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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
I hesitated a moment over the fifth star, but, yes, I loved this book.
I listened to the book on CD in little bites to and from work every day for the last few weeks. I've read Adiga's The White Tiger and liked that, too. I might have a thing for books about India - I also love A Fine Balance, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and Interpreter of Maladies. In any case, the story at hand here is boys and men, men and boys. Not going to pass the Bechtel test. Two brothers are cricket prodigies in Mumbai and their overzealous father enmeshes them in the corruption and cut-throat competition that swarm and swallow the sport. Adiga pulls a cool trick where it looks like one brother is going to be the focus, and then, subtly the other boy becomes the more interesting one. I know nothing about cricket. It didn't matter. The routines, the rhythms - they transcend the need to understand mere mechanics and procedures.
A last note: the reader of this book entranced me with the names of the characters and places. When I think back on Selection Day, my brain will fell into the melody of Manju Kumar, Radha, Tommy Sir, Mohan the chutney-seller, Mumbai, Javed Ansari, and Anand Metha.
I listened to the book on CD in little bites to and from work every day for the last few weeks. I've read Adiga's The White Tiger and liked that, too. I might have a thing for books about India - I also love A Fine Balance, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and Interpreter of Maladies. In any case, the story at hand here is boys and men, men and boys. Not going to pass the Bechtel test. Two brothers are cricket prodigies in Mumbai and their overzealous father enmeshes them in the corruption and cut-throat competition that swarm and swallow the sport. Adiga pulls a cool trick where it looks like one brother is going to be the focus, and then, subtly the other boy becomes the more interesting one. I know nothing about cricket. It didn't matter. The routines, the rhythms - they transcend the need to understand mere mechanics and procedures.
A last note: the reader of this book entranced me with the names of the characters and places. When I think back on Selection Day, my brain will fell into the melody of Manju Kumar, Radha, Tommy Sir, Mohan the chutney-seller, Mumbai, Javed Ansari, and Anand Metha.
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book Review: Selection Day
Author: Aravind Adiga
Genre: Fiction, Sports Drama
Published: 2016
Genre: Fiction, Sports Drama
Published: 2016
Overview:
"Selection Day" by Aravind Adiga, the Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger, is a gripping novel set in Mumbai's cricketing world. The book explores themes of ambition, family pressure, social mobility, and identity, following the journey of two brothers striving to become India's next cricketing stars.
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around Manju Kumar and his elder brother Radha Kumar, who are raised by their ambitious and overbearing father, Mohan Kumar. Mohan is obsessed with turning his sons into world-class cricketers, believing that success in cricket is the only way to escape poverty.
- Radha is the elder son, naturally talented and destined for greatness.
- Manju, the younger one, has a love-hate relationship with cricket and is conflicted about his future.
As they train for Selection Day, when the best young cricketers are chosen for professional teams, tensions rise. Manju forms a friendship with Javed Ansari, a rich and rebellious boy, which makes him question his dreams, sexuality, and identity.
Key Themes:
✔ Parental Pressure & Expectations – The burden of fulfilling a parent's dream.
✔ Sports & Corruption – The dark side of Indian cricket selection.
✔ Identity & Personal Freedom – Manju’s struggle with his own desires versus societal norms.
✔ Class Struggle – The divide between rich and poor in Mumbai.
Pros:
✔ Vivid storytelling and engaging characters.
✔ Realistic portrayal of cricket and ambition in India.
✔ Strong emotional depth and social commentary.
Cons:
✘ Pacing slows down in some parts.
✘ Ending feels open-ended, leaving readers with unanswered questions.
A strange choice for my anti-jock self to read a book centered around the incomprehensible sport of cricket, especially when the oeuvre of the author whose work I wanted to sample appears to be otherwise sport-free. Seriously, why did I choose this book as an intro to Adiga?
Surprisingly, I didn't mind the cricket and the fact that the protagonists were irritating adolescents for most of the book didn't bother me (much). The last chapter didn't stick the landing but I found the rest of the book enjoyable.
Surprisingly, I didn't mind the cricket and the fact that the protagonists were irritating adolescents for most of the book didn't bother me (much). The last chapter didn't stick the landing but I found the rest of the book enjoyable.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not a big cricket fan , yet as a coming of age story in a culture I know little about, an interesting story with good insight of puberty angst
Selection Day is that one day in the year when aspiring young cricketers (and their parents - who are really the aspirational ones) show off their cricketing chops to a bunch of judges who have sole power over who will be Mumbai's next great cricketing stars, with fame, fortune and cricket glory just around the corner.
It is a complete understatement that India is mad for cricket. In recent years the rise of the IPL has opened wide the dreaming skies for parents, agents, coaches as they desperately work their young charges on the cricket treadmill. The world is awash with stories of parents obsessed with turning their children into sports stars, musicians, chess players, A++ geniuses. And what good really does it do them. So this novel is a morality tale really, on what can go wrong when a parent's reason for being is having his child make the big time. There is, of course, nothing wrong with wanting to better oneself, and improve one's standard of living. But at what cost?
In this novel, it is further complicated by the father having not one child, but two, 16 year old Radha and 14 year old Manjunath. The three of them live in Mumbai slum, this being the extra motivation for the father to have his boys shine. All energies are focused on the hard working and diligent older boy, but it is actually the younger boy who has the real talent, and who has to be made to see that he is really quite exceptional. So the basic plot of child/parent/talent, is stretched more by the addition of sibling rivalry. During the course of the novel, Manju is also tormented by his growing attraction to another young cricketer, a young wealthy and privileged Muslim called Javed. Javed is a bit like Manju's moral compass, seeing the corrupt and exploitative business of cricket for what it really is, trying to appeal to Manju's sensibilities to get him out of it. But will he?
Modern day India is a great setting for this novel, aside from the author's intimate knowledge of the place, we are also fully aware of how corruption is part and parcel of daily life in Indian society, how exploitation keeps the wheels going, how little control millions and millions of people have over their lives.
Great writing, and characters including the two secondary characters of the agent/promotor and the coach, the latter also disillusioned, defeated, but still standing in the vortex. There is a great story here, but for me it just did not hit the spot. The story ended up not really going anywhere. By the end, Manju is still conflicted over his relationship with Javed, Radha has self destructed, and cricket is somewhere far, far away. It is nothing to do with the cricket, it could easily be tennis, or cycling, or piano playing or any of these other parent obsessed activities that make the child simply a commodity to the parent and hangers on. But for me, the original gritty story lost its way.
It is a complete understatement that India is mad for cricket. In recent years the rise of the IPL has opened wide the dreaming skies for parents, agents, coaches as they desperately work their young charges on the cricket treadmill. The world is awash with stories of parents obsessed with turning their children into sports stars, musicians, chess players, A++ geniuses. And what good really does it do them. So this novel is a morality tale really, on what can go wrong when a parent's reason for being is having his child make the big time. There is, of course, nothing wrong with wanting to better oneself, and improve one's standard of living. But at what cost?
In this novel, it is further complicated by the father having not one child, but two, 16 year old Radha and 14 year old Manjunath. The three of them live in Mumbai slum, this being the extra motivation for the father to have his boys shine. All energies are focused on the hard working and diligent older boy, but it is actually the younger boy who has the real talent, and who has to be made to see that he is really quite exceptional. So the basic plot of child/parent/talent, is stretched more by the addition of sibling rivalry. During the course of the novel, Manju is also tormented by his growing attraction to another young cricketer, a young wealthy and privileged Muslim called Javed. Javed is a bit like Manju's moral compass, seeing the corrupt and exploitative business of cricket for what it really is, trying to appeal to Manju's sensibilities to get him out of it. But will he?
Modern day India is a great setting for this novel, aside from the author's intimate knowledge of the place, we are also fully aware of how corruption is part and parcel of daily life in Indian society, how exploitation keeps the wheels going, how little control millions and millions of people have over their lives.
Great writing, and characters including the two secondary characters of the agent/promotor and the coach, the latter also disillusioned, defeated, but still standing in the vortex. There is a great story here, but for me it just did not hit the spot. The story ended up not really going anywhere. By the end, Manju is still conflicted over his relationship with Javed, Radha has self destructed, and cricket is somewhere far, far away. It is nothing to do with the cricket, it could easily be tennis, or cycling, or piano playing or any of these other parent obsessed activities that make the child simply a commodity to the parent and hangers on. But for me, the original gritty story lost its way.
Urgh another book in which a gay character ends up unhappy & alone and in this case, he metaphorically castrates himself by choosing cricket over love for fear of being called gay. It's little wonder I stopped reading this type of fiction many years ago. Even in 2016 gay men are depicted as dysfunctional and alone.
I enjoyed this novel about two brothers and their different experiences told through their common involvement in cricket. But I always read Arvin Adiga's books with the hope that he will produce another "White Tiger", and in that respect I am usually slightly disappointed.
Terrible. I don't think I have ever given up on a book completely, but this was the one. I had such high hopes when it was picked for book club. I disliked the characters and especially how the book flowed or not as the case may be. I don't know if I was supposed to feel any empathy for the two boys but I just couldn't bring myself too, they were horrible children. I wasn't even particularly bothered by the cricket but, I think the only thing worse than watching cricket would be having to finish reading this book.