While Between the Assassinations is by no means on par with Aravind Adiga’s breakthrough first novel The White Tiger, it still goes very far to prove his talent at dissecting a corrupt town and exposing it’s faults and cracks (in this book, it is the fictional town of Kittur, India). I read The White Tiger last year, and knew that it was something special. It was not just another Indian writer trying to be the next Rushdie or Naipaul. He espouses the magic realism and political themes that exist in those writers’ books for something more brutal and ambiguous in the character of Balram Halwai. The book does not try to give a definitive answer as to whether or not Balram’s socio-
pathology is a result of a cruel society forcing him to become cold and calculated, or if he was born that way, and flourishes in a society that rewards such behavior. It is a simple story of a man pushed to the extremes of his personality and discovering a way out. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. This book, like The White Tiger, gives a different kind of description for life in modern India. It is not a place of magic or discovery. It is a harsh place where people can get destroyed by an apathetic system without anyone knowing or caring. It is what I feel Adiga does best and what makes him standout in contemporary literature. The downside of this book is what I feel is its lack of creativity. It is supposed to be a collection of linked stories, but he only titles them after their location, which doesn’t make any of them standout, and after finishing it about a week ago, I hate to say I cannot remember the characters or actions well, and am only left with Adiga’s keen eye for India’s occasional cruelty, which is enough for a slight recommendation.
Rating: 4/5
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