The White Tiger - A. Adiga

Declaration of hand - I'm a little, teensy bit over reading books about India, even if they're good. Having devoured A Suitable Boy, toiled through Midnight's Children, reluctantly finished The God of Small Things, enjoyed most of Shantaram, read Life of Pi with a small head nod etc etc etc I admit to being a bit fatigued by the topic.

Which means I probably should never have picked up The White Tiger in the first place, but I did due to a lack of anything else being at hand. In fact it probably would have been harder for me to not read it since it seems to be everywhere at the moment. I am pleased to say that I didn't hate it. Of course that means I didn't love it either.

Was it worth all the hype and the awards and so on? I find it hard to say yes. At most it's very readable, at worst it's a bit clumsy in places with the letter format never being adequately explained. The main character is interesting, being of questionable moral fibre, and the notion of transitioning between classes in a highly structured class-based society on the move, such as India, got me thinking in parts. When it came time to close the book and shelve it though, I was ready.

My favourite line:

“The story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen”
p. 27 The White Tiger, A. Adiga

My advice: wait 'til you can read someone else's copy.