April’s entry in Dori & Jess’ Book Club is…

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Review: A non-romanticized, satirical look at India’s government and culture. Dori called it a book about “the cognitive dissonance between India’s attempt to become a democratic economic power vs. its entrenched caste system.” Dori & I didn’t quite agree on this one. While we both appreciated the fact that it showed a realistic rather than an exotic picture of India, she enjoyed the story more than I. However, while she liked the ruthlessness of the characters and the world in which they lived, I found it hard to care about any of them. While I didn’t feel quite as connected to this novel as I would like, I’m still leaning toward recommending it. The book was well-written in a style that would be hard to pull off without careful attention to the details of the plot and characters. Also, there’s something about “The White Tiger” that felt important as I was reading it.