This is an enticing glimpse into another slice of life. The hero is sympathetic and engaging and yet as the consequences of his actions play out he changes and becomes increasingly alienated. A great read. ( )

This book being one of those intensely love it/hate it ones, and having raised quite a controversy when it won the Booker, I made an effort to reserve my judgment until the very last page. It never redeemed itself, though. A plot out of a cheap thriller, and banal writing. And if it was supposed to portray the corruption, the perverse wealth amid overwhelming poverty in India, there are other novels of the same theme which do a much better job than this. A Fine Balance (which was shortlisted but never won the Booker) is one example. ( )

I forgot where I got to know about this book, but I do remember that as soon as I read what it is about I was interested in it right away. A couple of months later I was at the airport waiting for my flight back home, and as I always do I stopped at the bookstore. As soon as I went in, the first thing I saw was a huge pile of The White Tiger books, so I obviously had to get it.

Balram Halwai is an Indian entrepreneur. When he hears that Premier Wen Jiabao of China is going to visit his country, Balram decides to tell him about the life in India that he will no doubt not be told about on his visit. That is the life of an entrepreneur coming from a lower caste. In his letter, Balram tells Premier Jiabao about his childhood in poverty, his life in Delhi as a servant to Mr Ashok, how he became a wanted man, and ultimately an entrepreneur in Bangalore.

The journey of Balram to become an entrepreneur brings out the extreme difference between the poor and the rich in India. I found Balram to be quite an interesting character. He hated the people that were corrupt and immoral, and did whatever it takes to get what they wanted, but in the end he too became one of these people. However, the sad thing is that it doesn't seems that there was a clean way of getting out of the rooster coop he was in, there are simply no opportunities for someone that is born in 'the darkness' to free himself. I think this is the message that the author wanted to get across, and he did it by first getting the reader's empathy for Balram, so when his actions become unspeakable you still feel for him and believe that he had to do what he did to gain his freedom. What I thought was quite unsettling was his views on white people, and it makes me wonder if that is a common belief amongst these people. This was an easy and fast read, sometimes being satirical too, even though the topic is not a light one and it raised many questions while I was reading it.

This is the first book I have read about this topic, and although I have watched the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', I didn't quite understand what it meant to belong to a lower caste in India before I read this book. Of course I also remind myself that this is fiction, but it seems that this has become such a popular topic to write about lately that it feels like these authors want to get a message across. ( )

While I enjoyed reading Adiga's award-winning book, I discovered that I couldn't remember a lot about the story only a few weeks after finishing it. It just wasn't "sticky" for me, to use a Malcolm Gladwell term. Perhaps it's because I know very little about the culture and lifestyles in India. I did, however, enjoy the unique format the author used to spin the tale. ( )

Set in the backstreets of India the tale of boy trying to make it against the odds and expectation. It's told via a series of letters to the Chinese Premier in which the writer tries to expose the "truth" about India as opposed to the view of the country the Premier will be shown on the visit he's about to make.
It works well although I'd had enough of it by the time I'd finished the book, I felt it ran out of new things to say. None the less and interesting structure and an enjyable read. ( )

En rolig och intressant berättelse. Författaren gör det "mytiska" Indien verkligare, jag njuter av hans beskrivningar av miljöerna... Vanligtvis brukar jag tycka miljöskildringar är urtråkigt att läsa, kanske klarar jag det bättre den här gången för att de inte är så sentimentalt "blommiga" utan raka och realistiska.
Det känns som jag lärde mig mycket om Indien. ( )

Balram Halwai is not the first name he has used, but it is the one he was given in school. He prefers to be known as The White Tiger, a rare creature that is born only once in a generation. He feels he is rare creature himself, one who has thrown off his rich master and become master of his own destiny. He is born a poor boy, the son of a rickshaw-puller and manages to become a driver after being yanked out of school and initally working in a tea room. This is a real turning point for him as things turn out.

He begins as the second driver but soon uses his wits to progress further up the career ladder. He loves his master who treats him well (for the most part), but soon realises when he accompanies him to Deli that he will never gain the riches and freedom he has. He decides to take his destiny into his own hands, doing the unthinkable.

I thought this was excellent and well deserving of the 2008 Man Booker Prize. It's a very sad, moving story that often has the reader grimacing, yet it is told in a very light hearted manner making the negative parts more easy to swallow. I think it is this that makes it so good, that the bad elements don't bog you down and depress you so much. You sympathise with Balram and I felt I could understand what he did (although not condone it). Recommended. ( )

An entertaining story, and perhaps, an interesting look into India's culture. Unfortunately, I know nothing about India myself and have read mixed reviews about the story as an accurate portrayal of Indian life from people who actually grew up there. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it a fascinating and highly emotive read. What appears at first glance to be a rags-to-riches story becomes so much more. The descriptive writing made me feel as if I were actually in India; the sights and smells and tastes came through so clearly. By the end, I found myself incredibly angry about the corruption and injustices faced by the poor of India. Very thought provoking. ( )

Great novel about social injustice, morality, corruption and politics.
Provocative. ( )

In a series of emails to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, Munna, aka Balram Halwai, tells the story of he got out of the Indian village of Laxmangarh and eventually became an entrpreneur in Bangalore.

The book starts off as a light satire, but the mood gradually darkens. We are still left with a certain fondness for Balram, cheering him on despite his faults, but perhaps with a sense of foreboding about how he will end up. ( )

' i have written several reviews but they disappear' ( )

According to my opinion the "White Tiger" opens before us the true face of India, the dark truths of its political system in cities and the villages. The bridge between the rich and the poor is clearly shown through the realationship between 'Balram Halwai' - a villager and a rich landlord family.
the author presents before us a vivid picture of the lifestyle of the rich and the struggles of the poor. the sentence"The poor dream alll their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich;but the rich dream of losing weight and looking like the poor" hits the right chord. Adiga's writing style is sumptuous with a flow to it. But there is one thing I do not agree with 'no offence' but he has wrtten that even if we leave a million dollars in the back of a taxi, the driver wont touch a penny ; but this is not true as it is my 100% gurantee that no one is that honest to return the money,that is the reality. but overall the book is a good read. ( )

Simply breathtaking piece of writing, a first person letter to the Chinese prime minister, but makes you feel india through the eyes of someone who has grown up and struggled there. ( )

This book is on my top 100 books of all time. I love the main character and how he worms his way into your heart despite the fact he must assume some of the unsavory ways of his bosses. The writing is lyrical and the black humor wonderful and creepy-- like a read of many great British authors. The book reveals the seamy side of Indian life as that continent rises from the ashes of acute poverty and corruption and how these shackles morph into forces that inevitably transform the souls of people. ( )

Brutal,but brilliant. ( )

I am of 2 minds about it. Although I liked it, I can understand why some people took issue with it. The prose was simple and clear but the tone was bordering on overly polemical. Many of the Indian authors/novels I've read have been based in realism but haven't been as flagrant in their criticism on Indian political/social culture.

Perhaps I find this particularly significant because I just read India from Midnight to Millenium and am feeling somewhat glutted with information.

I guess I find The White Tiger different because it goes where most Indian novels touch upon but rarely state so blatantly. ( )

Mr. Jiabao.

Sir.

When you get here, you'll be told we Indians invented everything from the Internet to hard-boiled eggs to spaceships before the British stole it all from us.

Nonsense. The greatest thing to come out of this country in the ten thousand years of its history is the Rooster Coop.

Go to Old Delhi, behind the Jama Masjid, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting on each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench....On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped-up chicken...The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop.

The very same thing is done with human beings in this country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aravind Adiga has created a complex character in Balram Halwai, a young man who knows his place in the mass of humanity that is his home in Laxmangarh, India. He knows that his religion and the education that he has managed to obtain have conditioned him to behave in a certain way. He knows that stepping out of bounds in certain ways can bring shame and even death to the rest of his family.

The reader knows, early on, that he will murder a rich man, his employer. Murder is very wrong, but there's a turning point, when this young man's rage becomes all the more personal: after a scene that seems to be an homage to The Great Gatsby, Balram realizes that he might be forced to go to prison in place of the master's wife, who has drunkenly run over and killed a child with their big car. It is lucky for Balram that no one seems to miss this poor, homeless child.

Balram Halwai breaks out of the Rooster Coop, but he is forced to act against his nature at every turn; he does things that he doesn't enjoy admitting. This story is full of moral ambiguity. Since this is one of our book discussion group novels, I know that someone will ask, "Did Balram win you over?" My answer would be, I suppose so. He has an egotistical side that rubs me the wrong way, but on the other hand, he does not act like his previous masters. In the end, the people he hires are his employees, not his servants, and he does learn how to grease palms while being fair to his underlings. And he never forgets that he's murdered someone or the fact that his family must have suffered for his crime (except for a lucky nephew, who he is raising). Yes, his actions are ultimately selfish, but then he was pushed too far by a corrupt servitude system in a chaotic region. That he finds some way of making a life for himself that is not miserable is something like a miracle.

The above quotation is actually from the very middle of the story. Balram is writing letters to the Premier of China, and these letters are a vehicle for the telling of his life story. Whether or not these letters are ever actually posted is anyone's guess.

I can see why this book is an award-winner. It's well-written, provocative, and engaging, and I would definitely recommend it. ( )

(Review of the Portuguese Edition)
The Booker prize rarely lets you down, The White Tiger is no exception.

These book was written as a letter to the President of China who would be visiting, in it the White Tiger gives a detailed and unique account of a an India who is very distant of the postacards and fantasies of our imagination. It is the real India with its cast system still deeply ingraved in the mentality and ways. The accounts are so vivid that you almost smell the putrid smell of the Ganges, sweat and outdoor plumbing.

The only fault I saw in this book was the ending which felt a bit rushed to me. ( )

One of the few Booker Prize winners that I liked! Our main character, a clever boy, rises from very humble beginnings to serve a rich family as a driver. When they move to Delhi, he accompanies one of the sons as his driver. In this environment of the very rich and the very poor, he learns himself how to be corrupt and to get ahead, but at the cost of moral well-being. ( )

Wat een schitterend boek: een verhaal met inhoud, humoristisch, menselijk. Het speelt zich af in India, het verhaal is geschreven vanuit de chauffeur van een 'rijke' man. De cultuurverschillen tussen arm en rijk worden haarfijn ontleed. ( )

read it in 2 days. obviously couldn't put it down. relatively short novel, wish it was twice as long. ( )

Too many reviews already so I will be brief, a story of the underbelly of Indian life, Balram is an entertaining rogue.

Good read ( )

This novel masquerades as a series of letters written by an Indian man, Balram Halwai, to the Premier of China explaining what it is to be an “entrepreneur.” For Balram, the term “entrepreneur” is a euphemism for someone who has managed to rise above his caste, or social class, using whatever means required. In his persistent climb to the top, Balram takes advantage of the fluidity of identity offered by an unstable society in a state of transition. He assumes whatever position and character is most useful as he transforms himself from an uneducated village boy into a successful businessman in Bangalore.

Despite his upbeat entrepreneurial message, Balram’s narrative is filled with evidence of deep fissures in Indian society: between the high castes and the low castes, between those living in the Darkness (the rural, poor areas) and those living in the Light (the big cities), and between the rich masters and their poor servants. For Balram, these divisions reside within the body and are a kind of physical (and thus inescapable) marker:

"A rich man's body is like a premium cotton pillow, white and soft and blank. Ours are different. My father's spine was a knotted rope, the kind that women use in villages to pull water from wells; the clavicle curved around his neck in high relief, like a dog's collar …. The story of a poor man's life is written on his body, in a sharp pen."

Balram’s letters are darkly humorous and written with a savage directness in consonance with the violence and immorality underlying his success. The epistolary format feels like a clumsy literary device rather than a natural platform for Balram’s story, but his story is engaging enough to overcome its inelegant construction. Overall, The White Tiger is an interesting glimpse into a complicated society in transition.

This review also appears on my literary blog Literary License. ( )