The White Tiger

“Why can't [insert country here] get their act together? It's so simple! If only they would [insert solution] ...” We've all thought that some time, about some country or another. It should be so simple! Adiga shows, vividly, why it's not. His depiction of modern-day India shows the cultural stasis, class boundaries, corruption, resentment that shapes its people and all their interactions. The image of broken manacles is a frequent ironic motif. As a child of a different third-world country, I found myself nodding in recognition at the world he describes. So many possibilities, so tragically limited by its own people. I wonder what first-worlders will think of the world he describes?I've never read Fukuyama's [b:Trust 57980 Trust The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity Francis Fukuyama http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51djbFJ7b%2BL.SL75.jpg 56475], but I think it's time for me to do so now. I expect to find many parallels.(Oh, a note about the audio CD: the reader is exceptional.)

It was a good book. I don't like stories told by those of questionable moral character. But otherwise an interesting story

I usually connect novels set in India with magic, colour and vibrancy. This book certainly started out that way, but as you read further a new gritty image of the country appears. It is dark and it is desperate. Balram is mostly a likable character (albeit a murderer) whose situation as a mistreated and unappreciated servant sees him spiral out of the “Darkness” and into the “Light.” Is it social justice though? What is the price of freedom?