"Slumdog Millionaire" Vikas Swarup

“And for the first time in my life, I saw something new reflected in the eyes that saw me. Respect. It taught me a very valuable lesson. That dreams have power only over your own mind. But with money you can have power over the minds of others” 

― Vikas Swarup, "Slumdog Millionaire"

When the movie was advertised, I was curious but never took the time to see it.  I'm glad I didn't, because that gave me the chance to read the book without any preconceptions.  I'm still curious about the movie and talked to someone about it the other day.  Their recollection of the film focused on only one event from the book, and so I wonder if the screenplay left out much of the story, which would be disappointing because it is such a lovely story.

This was a listen instead of a read, and I was lucky enough to plan it for a trip home to Stuttgart.  My family was getting together, ostensibly to bury my mother's ashes, but that didn't happen.  I reunited with a niece I hadn't seen for over 20 years, and got to meet her family, so the trip was very satisfying nonetheless.  The 11-hour drive each way also gave me the opportunity to listen to two complete books, one which was "Slumdog."

This is a book about value - the value of money, the value of life and the value of love.  Ram Mohammad Thomas, named out of the traditions of three different faiths, was abandoned by his mother at birth, grew up in a Catholic church cared for the by parish priest.  After the priest died, he made his way from city to city looking for work and a place to live.  He was also searching for someone to love and enough money to have security.  Eventually, he was selected to be on a show like "Who wants to be a millionaire" to answer 12 trivia questions to try for a billion rupees.  In today's market, that would be $18 million, and according to the book would be the biggest payout on a game show of all time.

Ram Mohammad Thomas answered all 12 questions correctly to win the billion rupees, but was immediately arrested and tortured.  The producer of the game show was not prepared to pay the billion rupees, and so he wanted to discredit Ram by proving that he cheated.  There were many questions about how an uneducated young man living in the slums could ever have answered these trivia questions.  At this point in the book, I told he-who-caters-to-my-every-whim that if I were writing the book I would now tell the story of how Ram learned the answers to each question, thus telling the story of his life.  A good guess, or completely obvious, for that is exactly what the book does.

Ram is miraculously rescued from the police station by a mysterious woman lawyer who asked him to tell her how he knew all the questions.  Thus begins a night reminiscent of "One thousand and one nights" of Arabian folk tales, and like Scheherazade, Ram is telling the story to help save his life.  We learn of the places he has traveled, the friends he made and lost, the money he has earned and lost, and what this nomadic life has cost him.  We are champions for Ram, because he is always looking out for others while he looks out for himself.  We cheer for him and cry with him. We are envious of his rich life, not rich in money or possessions, but rich in experiences and kindness.

At first appearances, the stories of how Ram obtained the knowledge that helped him win the money are disconnected episodes, but of course, it all comes together in the end.  What would have been a beautiful book simply for the individual stories is made even stronger by how these stories culminate in his appearance on the quiz show, and the ultimate climactic ending.

As always, the qualify of the narration is important for a spoken book.  I loved the rhythms of the voice of Christopher Simpson.  In many cases, when an English-speaking author reads a book with international accents, people will complain about the accents.  In this case, Simpson's narration was ranked very highly by the audible.com audience, and some said his choice of voices added to the experience in a way that can't be gotten from reading the book.