You can read excerpt here.

Book Details:

The White Tiger

Name : The White Tiger

Author : Arvind Adiga

Genre: Novel

Buy: Amazon

!!! Enjoy Reading !!!