Between The Assasinations (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Aravind Adiga’s first novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Mann Booker Prize. The same year, Between the Assassinations, a collection of inter-related short stories, was published – with most of it, if not all, being written before The White Tiger. Thus, his "second" book provides a look at the ideas and themes he later developed in his award-winning “first” book.The title refers to the period between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and her son Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The stories are set in Kittur, a fictional town in India, with each focused on one or two characters in the town. Some of the locations and characters appear in more than one story.In every story, the characters – rich, middle-class or poor – struggle with the brutal disparities in wealth, power and prestige.A middle-class businessman, no angel himself, is constantly harassed by corrupt officials.“Corruption. There was not end to it in this country. In the past four months, since he had decided to reopen his shirt factory, he had had to pay off the electricity man; the Water Board man; half the Income Tax Department of Kittur; half the Excise Department of Kittur; six different officials of the Telephone Board; a land tax official of the Kittur City Corporation; a sanitary inspector from the Karnataka State Health Board; a health inspector from the Karnataka State Sanitation Board; a delegation of the All India Small Factory Workers’ Union; and delegations of the Kittur Congress Party, the Kittur BJP, the Kittur Communist Party and the Kittur Muslim League.”In another story, a local newspaper reporter – who becomes increasingly disturbed by the corruption and inhumanity in his hometown – is on the verge of a mental breakdown. He yearns for a life as a real journalist, rooting out corruption and begs his editor, “Look here. Let’s just write nothing but the truth and the whole truth in the newspaper today. Just today. One day of nothing but the truth. That’s all I want to do. No one may even notice. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the usual lies. But for one day I want to report, write, and edit the truth. One day in my life I’d like to be a proper journalist.” He editor thinks he is crazy and, in the end, the journalist has a complete breakdown.The story of Murali, the loyal aid to Comrade Thimma, a communist party leader, provides a dash of humour amongst the despair and corruption in the community. He listens as Comrade Thimma questions an old woman seeking help: “Do you understand the exact nature of the doctrinal differences between the Communist Party of India, the Community Party of India (Marxist), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Maoist)?” Murali thinks: “Of course she doesn’t know…No one on earth did.”In another story, a wealthy school boy struggles with social taboos related to his Brahmin father’s marriage to his mother, who is from a much lower caste. His lower caste relatives act subservient around him, in deference to his Brahmin father. At school, he had Brahmin friends, but one day when he left a friend’s house, he turned and saw his friend’s mother with a cleaning rag wiping down the sofa where he had been sitting.Every story presented a depressing look at the deeply embedded class structure, but one in particular drove home the plight of those on the bottom. A young man, approaching 30, has spent his entire life toiling as a bicycle delivery man for a local merchant.“Every turn of the wheel undid him and slowed him down. Each time he cycled, he was working the wheel of life backward, crushing muscle and fiber into the pulp from which they were made in his mother’s womb; he was unmaking himself.”The physical strain, the hours, and the inability to earn anything more than a very meagre subsistence income were almost unbearable. A newspaper reporter from another city is interviewing his co-workers for a story on poverty, and he explodes: “Don’t patronize us you son of a bitch! Those who are born poor in this country are fated to die poor. There is no hope for us…I spit on you. I spit on your newspaper. Nothing ever changes. Nothing will ever change.”The most poignant and heart-wrenching story focused on two little children, Soumya and her little brother Raju. Their father, a construction worker and addict, sends Soumya across the city to purchase his drugs. The kids, with little to eat and surviving on the streets by begging and stealing, nonetheless make the dangerous journey and connect to get their father’s drugs. As they return, Soumya fantasizes about what she most wants to happen – to be hugged and loved by her father, who proves to be incapable of either.Even though some reviewers refer to Between the Assassinations as a look at the embryonic stage of ideas and storylines that Ariga later refined and finessed in The White Tiger, the book is well worth reading. Ariga is a master at presenting the harsh inhumane conditions that so many people in the world most endure – hopefully providing motivation for the rest of us to do something about it. Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga was definitely a satisfying and worth-while read. It's titled "Between The Assassinations" because the story is set in the seven year period between the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 to the assassination of her son Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. This book several stories about many people from the town of Kittur in India, talking about their very different lives, problems, hopes and dreams. The characters are each uniquely distinct from each other in terms of their wealth, motives etc. The only common thing between each of these stories and beauty of Adiga's writing is that they always end with an unimaginable twist that leaves the reader thinking for a while before moving on to the next tale. This book is set up in a way that each story fits into some form of "tour guide" for tourists who might want to visit this town, which is a good technique to release the tension from the seriousness and sadness of the truth that each story brings out about small-town life in India. The readers have a look at the city of Kittur the way they would from a tourist's perspective but also realize exactly what lies beyond in the lives of the seemingly happy and charming people. It is a wonderful insight on some of the harsh difficulties that commoners face in India such as poverty, caste systems, religion discrimination and politics. Although some parts were haunting and hard to take in, I personally really enjoyed this book because of the outlook it had on the country I am from. The truth is unpleasant and sad but it was a very informative way to read about the reality of the people and situations there rather than occasionally glancing at a few headline titles in a newspaper. The writing style was lovely and through the focus of the simple things such as sights, sounds and smells, Adiga managed to ease the seriousness of reality throughout most of this book as well as paint a clear picture in the reader's mind of each scene and setting.I highly recommend this book, especially to those who would be willing to give it a lot of thought after reading as his Adiga's writing is beautiful despite how dark some of these stories may be.
What do You think about Between The Assasinations (2000)?
A collection of decent short stories. I found some of them good, and some rather insipid.
—Harmony
Dark like the White Tiger, but an easy read.
—Flyboy
