He is pulled out of school very early and made to work in a tea shop to help contribute to the family income. The protagonist, who in the course of the book, ends up having four different names for different reasons, starts off very poor, the son of a rickshaw driver. Bad stuff happens, there are cunning people in this world - better show things as they are and not as one wishes them to be. It's refreshing, albeit very unsettling, to read a book that doesn't try to beautify its settings or characters. This book is not pretty in its choice of words or its plot, and I mean that in a good way. The first word that comes to my mind when I think of The White Tiger is 'crude'. Unfortunately though, both books have left me not eager to read more works by these authors (John Boyne and Aravind Adiga). I like it when I don't reach a consensus instantly, or ever. This is actually a very good thing - when a book makes you think so much that your thoughts constantly rebel with each other. I found my thoughts sashaying back and forth, even days after posting my review. I didn't like it too much but was there a lot to say about it. I can think of one other book that made me feel this strong about it - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. So, a lot of my thoughts below are still just coming together and every time I read someone's thoughts on this book, I find myself thinking, oh yeah, that's a good perspective. But although it's been two months since I finished The White Tiger, I still have such strong feelings about it that I had to try and write my thoughts while the memory is still fresh. I have been hesitating for a long time to put this review together. And what do the rich dream of? Losing weight and looking like the poor. See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich.

The white tiger 2009