‘Last Man in Tower’-Book Review

About the book
Author	Arvind Adiga
Picture of the Author
ISBN	978-93-5029-084-2
Price [INR]	699/-
Pages	419
Main Plot	The plot is about Vishram Society, a housing society at Mumbai’s Vakola area. The story takes you through the lives of the middle class residents, their dreams, desires and how the greedy demons residing in their skins come alive when a builder gives them an offer of huge sum in return of vacating their flats so that he can ‘develop’ the land.‘Last man’ here refers to one of the residents of the society, who is an old retired teacher, fondly called as Masterjee, living alone and fighting alone for his ‘right to be free‘.
No. of Characters	7 leads
Tone of writing is	Straight and sarcastic.
My take on the book
Do I recommend the book?	Yes, very much.
The reasons I liked the book	>Set up in Mumbai, it talks fluently about the city and its dirty secrets, the desires that are so strongly mixed in its air that people cannot help but breathe it in and feel greedy. >It very neatly shows the various colours of human nature. The strength of relationships melting by the moment and money taking over all the emotions and empathy. >The story kind of grows on you, gets in your blood and starts flowing within you. You want to know more of Masterjee’s struggle and his bravery of sticking to his principles. >You for once feel like getting into the story and iron out all odds, for Masterjee and stand by him. >It makes you ask question like ‘how easy it is to overcome the guilt of robbing someone of his trust?’;‘Is it wrong to stick to your principles?’ ; ‘Is there no law and order?’ ; ‘Can everything be bought by money? People, love, friendships, self respect, everything?’ >It is a sleek story narrated in a simple fashion where in the reader will feel empathetic towards the protagonist, will feel the pressure of power acting up on the middle class fragility, will be able to read the cunning mind of that builder and above all the reader would feel the story of a common man coming to life. >The author’s hold on language is the trump card of the book.
On the other hand	>The story takes a little time to kick start. You’ve to give at least initial few pages of patience to get the grip of the plot. >The ones who don’t live in Mumbai or don’t know the city even at the surface level might feel a little out of place but then this is not a  reason at all to not pick this book!!