My first thoughts when I laid my eyes on this book were......looks interesting. 15 minutes into the book and I had to stop and glance at the cover again. That's when I noticed " MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER 2008". Am not sure what I was looking for when I looked back at the cover...but I did find my answer.
Aravind Adiga is a highly skilled author. He paints a very clear picture of India in it's true everyday realities. Reading this book reminded me of one thing. We are not in control of our circumstances. We certainly are not in control of the world around us. But we are in control of our thought processes....of our dreams....of the goals that we so desire to reach. We can change our lives by changing our thinking...our view of both ourselves......the immediate world around us...and the sometimes imagined limits imposed by the society around us.
I certainly do not approve of how the main character & narrator Bramal achieved his dreams and severed himself from poverty....but I admire the courage it took for him to cut off the chains of such deep set poverty...a poverty of the mind that afflicts many.
One thing I know for sure..I will read it again! Like the White Tiger...I think this is truly a "once in a lifetime" book!
My favourite quotes from the book are: -“I was looking for the key for years
But the door was always open”
― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
“The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave”
― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
“So I stood around that big square of books. Standing around books, even books in a foreign language, you feel a kind of electricity buzzing up toward you, Your Excellency. It just happens, the way you get erect around girls wearing tight jeans.
"Except here what happens is that your brain starts to hum.”
― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
“You ask 'Are you a man or a demon?' Neither, I say. I have woken up, and the rest of you are sleeping, and that is the only difference between us.”
― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
