Gutsy or fraud?

WHAT THEY SAID THEN...

Aravind Adiga definitely managed to stir up a hornet’s nest when his book The White Tiger hit the shelves earlier this year. Reviewers here and from all over the world could not agree on the book, their views differing, often even based on the ethnic origins of the reviewers themselves.

We flip through some of the voices from a cross-section of newspapers and magazines and bring to you what they had first said about the author and the book that went on to win the big prize...

The Nays...
I found the book a tedious, unfunny slog, but the back-cover blurb says it is “compelling, angry and darkly humourous”... The tone of the writing is breezy-absurd, which means we can’t hold the writer accountable for anything that happens in the book... Yes, the India Shining image that so many of us find nauseating in its dishonesty and complacency deserves to be reviled. But is this schoolboyish sneering the best that we can do?
Manjula Padmanabhan, Outlook

There is much to commend in this novel, a witty parable of India’s changing society, yet there is much to ponder. The scales have fallen from the eyes of some Indian writers, many either living abroad, or educated there like Adiga. My hunch is this is fundamentally an outsider’s view and a superficial one. There are so many alternative Indias, uncontacted and unheard. Adiga is an interesting talent. I hope he will immerse himself deeper in that country, then go on to greater things.
Kevin Rushby, The Guardian

The Ayes...
Once in a while it happens, that singular voice breaking through the polyphony of India Imagined... The White Tiger is a novel born in that infinitesimal moment of darkness.

And as a debut, it marks the arrival of a storyteller who strikes a fine balance between the sociology of the wretched place he has chosen as home and the twisted humanism of the outcast.
S. Prasannarajan, India Today

Adiga has been gutsy in tackling a complex and urgent subject. His is a novel that has come not a moment too soon.
Soumya Bhattacharya, The Independent

In creating a character who is both witty and psychopathic, Mr Adiga has produced a hero almost as memorable as Pip, proving himself the Charles Dickens of the call-centre generation.
The Economist

On the fence...
There’s little new here — the blurbs claim it’s redressing the misguided and romantic Western view of India — but I suspect there are few to whom India’s corruption will come as a surprise. As social commentary, it’s disappointing, though as a novel it’s good fun.
Francesca Segal, Observer

Yes, it’s fresh, funny, different, and it will please those looking for insights into contemporary India, but The White Tiger offers something less than it might have achieved.
Tony D'Souza, The Washington Post

Technically, the novel begins with promise.... But half way through the book, Adiga sets aside technical finessing in his rush to bring the plot to its climax. Again, there is a lack of imagination in the use of language. At times, the metaphors are downright ugly.

Yet, despite its faults, the novel makes an impact because of the brutal candour with which it holds up a mirror to an India that many of us would rather not see.

Arash Rash Vafa Fazli, Literary Review, The Hindu