I read
The White Tiger by Araind Adiga.
Quote:
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The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.
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I am still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not, but I certainly had no trouble finishing it - quite compelling in an odd way, and certainly a fascinating view of India, and of life in general.
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And on a completely different note, I finally got around to reading
Fool by Christopher Moore. I keep a list of books I've seen recommended on MR that I plan to check out - and this one went on that list six years ago!
This is an adaptation of Shakespeare's
King Lear, told from the perspective the the Lear's fool, named Pocket. Moore (shamelessly) brings in bits from other Shakespeare plays - the three witches from Macbeth stand out, and as the books says: "there's always a bloody ghost" - and manages to wrap the events around Pocket as the driving force behind the events.
I found it a remarkably clever work. Not only is it very funny, but he manages to work the language (mixing old and new) so that the setting and character all seems right while also being a light and easy read. The plot, while I didn't get big surprises, is cleverly and neatly constructed. Bawdy, almost in the extreme, and with a lot of the violence of the times left in, it also still manages to have a surprisingly sweet romance behind it all.
This is the first book of Moore's I've read, but I'm impressed and will be looking for more (pun intended).