Don't Book This Tiger

As sheer count , this is my fiftieth post over the last three years . In celebration , I thought I will write about writing . Here's what I think of Aravind Adiga's Man booker prize winning novel - The White Tiger .

At one level , its pretty close to the story I have been wanting to write , but on another level it doesn't quite turn out that way . It is , however , one of the very few bookers I have managed to finish cover to cover ( Funnily , of the famous booker of booker winner , Midnights Children ( 1981) , I haven't gotten beyond pg 25 ! ). And even so , of the few bookers that I have managed to complete , it lacks a soul . In story , it pales in comparison to Monica Ali's Brick Lane ( 2003 nominee - a terrific read , one of my favourite bookers - a pity it lost to Vernon ) . In plot , The White Tiger pales in comparison to Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992 ) . In language , it pales in comparison to DBC pierre's crass and inventive Vernon God Little (2003 ) . In canvas , it surely lags Yan Martel's beautifully crafted The life of Pi ( 2002 ) and in imagination , Ben Okri's Famished road is far far brilliant (1991 ) .

But it has won the Booker . And as they say nothing succeeds like success . Here's why I think it won the Booker . It is a timed political statement on India's current pursuit of capitalism in deference of its socialistic roots - panning the failing concepts of inclusive growth and constantly peckered cautious optimism . Its a dark tale told with immense brevity . It is probably the first booker that you can speed read . There are no literary pretensions . There are no take aways . People who look at India as a sprinting economy dangerously challenging the world and staking its place in the world will love it for the pithy , stark poverty-filled images of 'Darkness' as sketched by Adiga . The plot is threadbare and too simplistic for credulence . It just can't be true .

A rickshaw-puller killing his owner for the seven lakh rupees and turning entrepreneur with a new identity is not new . Its certainly stuff of many a hindi movie , just the timing makes it very contemporary . The metaphors of 'Darkness' and 'Light' or his despcription of sex as 'dipping my beak' also don't elevate ( pun intended ) the book in any manner .

Avoid the book . Read a older , brillant and well written 'Brick Lane' instead .