It won the Booker prize and so it must be a good story. But, somehow I didn’t find it worthy of a Booker prize. May be the judges have a different benchmark or I don’t understand literature much.
The story revolves around ’Balram Halwai’, who has his roots in rural India and from where he goes to settle in Bangalore and sets up his own transport business. The book is a letter to the Chinese premier Jibao where ’Balram Halwai’ narrates his story - his fleeing after murdering his master and his life.
May be the contrasts that the author has drawn between rural India and urban and the master-servant relationship have impressed the Booker prize judges, but as compared to Arundhati Roy or Kiran Desai, this book is quite drab. Arvind Adiga uses simple language and unlike Roy or Desai cannot mesmerize the reader with wizardry of words.
Overall, not an exciting read. But since it has won the Booker, read it anyway. But don’t buy it, just borrow from a library.