As I read the first two parts of the memoir, I subconciously expected the ending to culminate in a momentous climax (an "a-ha" moment where Min becomeAs I read the first two parts of the memoir, I subconciously expected the ending to culminate in a momentous climax (an "a-ha" moment where Min becomes fully disillusioned). Instead, I was left hanging by the abrupt ending of the third and final act. It was as if Min's story was unfinished, and her commentary on the cultural revolution was not the attack on its failures as I expected. But life lessons aren't philosophical conclusions. They're mired by deep emotions, and it takes time and new experiences to fully unpack what its true meanings are. Min's story - is - unfinished; the cultural revolution leaves and indelible scar on those who had lived through it, and it reverberates endlessly into the present. In retrospect, the way Min oscillates between passionate ambition and empty hopelessness in life reflects the experience of living through the Cultural Revolution. Min captures this in its raw, honest, and unedited form - it is a tumultuous, painful, and perhaps even never-ending, journey in realizing the erosion of faith in Mao's communism and justice....more
**spoiler alert** This book complicated a lot of things for me: it challenged me to consider that, maybe, the line between moral and immoral behaviour**spoiler alert** This book complicated a lot of things for me: it challenged me to consider that, maybe, the line between moral and immoral behaviour stands precariously and illegitimately on the foundation of tradition. Maybe, rejection of a norm that represses you from success and embracing an alternate system of morality that can be be justified. Maybe, what are considered immoral actions are ultimately arbitrary and created to contain the powerless. Maybe wrong actions are right, after all.
Adiga depicts life in rural India as a world defined by cruel and extreme wealth inequality, a system that oppresses the poor into literal and moral servititude for the rich, with the only way out of poverty as one that necessitates corrupt and immoral actions. Balram breaks free of what he identifies as a repressive traditional moral code that traps the poor and serves the powerful, and he constructs a new framework to liberate himself (and ofc, to justify, and rationalize, his violent and inhumane actions.)
What does it really mean to be morally corrupted? To be indifferent and numb in committing evil actions? I believe that to be morally corrupted is to be so altered that we can’t recognize evil as evil, to come to see the bad as the good, and the good as the bad.
This book is dangerous — I (should) know that murder and leaving your family for dead is hella wrong, but I can’t help but defend Balram’s rationalizations of his action, (and feel on the inside that maybe he IS right).
I can’t seem to wrap my head around this conundrum...and I think you should all go read this book and decide for yourself....more
Characters to grow on, care for, and love, tragic heroes to root for, villains to antagonise = most emotional investment ever. Realism, class fatalismCharacters to grow on, care for, and love, tragic heroes to root for, villains to antagonise = most emotional investment ever. Realism, class fatalism, really captures the messy knot in which mundane events smear out meaning....more
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