the white tiger

Balram Halwai is an entrepreneur, murderer and unusual success. In Aravand Adiga's first novel, The White Tiger, Balram is strangely determined to recount his rags-to-riches story in a series of letters to the Premier of China.

Balram uses these letters to employ a particularly cynical tone and to compare the problems faced by the rising economies of India and China, in which the rich live lavishly and the poor are exploited. However, the letter format restricts the development of the novel's characters, and people like Balram's haughty, rich employers come across as stereotyped and flat. Even Balram keeps distance from the authority figure to whom he writes, making it difficult for readers to relate to his pain and detracting from the novel's power.

The writing style is, at times, deliciously raw, exactly what would be expected from a "half-baked" man who rationalizes the murder of his employer and constantly revels in his "entrepreneurial" success, a taxi company he founded with stolen money. However, its doggedly straightforward nature does become monotonous. The White Tiger attempts to claw through the polished facade of modern Indian society presented by politicians to reveal the gruesome reality faced by the average Indian. However, it functions more like a blunt paw, incessantly hammering readers with dark images of its narrator's past.

By illustrating the perspective of a man who began life near the status of a slave and mercilessly, selfishly fought his way to success-the only way he could escape his restricting roots-the novel brings the commonality of corruption and poverty in India to attention. And, with the recent success of Slumdog Millionaire, The White Tiger is definitely in style.