Two reasons why i immediately picked Selection Day without looking at ratings or reviews - First, the author, Arvind Adiga. The White tiger, for which he won the booker prize, was fantastic. Second, the brief 'Two brothers in a Mumbai slum who are raised by their obsessive father to become cricket stars'. It's not very often that a book based on cricket with Indian setting, shows up in shelves of a county library in Virginia.
The main protagonist is 14 year old Manjunath Kumar, who along with his elder brother Radha Kumar are budding cricketers, fulfilling their father's wishes, in Mumbai school cricket scene. Their crazy obsessed father Mohan Kumar subjected them to - strict dietary restrictions, self-designed health checkups involving penis foreskin and testicle probes, and shaving prohibition for hormonal reasons. Everything was hunky dory, at least at the surface, till 'number 2 batsman in the world' Manju, who was more interested in science (CSI Las Vegas) than cricket, passed his brother's scoring record and started playing better than Radha ' the number 1 batsman in the world' Kumar. After that story unfolded into a complex drama with aspirations of other characters changing path of lead ones. Javed Ansari, a rich muslim gay boy who prefers poetry over cricket, tries to steer Manju away. Tommy Sir, the coach, whose sole dream is to find next Tendulkar, tries to get Manju more involved, and Anand Mehta, the investor, dreaming of his success in cricket, trying to recover his investments.
I started this book with high expectations and the very first page raised it by some margin. Sample this - thoughts of a toddler, left alone in a room in slum - Pen tops, you are really lemons. Pebbles are sweeter. Rusty needles are vinegary. The floor of room are buttery. Good paper is milky and cheap paper becomes bitter. Orange rinds are tastier than oranges. Only one thing in this world is tasteless. Plastic!
The prose is strong and sentences long and abstract. It felt good till the story was on a linear path. Then after first hundred some pages the story exploded and the abstraction started getting in way of storytelling. Characters speaking in half sentences, thoughts filled with analogies and metaphors, and simple sentences dressed up to be verses. Maybe it's just me, but at some places it was struggle to understand what writer was trying to convey. I think the White Tiger worked because there it was just the protagonist's view, but here every character was trying hard, and too many voices just ended up being noise.
I was disappointed in the ending too. No, I was not expecting a rags to riches or a success against all odds story, but the ending is just plain unfulfilling. By the end i had no feeling for any of the characters including the protagonist Manjunath. I am glad that writer reduced cricket to sub plot in the second half of the book because it felt as if even the writer is not interested in talking about cricket.
Maybe Adiga was eyeing another big award for this book, and maybe he will get a few. But while The White Tiger was a book for everyone, this one is just shiny cover with empty shell. Disappointed. I will pick Adiga's next book only after reading reviews by 'regular' people.
Trivia: I am somewhat familiar with India, Mumbai and cricket so no geography trivia this time, but i did find some interesting lines in the book to understand the differences between analogy, simile and metaphor.
Analogy: As the tiger is brave in the jungle, the king was brave in the battle.
Comparison: The king was as brave in the battle as the tiger is brave in the jungle.
Simile: The king was like a tiger in the battle
Metaphor: The king was a tiger in the battle
Epithet: The tiger king
Apostrophe: O thou Tiger King!
The main protagonist is 14 year old Manjunath Kumar, who along with his elder brother Radha Kumar are budding cricketers, fulfilling their father's wishes, in Mumbai school cricket scene. Their crazy obsessed father Mohan Kumar subjected them to - strict dietary restrictions, self-designed health checkups involving penis foreskin and testicle probes, and shaving prohibition for hormonal reasons. Everything was hunky dory, at least at the surface, till 'number 2 batsman in the world' Manju, who was more interested in science (CSI Las Vegas) than cricket, passed his brother's scoring record and started playing better than Radha ' the number 1 batsman in the world' Kumar. After that story unfolded into a complex drama with aspirations of other characters changing path of lead ones. Javed Ansari, a rich muslim gay boy who prefers poetry over cricket, tries to steer Manju away. Tommy Sir, the coach, whose sole dream is to find next Tendulkar, tries to get Manju more involved, and Anand Mehta, the investor, dreaming of his success in cricket, trying to recover his investments.
I started this book with high expectations and the very first page raised it by some margin. Sample this - thoughts of a toddler, left alone in a room in slum - Pen tops, you are really lemons. Pebbles are sweeter. Rusty needles are vinegary. The floor of room are buttery. Good paper is milky and cheap paper becomes bitter. Orange rinds are tastier than oranges. Only one thing in this world is tasteless. Plastic!
The prose is strong and sentences long and abstract. It felt good till the story was on a linear path. Then after first hundred some pages the story exploded and the abstraction started getting in way of storytelling. Characters speaking in half sentences, thoughts filled with analogies and metaphors, and simple sentences dressed up to be verses. Maybe it's just me, but at some places it was struggle to understand what writer was trying to convey. I think the White Tiger worked because there it was just the protagonist's view, but here every character was trying hard, and too many voices just ended up being noise.
I was disappointed in the ending too. No, I was not expecting a rags to riches or a success against all odds story, but the ending is just plain unfulfilling. By the end i had no feeling for any of the characters including the protagonist Manjunath. I am glad that writer reduced cricket to sub plot in the second half of the book because it felt as if even the writer is not interested in talking about cricket.
Maybe Adiga was eyeing another big award for this book, and maybe he will get a few. But while The White Tiger was a book for everyone, this one is just shiny cover with empty shell. Disappointed. I will pick Adiga's next book only after reading reviews by 'regular' people.
Trivia: I am somewhat familiar with India, Mumbai and cricket so no geography trivia this time, but i did find some interesting lines in the book to understand the differences between analogy, simile and metaphor.
Analogy: As the tiger is brave in the jungle, the king was brave in the battle.
Comparison: The king was as brave in the battle as the tiger is brave in the jungle.
Simile: The king was like a tiger in the battle
Metaphor: The king was a tiger in the battle
Epithet: The tiger king
Apostrophe: O thou Tiger King!
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