To begin with, let me tell you first, of my association with this novel. I had never finished any contemporary novel, to put it bluntly, Who cares!..was my attitude towards the contemporary writers, by the time I had bought this novel.
This was my first ever contemporary novel, mainly of an Indian origin author, which I read completely. This had got that year’s Booker and was getting highlighted in the media. I used to think by that time that writers, worthy of reading, were only those, who were either Dickens or Shakespeares’ (I mean only greats of the past). I constantly ignored writers of the present time. I remember I had finished this book quite fast. This book was simple in language but catchy in pace.
When I talk about this book today, I’ll say, it’s a dark novel, without any interesting and exciting story, written in first-person narration, addressing to Chinese Premier. A long monologue, I can say. The theme of the novel is class conflict in an emerging nation, embroidered with evergreen issues of disparity, poverty, and corruption. The narrator of the novel, the protagonist, Balram Halwai, comes from the region of Darkness, He defines India as…
“Please understand your excellency, that India is two countries in one; an India of Light and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings life to my country, every place on the map of India near the ocean is well-off, but river brings the Darkness to India-The black river.”
THE WHITE TIGER
His disliking for the river Ganga is clear from the passage when the body of his dead mother was lying on the pyre at the bank of Ganga in Benaras…
“As then fire ate away the satin, a pale foot jerked out, like a living thing; the toes, which were melting in the heat, began to curl up, offering resistance to what was being done to them, Kusum shoved the foot into the fire, but it would not burn. My heart began to race, My mother was not going to let them destroy her.”
THE WHITE TIGER
Sunday Telegraph said about this book, “Blazingly savage and brilliant”.
I’ll say only blazingly savage but never a brilliant book because being an Indian, I could not really recognize, Balram as someone who was from the region of darkness and deprivation. Like many other readers, I also found his voice and tone superfluous and that of an outsider’s. Otherwise, the book is good and can influence the reader strongly with its flow and pace.
19th Century 20th Century Adventure Africa American Asia Booker British Literature Children Classic contemporary Crime Detective Drama Essays fantasy French Literature German Literature Gothic Historical Fiction Horror Humor India Indian Literature magical realism Memoir Music Mystery Nature Netgalley Nobel Prize Non Fiction Novel Novella Philosophy Play Poetry Race Romance Russia Russian Literature School Short Stories War Women
BOOKBROODER 