"Ode to a Shower Curtain", & Reviewing a Tale of Cutthroat Ambition Set in the Underbelly of New Dehli
Doggerel about that scummy bathroom scourge known as the shower curtain, and a book review of "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga
Poem
Book Review
The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga
“The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave.”
A book with bite. Its social commentary on corruption in modern-day India is top-notch, absolutely dripping with venom. Adiga could have easily made the protagonist, a member of the downtrodden underclass, a figure to be pitied, instead, there’s something so delightfully funny, acerbic, and utterly vicious in this first-person account of cutthroat ambition.
What makes a servant throw off the shackles of indoctrinated servitude, family, and even religion to climb out of ‘The Darkness’ and all the way to the top? Exactly how does a humble chauffeur from a rural village in Bangalore come to murder his master, and thereby regain his dignity?
“You ask ‘Are you a man or a demon?’ Neither, I say. I have woken up, and the rest of you are sleeping, and that is the only difference between us.”
The real question is, Reader, will you remain in the metaphorical rooster coop, placidly awaiting your turn upon the chopping block? Or will you claw your way into the light?