The White Tiger: A Novel Review

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The White Tiger: A Novel ReviewIn his debut novel, Aravind Adiga takes on some hefty issues: the unhappy division of social classes into haves and have-nots, the cultural imperialism of the First World, the powder-kegged anger that seethes among the world's dispossessed, and entrapment. But his skills as an author protect the novel from becoming one of those horrible didactic stories in which characters and plot are little more than mouthpieces and vehicle for delivering Great Truths. The White Tiger entertains and gives pause for thought. This is a good combination.
The plot centers around Balram Halwai, a laborer born and raised in a small village utterly controlled by crooked and feudally powerful landlords. The village is located in 'the Darkness,' a particularly backward region of India. Balram is eventually taken to Delhi as a driver for one of the landlord's westernized sons, Ashok. It's in Delhi that Balram comes to the realization that there's a new caste system at work in both India and the world, and it has only two groups: those who are eaten, and those who eat, prey and predators. Balram decides he wants to be an eater, someone with a big belly, and the novel tracks the way in which this ambition plays out.
A key metaphor in the novel is the rooster coop. Balram recognizes that those who are eaten are trapped inside a small and closed cage--the rooster coop--that limits their opportunities. Even worse, they begin to internalize the limitations and indignities of the coop, so that after awhile they're unable to imagine they deserve any other world than the cramped one in which they exist. Balram's dream is to break free of his coop, to shed his feathers and become what for him is a symbol of individualism, power, and freedom: a white tiger. But as he discovers, white tigers have their own cages, too.
Of course, it's not simply the Balram's of the world caught in the rooster coop. Adiga's point seems to be that even the world's most privileged suffer from a cultural and class myopia that limits perspective and distorts self-understanding. The White Tiger is a good tonic with which to clear one's vision and spread one's wings.
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A Cop's Tale--NYPD: The Violent Years: A Detectives Firsthand Account of Murder and Mayhem (Barricade Crime) Review

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A Cop's Tale--NYPD: The Violent Years: A Detectives Firsthand Account of Murder and Mayhem (Barricade Crime) ReviewThis book was entirely engrossing! I admit that I read quite often but it's not very common for me to read a book in two sittings - and with this book, it was almost impossible NOT to read it this fast.
As the synopsis tells you above, this book is about a brilliant, intelligent, and funny cop who dealt with some of New York's most viscous criminals during its most brutal time. What you get to explore in this book are the major busts, stories, and infamous experiences that the author had.
This is my first 'cop' book that I have ever read. If other cop books are out there that are half as good, this could easily become my new favorite genre.A Cop's Tale--NYPD: The Violent Years: A Detectives Firsthand Account of Murder and Mayhem (Barricade Crime) Overview

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Illinois: A History in Pictures Review

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Illinois: A History in Pictures ReviewThese may be the best captions you will ever read because they are, in fact, a history of the State of Illinois as told by a distinguished historian through images: drawings and cartoons, as well as all kinds of photographs. Unlike many such books, there is good coverage of recent history.Illinois: A History in Pictures Overview

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Walking On: A Daughter's Journey With Legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser Review

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Walking On: A Daughter's Journey With Legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser ReviewFor anyone who is familiar with the legend of Buford Pusser through the "Walking Tall" movies and short-lived television series, this book -- told through the loving memories of daughter Dwana -- will reveal the truth behind the Hollywood versions of his life's events. And those events are no less spectacular, nor less tragic, in reality. Sheriff Pusser's unending dedication to eradicating corruption in his community led to the death of beloved wife Pauline, and nearly fatal injuries to Pusser himself that left him scared for life, in an ambush shoot-out.
And later, as Pusser helps with the creation of the first "Walking Tall" film plus prepares for a promising new career in the Tennessee government, he lost his life in a car crash that to this day remains a mystery.
Dwana's first-hand recollections paint a much more vivid picture of the real man behind that sheriff's badge than the movies ever could. With a loving and compassionate manner, she relates her own story of this tough, no-nonsense bear of a man she knows as "Dad." A different side of Pusser comes out through her memories of his commitment to his family, a dedication as unyielding as his quest for justice.
Comparisons between fact and fiction are inevitable, and we find although names and exact situations have been changed in the filmed versions, basic plots are virtually intact. And the events lead up to Pusser's tragic demise in a fiery crash -- one where in fact Dwana really was quickly on the scene to be with her Dad as he died.
Dwana's revelations of motives for the suspected murder are revealed for the first time in the book and are shockers. The final "Walking Tall" film insinuates the murder stems from Pusser's sudden popularity caused by the first movie starring Joe Don Baker (who Dwana says was like a second father to her, while Bo Svenson and Dwana didn't get along at all). Dwana's own research plus first-hand testimony she came into possession of has formed another conclusion, offering motive and opportunity as well as an eye witness who tried to alert the family before the attack.
It's a story only one person could tell, and I am thankful that Dwana has decided to share her family's triumphs and tragedies with the world.Walking On: A Daughter's Journey With Legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser Overview

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Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling Review

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Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling Review-450 Gamblers
+350 Author
I enjoy books on players of all sorts---criminals, athletes, entrepreneurs, traders, gamblers and noir types in general. They detail the underbelly of our society (often posing as the glamorous top layer) without the reader having to lose all his money, go to jail, or get his legs broken by Angelo. What distinguishes Lay The Favorite is that it's a true story of someone who observes and then slowly becomes corrupted by that world...and doesn't even realize it.
The book ends {mild spoiler here, but not really} with Beth jetting off to Rio on money she's stolen from a "sicko" bettor who had just tried to steal money from her. Her quick moral bookkeeping, apparently done in separate ledgers, seems to escape her irony filter entirely, and in the end she is absorbed seamlessly by the seaminess. It's the perfect ending, for all the wrong reasons.
The best things about LTF are the true tales of the professional sports bettors. Raymer recounts their stories well, and if you like interesting characters, here they are. Dinky is the "hero", for beating the odds as a wildly successful bettor for decades (a million to one shot), while Bernard has the much easier job of fleecing the suckers as a bookie. They both consider themselves losers despite millions stashed away in various shoeboxes (for a while), and their stories are full of fascinating, funny moments, including odd tales of barely legal offshore sports books in Curacao and Costa Rica. These guys might be nutty as squirrels in some ways but they're also very bright, and lots of fun to read about. I'm not sure they and their families will be too thrilled about how they all come off here, but apparently they gave their ok for this. Perhaps not the best wager of their careers.
The worst thing about LTR is having to sit through the author's tales of her personal life, which makes the gamblers by contrast seem balanced and so much more interesting. Raymer casually mentions that when she gets tired of a guy she just stops answering his calls and hopes he goes away; in some ways the gamblers come off as nicer folks. After a while, despite her constant mention of how charmed everyone is by her and how winsome she is, one reaches the sections about her inner turmoils and groans in dismay; this advance copy of LTR hit the floor more than once. How long until we hear about the players again?
Because, all told, it's they who make this book worth reading, and the parts about Beth could be lifted from any memoir of a confused, drifting cocktail waitress who treats men like kleenex and then wonders why she can't gain any traction in life. After working as a stripper and doing online porn, she lucks into working for guys who toss bricks of money around like toothpicks but rarely seems to grasp what a longshot she's hit; one wonders exactly which details we don't get here. Oddly enough, the one part of her life that really is fascinating, her quick rise from neophyte pugilist to fighting in an amateur boxing championship in Madison Square Garden, is given short shrift. If she'd spent the time detailing that unique journey that she spends on meandering, banal tales of her love life, this could have been a really fine tome.
Instead, it feels like there are two books here, one very interesting one about the world of professional sports bettors, and one not very interesting one about an immature young woman's coming of age. Which never really happens, unless becoming the kind of dishonest person she's spent the book chastising counts. Time and again she wonders how everyone can rip everyone else off and why no one cares, and then ends the book by doing it herself and toasting the wisdom of her choice with champagne in first class.
All in all, LTF is well worth reading if you like breezy tales of unique, real-life Runyonesque sharps who beat the gambling world until it beats them (the inherent moral here, however backwardly presented). Or if you like reading about a spacy girl's suddenly shifting crushes on whomever. I'm not sure those two markets overlap, but if they do, this book is a new genre unto itself, a weird literary parlay in which the reader often gets middled.
Apparently this was optioned by Stephen Frears for a movie coming out next year called Lay the Favorite, Take The Dog, and that's great news, as the movie has the choice we readers don't have: excise the boring stuff about the author and focus on the crux of the biscuit--the fascinating guys who for a while get the best of a game that's almost unbeatable. Here's hoping Frears takes the over and lays off the road dog.Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling Overview

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