This was the question that came into my mind when I finished reading 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga this week after many in-between pauses. Why did this rather average book get the Man Booker prize ? A point worth commendable about his writing could be his 'observation' on the life around him and how it gets narrated through the voice of Balram. Note the single quote. This is necessary to indicate the narration which the author assumes to be from an Indian background; while in fact most of the time his 'observation' would not make believe an average Indian.
Additionally, the writing is rather too plain and is really a very very light read. When you think about the numerous novels with good English, you wonder what is special about this writing. If you take the other Booker's like The God Of Small Things, Life Of Pi or for that matter the Inheritance of Loss, the language is in a different class of its own, so is the narration. I would not dare to compare this book with 'Midnights Children' - centuries ahead.
Am no literary critic and perhaps someone could clear up my why's. But then, my pea brain never understood why R.K Narayan never received a Booker or a Pulitzer or a Nobel.
Finally what matter here now is the moolah and the sales which comes with the award. Good for Adiga.
