I almost titled this post Boxing Day Blues. I think it’s inevitable that the day after Christmas might feel a little “less than.” The presents are open, the decorations are being boxed away, things are being returned, and the good food is already in leftover stage in the refrigerator.
So today, I took two naps (Doug told me not to admit this to anyone), and finished a book for January book club. Part of the reason why I’m in a book club is because the host, Marko Ayling, chooses books that are really interesting, and also not ones I would normally pick. They are stretching me.
Marko used to be a YouTuber with his brother Alex, and they helped introduce me to the best of the Shetland Islands on their travel videos. I support his writing now, and part of the perks of that financial support is this book club.
This month we’re reading a novel by Aravind Adiga that was the winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and made into a movie in 2021. It’s called The White Tiger, and it’s the story of a boy in India struggling to break free from crushing village poverty and debt to become his own man, his own entrepreneur. He tells his story in a letter to the Premier of Beijing and he commits a horrific crime to gain his freedom.
Afterward, I felt much the same way I did after reading Richard Wright’s Native Son: the taste of despair in my mouth mixed with admiration for the author’s genius. The story shows the injustice, the disparities in between the wealthy and the poor and the difficulties of anyone who wishes to rise above his class, his caste, or the status he was born into.
There’s a moment in the book where the narrator is studying the clothing that his wealthy boss chooses to wear, a t-shirt with plain colors and small lettering. He would have chosen something full of writing and full of color because then he would have gotten the most value from the shirt but he chooses the wealthy clothes and can slip into the mall undetected by the guards because of it.
The narrator says that the poor in India are constantly working on filling their bellies and avoiding starvation while the rich are trying to look more like the poor by trying to exercise their big bellies away. In America, it’s often the reverse, the poor are saddled with obesity from eating nutritionally poor food that is highly processed and cheap to make, while the rich eat all-organic food and hire personal trainers and chefs to keep them in shape.
We live in a time where there is a lot of focus on America’s billionaires and when economic disparities seem to be reflected in every choice. The rich go on luxury vacations, while the middle class and the poor cut back on essentials to get by.
It’s a dark story. It’s a comic story. It’s an absurd story. It’s a philosophical journey. It transcends time.
That’s the story of The White Tiger as well.
Want more from me? Come over to Substack. Click here to subscribe to my private newsletter on Substack.