Just now I finished reading Aravind Adiga's Booker prize Winner, 'The White Tiger' and found it one of the most amazing read among the books I have been reading lately.
This one is a must for everyone who has even a spark of literature in their souls. The book is a complete antithesis of what other Indian Writing in English is all about. Each line sends a knife up your belly. It does not let you relax.
Amazingly brutal and completely unhypocritical.
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12 comments:
Hi Chandini
Nice to see another person who enjoyed Adiga as much as I did... I bought the book when the long list was announced, back in July and read it in one sitting... I have been defending the writer in all that Adiga-bashing that goes on these days..
Did you read that Hindu article by Amitav Kumar on Adiga and his book? Pure green-eyed monster weilding the pen...
btw, do you write in Malayalam or English? I too have some publishing behind me and a novel ahead... would love to meet you when you come to Trivandrum...mail me when you get the time please..
You also have two of my own favourite books listed as your reads... Hosseini and Pamuk... Did you read Hisseini's second book? I will read it some time shortly but I hear such confusing reports of it!
regards
Suneetha
btw, Chandni, why have u used his name as Ravidra in the title?
suneetha
Dear Yasho
I too read Adiga's book at one sitting. I do not rely much on reviews. I select books instinctively. I made a choice between Amitav Ghosh's 'Sea of Poppies' and 'The white Tiger.'Though I was a bit wary due to Adiga's predecessor, Kiran Desai. I could not read two pages of Desai. Sorry!
I write in English. I live, breathe, and die for my novel to be published by some big shot publishers. Believe me, I will not disappoint anyone.
And yes, I have read Hossieni's 'Thousand Splendid Suns' but it is not up to the mark. I would not put Hossieni to my favorite author list.
I will definitely get her book. Your review of her work captured my imagination! Thank you, Chandini! Namaste!
That makes two of us... I had bought Desai's book immediately as she was short listed but I havent read past the first chapter yet...
But I did like the second Husseini book although not as much as the first one... perhaps thats because I love reading fiction in the background of other cultures...
Read Bapsi Sidhwa? I love her works... I think I have read all of them...That's a bit of Pakistan that we are always curious about that shows up in her works... But cant say the same about Tasleema Nasreen... its more hype than real stuff..
I have bought Adiga's second book 'Between the Assassinations' , its a Malgudi style book and I am yet to start on it...
cheers
Suneetha
suneethaspeaks.blogspot.com
Dear Suneeta
Have not read Bapsi Sidhwa. Yes, we sure have a carcinogenic curiosity regarding Pakistan. I would love to. Here in tellicherry it is not easy to get the latest classics.
And hey, good luck with your novel. I mean it.
Petra
The White Tiger by Adiga is heavily ethnic, but that's what makes it a stunner, right?
Bapsi Sidhwa is a good writer. I just recently read her book "The Crow Eaters" about the Parsis of Pakistan. Loved it. I also wrote a small, childish review of the novel on my blog: http://redkazim.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/the-crow-eaters/
Dear Kazimbhai
I could not get hold of Bapsi Sidhwa's book. Hope I do. Hope to read it and I am sure it would suit my style of reading.
Take care.
Dear Suneetha
Where can I get Bapsi Sidwa's books? Do tell.
great blog. Came across it on suneetha's site. Agree with you on 'god of small things'. Disagree with your opinion on 'the white tiger'.
I am an ardent fAn of Latin American literature, but I am not yet ready for saramago.
Keep writing.
Chandini
Bapsi Sidhwa's books are available in our better bookshops in Kerala... or check book fairs... or this group in Cochin will get you ANY book to your home they say, a friend reccomends their name, I also met someone from the group at the International bookfair at Trivandrum...
www.bookport.in
by the way, I read this rather interesting comment by HariKunzru about 'writing what you know'
"I reserve the right to imagine anyone and anything I damn well please. If I want to write about Jewish people, or paedophiles or Patagonians or witches in 12th-century Finland, then I will do so, despite being "authentically" none of these things ... My work may convince or it may not. However, I will not accept that I have any a priori responsibility to anyone - white, black or brown, let alone any 'community' - to represent them in any particular way."
I guess Adiga can use the comment to reply to his green-eyed lovers in India...
I read another Saramago stunner - BLINDNESS. I would stick with SEEING as better, though my HR and his coterie of heavy readers, including English Professors, have voted for BLINDNESS.
I shall write about BLINDNESS in a day or two. Saramago stuns you all the time.
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