This book was recommented to me by an Austrian entrepreneur whose company might expand to south-east Asia in the medium run. He thinks it’s a good read to better understand Asia.
Plot
Balram Halwai was born and raised poor in the village of Laxmangarh where the school inspector tells him that he is like a white tiger, so outstanding that one of his kind is only born once a generation. Because of his cleverness and persistence but also by his unscrupulousness he manages to escape his life as a servant and becomes an entrepreneur in Bangalore.
Style
The whole story is told as a written conversation between Balram and China’s Premier Minister Wen Jiabao. In fact, it is a monolouge because naturately the Premier never answers as Balram goes on to send him letters for seven days, detailing the story of his life and the true rules by which India actually operates.
The author Aravind Adiga uses a rich vocabulary to bring the story to a colorful life.
My opinion
I read to book because I wanted to know if it would really help to “better understand Asia”. Well, I think no book could do that because Asia is too diverse, but I still read it to better understand India.
In the beginning the story really felt to me like it was set in the past, a hundred years back in time because the differences between poor and rich were so stark. But the story is set in the present, Wen Jiabao is still China’s Premier. IBM, HP and Apple had no offices in Bangalore a hundred years ago. In an interview the author said that the story “is build on a substratum of Indian reality”, so in that sense: Yes, it made me learn something about India – namely that it is really tough to break through the “rooster coop” – which is the analogy used to picture the static mindset of the poor that prevent them from improving their situation. According to the book, India also has a serious corruption problem and the rich always rip off the poor.
Another interesting facet of the book relates to the fact that Balram eventually kills his master and lets his family die to reach his goal to break out of “The Darkness” (as he calls the poor life) In the story his ways seem reasonable – would you let him win you over and accept his crimes?