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The White Tiger: A Novel (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Aravind Adiga
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $13.12
You Save: $11.87 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B0018O22X0
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Product Description
Set in a raw and unromanticized India, The White Tiger---the first-person confession of a murderer---is as compelling for its subject matter as it is for the voice of its narrator: amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 great read September 26, 2008
I too thought of Dave Eggers as I read this great book by an exceptionally gifted new author. I would find it difficult to judge morals in this book as I would to judge the same in India today. Yes, Balram kills a guy but he plays Robin Hood doesn't he. He does not kill without a great deal of thought and he's not pleased and he wouldn't have if he had seen a better way to live, to help others. True, he knows this is not what Ghandi would have done This book does much to show the modern India and the real mess that really exists there and he does regret but how does one justify or not justify the way the masses are treated in that county where one life matters little. But it's not my place to judge him. What would I do in the same situation I could not fathom surely. Greed and corruption exists and people reduced to the lowest denominator by the upper classes ruthlessly treated like slaves and worthless people not even as human beings. I thought the book overall as exceptional read and the author a very gifted voice who has much to say. This exceptional novel will stay with me for some time and I will ponder the moral and ethical issues and dare not to judge.
 First novel? Wow! September 17, 2008
At some point the main character Balram Halwai recounts a story about the Buddha in which a Brahmin tries to trick the Buddha by asking him if he considers himself man or god. The Buddha answered saying "Neither. I am just one who has woken up while the rest of you are still sleeping." (270) Balram Halwai has certainly woken up in this story, in which he moves from a boy who broke coal in a tea shop to a driver and servant to a wealthy family, and then to self-made "entrepreneur." How he did it and why is the stuff of this book, which describes his awakening into the realities of the various levels of Indian society, and his understanding of the system that keeps servants in their place. His conclusion is that within the span of a couple of decades, the white men will no longer have a place in India, but at the same time, the system will continue to remain the same, due to the corruption and injustice that is so embedded within.
An easy but intense read, I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in India and its politics, social system and beliefs. It's interesting to watch Balram and his metamorphosis, although I can't say I could entirely sympathize with him throughout the story. Funny that, because I tend to like books where the underdog has his day, but this time I just didn't think that the costs were worth it. Although I suppose in some sense that to him, or to others in his predicament, they were.
Overall, a very good novel. I'm happy it made it to the Booker shortlist.
Cool Cube September 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ice-cube of a book; rolls nicely and relaxes, melts cool and satisfies at several levels. Cuts deep into a complex Indian society and tries to make sense of the apparent mess. Time to break free of the Rooster Coop!
 No Moral or Morals September 14, 2008
I enjoyed this tale of clashing cultures in India, the lower caste beggars of Sikar and the newly wealthy entrepreneurs in Bangalore. The car driver narrator is quite a colorful fellow, with his ruminations on life, politics, corruption, justice, fairness and revenge. His tale is illuminated by many memorable turns of phrase and eye-opening naive observations, and his utter lack of remorse is exciting.
Yet at the same time the novel is far from perfect. The conceit of framing the novel as a letter to the Premier of China is clunky and unhelpful. The point-of-view of the narrator keeps shifting, from naive to worldly as if the author couldn't quite commit to his voice. The action in the novel, as other reviewers have pointed out, is all shoehorned into the last 40 pages. Finally, the overall arc of the book contains no message that I could discern, but simply tells a story without a moral.
In short, "The White Tiger" is one of those books that you enjoy reading but not enough to recommend to others.
Incredible Journey Through A Changing India September 6, 2008
A Man-Booker Prize nominated book by Aravind Adiga.
They remain slaves because they can't see what is beautiful in this world
-The Poet Iqbal, as quoted by Balram, the protagonist of the book.
To read this book is to leave with the impression that India is a mess. It is 99% of the 2nd most populous nation on Earth being kept in chains of servitude by themselves. Adiga has written a compelling first novel on the liberation of a man born to be a servant of the rich. It describes the way that Balram, a boy born in the Darkness - small villages away from the coast, is sold into indentured servitude to pay off the dowry debts associated with marrying of a daughter. Balram, told by a school inspector that he is a White Tiger - something born once a generation, rises through sheer ambition to become a driver for a local landlord. Through his cunning, he is brought to Delhi to serve as driver for Ashok - the son of the landlord.
As a driver, he begins to understand the relation between master and servant in his culture. The servant is nothing more than a throwaway item to be used and discarded.
A pivotal moment of the book occurs when Ashok's wife demands to drive after a wild night out with her husband. On the way home, she hits and kills a young child. No one saw the accident. Yet, to be safe, the landlord's family arranges for Balram to confess to the hit-and-run accident. It is a source of pride for Balram's family - that he would do this for the master!
From this point, Balram begins a series of rebellions leading up to the murder of Ashok and the theft of millions of rupees. This is not a vicious murder of a hated landlord. Rather, it is an amoral killing of the system that Ashok represents. It is the death of the old system. Yet the old system did not know it was dying. Balram runs away to the southern coast - to Bangalore, the tech capital - and sets up a taxi system for tech companies with the help of bribery of the police. When one of his drivers accidentally kills someone, he uses his connections in the police to sweep it under the rug. He protects his driver. Yet he insists on going to the family's house, paying his respects, giving them thousands of rupees, and hiring the killed boy's brother. The system is not dead, yet Adiga suggests it is changing as the few servants who free themselves change it from within.
This is not what westerners would call a morality story in the Western sense. There is a man willing to kill to get ahead. This is a man held up as honorable. The beauty of Adiga's writing is it opens a window into the culture that lets you root for Balram, hold him as honorable, even as he does dishonorable things.
Good read.
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