The White Tiger

The White Tiger: A Novel

Adiga, Aravind
Free Press (2009)

Tags:
barbara-seabourn
barbara-seabournttt
----
----
    SUMMARY:
Introducing a major literary talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen.Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life — having nothing but his own wits to help him along.Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village’s wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man’s (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram’s new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly (“Love — Rape — Revenge!”), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.Balram’s eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn’t create virtue, and money doesn’t solve every problem — but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation — and a startling, provocative debut.

F REE P RESS
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    Copyright © 2008 by Aravind Adiga
    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
    F REE P RESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Adiga, Aravind.
   The white tiger: a novel / Aravind Adiga.
     p. cm.
1. Chauffeurs—India—Bangalore—Fiction. 2. Poor—India—
Bangalore—Fiction. 3. Ambition—Fiction. 4. Business people—
India—Bangalore—Fiction. 5. Bangalore (India)—Fiction.
I. Title.
PR9619.4.A35W47 2008               2007045527
823’.92—dc22
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6273-3
ISBN-10: 1-4165-6273-7
    Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
     

For Ramin Bahrani
     

THE WHITE TIGER
     

The First Night
    For the Desk of:
His Excellency Wen Jiabao
The Premier’s Office
Beijing
Capital of the Freedom-loving Nation of China
    From the Desk of:
“The White Tiger”
A Thinking Man
And an Entrepreneur
Living in the world’s center of Technology and Outsourcing
Electronics City Phase 1 (just off Hosur Main Road)
Bangalore, India
    Mr. Premier,
     
    Sir.
    Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.
    My ex-employer the late Mr. Ashok’s ex-wife, Pinky Madam, taught me one of these things; and at 11:32 p.m. today, which was about ten minutes ago, when the lady on All India Radio announced, “Premier Jiabao is coming to Bangalore next week,” I said that thing at once.
    In fact, each time when great men like you visit our country I say