Saturday, February 28, 2009

Book 11: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga


I am having some fundamental problems with the Cannonball Read. One, I keep accidentally reading books that are under 200 pages, and therefore do not qualify. Two, I am lazy and keep not postin reviews. I have several in the queue that I will try and put up more regularly. Three, is that when I am not reading books that are under 200 pages, I am reading books that are over 500, and they take a minute to finish, especially when you read two or three of them at once.

But the hardest problem for me has been that I am an inveterate re-reader. I constantly have the overwhelming urge to reread books in between new books; it's a palate cleanser for the brain. For instance, after reading The White Tiger, I caught the last 30 minutes of The Godfather on TV and then spent four days rereading the vastly superior novel. I can't help myself. Other rereading favorites are anything by Clive Barker, Moby Dick, Chandler and Hammett, Prisco's loathed The Hellfire Club and, for an unknown reason, 9 1/2 Weeks. Sue me.

Since adding my anme to the ranks of the Cannonballers, I've reread at least 10 books, and am knee-deep in whale blubber and revenge fantasies as we speak. Luckily, the hunt for the white whale is easily left and returned too; that's one of the reasons that I love it. True story: in 10th grade I wona prize for writing a paper about homosexuality in Moby Dick. Melville didn't title a chapter "Squeezing Sperm" for nothing.

As for The White Tiger, it's fucking great. The titular character, also known as Balram Halwai and Munna, is an entrpreneur in Bangalore. After hearing that the Premier of China is coming to India to discuss industry, he feels the need to write His Excellency and tell not only the truth about his own nefarious past as well as the truth of India's present, which can be summed up in one recurring phrase, "What a fucking joke."

Balram's story is an easy one: he is born in a small, crappy town into a large, crappy family. His education, where he actually shows promise and earns the nickname "white tiger", is cut short so that he can work. When his older brother is sent to Delhi to earn enough for a wedding, Balram goes along and begs his way into driving lessons. Eventually he is hired as a driver for a wealthy and important family with roots in his own home town. Balram soon becomes the driver for one of the sons of the family, who has been Westernized by years spent in America, and even has a gauche, Christian wife. Balram loves and despises his master; he is old-school Indian and can't understand when his master rejects the fealty that Balram demonstrates, including a willingness to confess to a killing committed by his master's wife. Soon after this event, the wife leaves, the husband spirals into self-loathing, and Balram eventually murders him for money and a new chance at life in Bangalore.

Balram does this because he knows that his master and his family are corupt. They bribe government officials so that they can continue to exploit the natural resources and people of Indian. Corruption is somehting that all Indians seem to be familiar with and to accept as an everyday part of life. What separates Balram is that he questions why he should not be in the rank of the corrupt, rather than serving at their feet. He sees his chance and takes it, despite knowing that if he is caught, he will die, and that no matter what happens to him, his family will likely be tortured for information that they do not have.

Balram is pretty much a monster, but he's a funny monster. Humor is really what elevates the novel from being another poor-man-driven-to-crime story, into a scathing criticism of Indian government, society, and Hindu religion from the perspective of an equally corrupt, but imminently likeable narrator. Balram may be a bastard, but he is loveable. Passing a sign in Bangalore, he reads:

"HOW BIG CAN YOU THINK?

I held my hands off the wheel and held them wider than an elephant's cock.

'That big, sister-fucker!'"

Now, what's not to love?

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