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A Fine Balance

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 51,841 ratings · 4,369 reviews

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uproote...more

Paperback, 603 pages

Published November 30th 2001 by Vintage (first published 1995)

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Aug 07, 2012 Garima rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bharat, favorites, booker-prize, books-to-read-before-you-die

But rest assured: This tragedy is not a fiction. All is True.

Hence started my journey of a fine book, A Fine Balance. I have no sane excuse for my ignorance about Rohinton Mistry novels. I just didn’t have a single clue about him or his achievements till I joined Goodreads. Yes!! Though it’s not a big deal as one is not supposed to know everything but here’s a writer of Indian origin, writing unbelievably great books about Indians and is still remain unacknowledged by a common Indian reader is...more But rest assured: This tragedy is not a fiction. All is True.

Hence started my journey of a fine book, A Fine Balance. I have no sane excuse for my ignorance about Rohinton Mistry novels. I just didn’t have a single clue about him or his achievements till I joined Goodreads. Yes!! Though it’s not a big deal as one is not supposed to know everything but here’s a writer of Indian origin, writing unbelievably great books about Indians and is still remain unacknowledged by a common Indian reader is densely pitiable. His Facebook page has 7000+ odd likes where, as I gauged from the comments, majority is of non-Indians. But then he is no marketing guru but a writer who writes and writes well, so well that it can make you cringe at the comfortable life you’re having or at least makes you open your eyes to take a good look at the hardships of the hapless lots around you.

I don’t read about Politics because it disgusts me. I don’t have a deep understanding about the 1970’s Emergency period because fortunately nobody in my family or acquaintances got affected by it, so basically it’s the experience which tells a story, just watching, simply gives an indifferent shrug. On the surface I know that it happened under the PMship of Indira Gandhi. School mainly tells you: She was the First women PM of India. She was the daughter of honorable Pandit JawaharLal Nehru. She was the mother of one of the youngest PM of India, Rajiv Gandhi. She was the reason why India didn’t face another partition by launching Operation Blue Star, hence reduced the idea of Khalistan into ashes because of which she was later assassinated. Nothing more, nothing less always a glossy and martyred picture of Daughter of India, Ironically.

So how does it feel to read A Fine Balance? What does it promise to convey its readers? What makes a 600+ page novel readable or rather a page-turner? What’s different about the lives of Dina Dalal, Ishvar, Om and Maneck that you haven’t witness before especially being an Indian? Well the answer could be “May be nothing is different, all trite”, or; “It’s helluva great story, I haven’t read anything like this before”. But the answer remains somewhere in between and the secret is Rohinton’s great writing. His matter-of-factly narration, awesome character building and plot settings can give you the pleasure like watching ‘Hum Log’ on high definition channel. He is not a man of big bulky words, dictionary is almost dispensable while reading him but the words are piercing enough to make you feel the subject. The story reflects through them in an unmatched finesse. There is no room left for any improvement as he has used every single component at his disposal in building this masterpiece, just like Dina’s quilt in the novel.

The story revolves around four main characters, Dina Dalal, a widow and a self-respected lady who treats her independence dearest than any of the relations left in her life. Ishwar, a darji (tailor) whose father sent him to get equipped with tailoring in order to earn him a life of repute which he wouldn’t have got under the fate-imposed Chamaar profession. Om, Ishvar’s nephew, again a darji, a young and aggressive lad and an orphan whose life is dedicated mainly to his uncle Ishvar and vice-versa. And, Maneck, a guy from Mountains, whose struggle to know and feel his worth in lives of others especially his parents and a college friend remained unending. The story is about how four of them got together in one flat not willingly but due to twists and turns life threw at them. It’s a journey of how reluctance was over-powered by compassion, how loneliness made room for companionship and how a house became home , how four of them amidst many doubts and objections became “there for each other” Kind, but it was a home of cards waiting for a gush of insensitive wind to tumble it and its housemates.

It’s a sad novel, heart wrenching in fact. It will make you cry (except in case of defective tear ducts) and it will make you very angry. It has its dose of humor but simultaneously it carries an air of apprehension around it like how a moment of happiness is short-lived and shall soon be replaced by gloominess and sorrow. It’s something I felt while watching Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, where as an audience one starts to feel that good days will be balanced out with bad days because Life, the bitch, usually gives us lemons, and to the unfortunate lot, it plants a lemon tree at the backyard of their wretched life. But throughout, this book echoes one universal law, that despair doesn’t have a favorite victim. It befalls upon everyone at some point of time, triggered by fate, destiny or power hungry human beings.

History is a witness to how Power breeds evil, breeds mainly on the blood of innocent lives who would have never imagined that their destiny would sacrifice them to such inexplicable atrocities. This book depicts the story revolving around such atrocities and enduring them, living through them, dying through them or merely surviving through them and resilience is the main key to such survival. Rohinton has captured life through his characters, has captured India through an unfortunate time, has captured ugliness of human face and has finally captured resplendence of human soul through his mesmerizing words.

READ IT !!!
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Feb 20, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, wine-club, 2013, reviewed

Liking this book makes no sense. Not only are its characters subjected to like, the bleakest set of circumstances ever, but then those circumstances are presented to the reader with such an alarming degree of authorial detachment that you almost have to wonder whether Mistry himself—fed up with the unending series of hardships his characters are required to endure—didn’t just raise his arms in the air and say, “Oh, fuck it.” And yet I could not tear myself away from this train wreck.

A Fine Balan...more Liking this book makes no sense. Not only are its characters subjected to like, the bleakest set of circumstances ever, but then those circumstances are presented to the reader with such an alarming degree of authorial detachment that you almost have to wonder whether Mistry himself—fed up with the unending series of hardships his characters are required to endure—didn’t just raise his arms in the air and say, “Oh, fuck it.” And yet I could not tear myself away from this train wreck.

A Fine Balance presents neither a balanced nor a very fine account of a group of four Indian residents during the late 1970s. These folks, heralding from different castes and backgrounds, are tossed together by their individually perturbing situations to forge an unlikely bond—not unlike the bond formed among the cast members of Big Brother or The Real World except that in this case, the glamorous hot tub around which the characters congregate is replaced by a broken propane stove and a rusty tap from which water can be drawn only occasionally. For those not brushed up on their political history, the late 1970s saw India under the rule of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who, though largely considered one of India’s greatest prime ministers on account of her centralizing policies (the constitutionality of which, I suppose, could be debated), was certainly not among those in the author’s favor. Throughout the story, Mistry’s characters are continually being caught in Gandhi’s crossfire even while remaining mostly oblivious to the political climate surrounding them. We get the distinct impression that Mistry is trying really hard to keep his own opinions from interfering with the story, but it is pretty obvious dude’s got some serious bitterness issues to work out.

Anyway, this book is not without its flaws. A few characters bump into each other under repeatedly, under no plausible pretext other than pure coincidence, and this coincidence occurs frequently enough, especially toward the end of the novel, that the reader has to remind himself that this is India we’re talking about here, right? The one with a population density of a thousand people per square mile? Mistry makes us feel like this might be an India under glass, where the characters are tiny steel balls and Mistry is controlling the flippers.

This book is good, though. For all its doom and gloom, I still see the hope in its pages. Three of its characters are clothing tailors, and one of the repeated themes is something about how life is like the patchwork of a quilt, the good parts and the bad parts being sewn together—but if one were to try to remove the bad parts, he’d only end up with holes in his life.

(I suppose you’d have to think positively when you share a crapper with 150 other villagers.)(less)

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Aug 16, 2007 Z rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone looking for a deep and complex read

Shelves: favourites

I stayed up all night to finish this book, because the climax is simply unputdownable. I am hesitant to formally review it because it's one of those few books that can't be confined within the bounds of a critique or summary, and one that is so magnificent and moving that the idea of reviewing it makes me feel insolent already! So I'll just note what I feel about the book, and the kind of effect it's had on me.

It's grim. Very grim. There are moments of tragicomedy, of overjoyed glimpses of the s...more

I stayed up all night to finish this book, because the climax is simply unputdownable. I am hesitant to formally review it because it's one of those few books that can't be confined within the bounds of a critique or summary, and one that is so magnificent and moving that the idea of reviewing it makes me feel insolent already! So I'll just note what I feel about the book, and the kind of effect it's had on me.

It's grim. Very grim. There are moments of tragicomedy, of overjoyed glimpses of the sun on a very grey day, but it's not a happy story, and it makes no pretensions to being one. The heartwrenching ending had me involuntarily wondering what kind of person would want to write a bleak tale like that -- and then I understood Mistry's message through the book, that this is fiction, but not made-up; this is a novel, but larger-than-life; this is yesterday, persisting into today and reaching out its long clammy fingers into tomorrow.

Life's vicissitudes toss four unlikely companions into one living space, a dingy little flat, in the "City by the Sea," Bombay. Widow Dina Dalal has lived for decades in solitude, barely making ends meet, watching the sun rise and set everyday with the same transparent indifference; college-student Maneck Kohlah has left his much-loved life and his family's little general store in the Himalayas to study air-conditioning and refrigeration in the city, a course that his father believes will equip him to deal with a world that is hell-bent on destroying nature to further technology; tailors Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, uncle and nephew, have left their village, and their traditional "untouchable" occupation of tanning animal hides to seek their fortunes in this city of dreams and earn enough money to go home and live more comfortably. This is the story of how these four people find family in each other, find friendship, laughter, and a courage to struggle and persevere despite all their troubles. This is the story of shattered dreams, of Indira Gandhi's cruel Emergency, of how each person's life is webbed and entangled in its own drama, of caste, poverty, and a positive survival instinct corroded into a dog-eat-dog mentality that strangulates, just as time itself does.

Many parts of the book brought tears to my eyes, but by the time I finished it, I was actually sobbing. Somewhere in these six hundred pages the reader becomes friends with the characters, begins to share their joys and sorrows, and desperately wish for a happy ending that he/she knows, deep down, is not to be.

This is a life-changing read, and one that I would be truly sorry to see anyone miss out on.
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130 likes · like · see review

May 06, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-classic, novels

Rohinton Mistry has written three whopping novels set in India, Such a Long Journey, A Fine Balance, and Family Matters, and they're all brilliant. He doesn't have pyrotechnic prose like the DeLillos and Pynchons, he's the tortoise to their hares, he plods on with his careful beautiful pictures of the details of people's lives, the complexities and the horrors and the unnoticed pools of affection, where the money comes from and where it goes, how they get through the day and how they don't - his...more

48 likes · like · see review

Oct 13, 2010 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, india, 2010-read

This book was like a punch in the gut, or a hard kick to the balls. The kind where you double over dry heaving. That's how powerful it was.

Mistry's novel traces the lives of four people over the period of about one year when they come together under one roof. That one year is also year one into Indira Ghandi's State of Emergency, declared after the Indian Supreme Court rules her election illegal.

There are some excellent set peices. notgettingenough's review describes one. I won't repeat it here...more This book was like a punch in the gut, or a hard kick to the balls. The kind where you double over dry heaving. That's how powerful it was.

Mistry's novel traces the lives of four people over the period of about one year when they come together under one roof. That one year is also year one into Indira Ghandi's State of Emergency, declared after the Indian Supreme Court rules her election illegal.

There are some excellent set peices. notgettingenough's review describes one. I won't repeat it here, but recommend that you go read what she has to say.

My own personal favourite was the scene where the tailors, together with the inhabitants of their shantytown, are forcibly gathered by the police and bussed to a location where the "beloved" Indira Ghandi would be giving a speech. The ceremony, filled with much bowing and scraping by her political allies, ends with a helicopter flying past and throwing rose petals on the prime minister. The people pretty much ignore the entire ceremony, cheering only when told to do so. They do, however, get some excitement when the helicopter's strong downdraft causes a large signboard cut out in the shape of Indira Ghandi to fall on the crowd below.

Another hardhitting scene occurs several days later when the police and labour contractors come to round up the beggars and poor sleeping in the street. They have clearly been told by the Ghandi adminstration to clear the streets of the poor and give them jobs as part of a "beautification" project. What this means is that the poor are rounded up by force, beaten if necessary. When the contractor protests that he can't do anything with injured people, the police officer in charge replies, "Don't worry, my men know how to hit people without leaving visible marks." The contractor pays the police officer, brings the poor to a construction site, and is paid in turn for them. The poor are, of course, forced into hard labour, their only pay being a meagre portion of food and shelter. Slavery, of course, by another name.

Other atrocities follow: corrupt officials who carry out vascectomies on old men to meet their imposed quotas, the shantytown gets bulldozed to the ground. All of this brings brownie points to the officials for "doing their job", and a little extra money on the side as well. Mistry works a fine balance with these scenes: comedy and absurdity juxtopose neatly with the pathos and despair.

In the end, however, I was hard pressed to give this book five stars. I'm docking it one star because the ending didn't work for me. The last third of the book sees the comedy and tragedy heighten to the point of melodrama, which was pitched at a level higher than I would have liked. Perhaps I needed to read it straight through rather than over several weeks, so that the emotional impact would outweigh my difficulty in suspending disbelief. It's wholly subjective, of course, and I would certainly recommend this book as a good read.
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Mar 19, 2013 Dolors rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Four people from very different backgrounds cross their paths for a year during the seventies in India, and as we learn of their pasts, their presents and eventually of their futures, we get to know the political and social situation during that turbulent period in one of the poorest countries of the world.

I agree with most of the positive reviews when they say that this story is a faithful portrait of what might have been like to live in the India of the 70's and 80's (a complete nightmare), an...more Four people from very different backgrounds cross their paths for a year during the seventies in India, and as we learn of their pasts, their presents and eventually of their futures, we get to know the political and social situation during that turbulent period in one of the poorest countries of the world.

I agree with most of the positive reviews when they say that this story is a faithful portrait of what might have been like to live in the India of the 70's and 80's (a complete nightmare), and of course, to show the kind of life its people led there, with all the complicate relationships between them. Social distinctions between castes and tribes, the role of women in Indian society, and their struggle to survive in a complicate moment, just when the country starts to fight for a political independence in a corrupt society. Utterly depressing, if I may say so.

And yes, the descriptions are accurate, the setting interesting, and the characters thoroughly developed, which make the story highly believable and realistic, devastatingly realistic. A reality in which the much oppressed population lead miserable lives so that a few can lead luxurious ones, and as the tittle says, reaching a Fine Balance.

But then, I think the story lingers and lingers more than necessary, and even with all the dramatic events happening simultaneously to all the characters, I felt detached from the story, maybe because of too many disgraces put together from the beginning. Every time I finished a chapter I thought it couldn't get worse and I was wrong each time, things never improved and I was actually despairing by the end of the book. Even with one of the most supposed-to-be shocking scenes which should shake the reader, I just read through it and closed the last page without thinking twice.

So I'd just say that this is a well written book, which will interest those who want to know more about India and its people, but beware, because comparisons can be awful, and I have to say that the book didn't manage to move me the way Vikram Seth's "A Suitable boy" did.

Maybe the fatalistic point of view of an occidental writer who doesn't really know that life in a place like India can be beautiful as well.(less)

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Aug 22, 2007 Len rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: not for those with heart ailments

Recommended to Len by: Madhav Nair

the book was given to me by madhav, my indian friend of five years and still going. no introductions about the book, just that it's one book that i should read if i wanted to know more about india and the caste system and other things that matter. the story is set during indira gandhi's regime. it is teeming with layers of decades-old oppresion and discrimination, aggravated by a repressing political climate.

i never really thought a book could break one's heart. this one did. if there's anythin...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 05, 2008 cagey rated it 4 of 5 stars

WOW. Beautiful. Haunting. Sad. Compelling. Interesting. Educational. This book covers the stories of four characters living in India during the mid-70s during a time in which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a State of Emergency and in its name, countless human rights violations were committed. I am not sure I can say much that would do this book proper justice. It certainly had what I refer to as The Linger Factor. After I finished it, I sat thinking about it for awhile. When I woke up at...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Odai Alsaeed rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

مليئة هذه الرواية بحشود من التفاصيل تتمازج حبكتها بشكل ثري مع قصص الألم والمعاناة...الهند ثاني أكبر مدينة في كثافتها السكانية وأحد أفقر دول العالم تقرأ بشكل جديد في رواية (بين اليأس والألم)رؤية ممتعة جسدها الكاتب لأحوال العوز والفقر بمتناقضاتها و غريزة الحياة.....رواية روينتون ميستري مرشحة في القائمة القصيرة لجائزة بوكر العالمية ....ممتعة

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Jul 14, 2008 Savanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Savanna by: Sarah McConnell and Sara Lozito

Shelves: the-subcontinent, favorites

Unlike many of the Indian novels I have read, this book focuses on the Emergency years under Indira Gandhi. Mistry’s characters live through the terrifying campaigns of forced sterilization and “beautification” (slum destruction). But there is more to the novel than the abuses that occurred during the Emergency. Mistry takes the reader into the world of rural India in the 1960s and 70s where challenges to the caste system often resulted in beating, maiming, and sometimes death. He describes the...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian-eh, re-read, 2012-reads

A five star read the second time around, making this a 10 star book for me.

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 30, 2012 Kris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 1001, india, favorites

This is a compelling novel. Mistry focuses the story around the lives and interactions of four main characters, who cross paths in an unnamed city in India in 1975 during the State of Emergency. Mistry is unsparing in details of how difficult, even cruel, life is for these characters. Their opportunities are constrained by caste, gender, government corruption locally and across the country, and greed. In detailed flashbacks, Mistry describes the pasts of the characters with such humanity that it...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: commonwealth-prize, scotiabank-giller, 1001-books, rws-spring-2012, 5-star-reads

"You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair."

Thus, one of the minor characters in this book tells us the meaning of the book. Without using those words in any other context, Mistry well conveys those emotions. I could ask for more hope, less despair, but would this book have meant as much?

The circumstances in India of the tim...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Ben Babcock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ben by: Vesna Sukalo

Shelves: own, 2010-read, canadian-author, favourites, historical-fiction, indian-fiction, postcolonial, 2010-best10

This is probably the most depressing book I have ever read in my entire life. Not only is its chronicling of four lives bleak and without the slightest hint of hope or redemption, but it does this with a comprehensive scope and an unforgiving manner. Even re-reading it, knowing what was going to happen, did not mitigate my sadness. If anything, it amplified my emotions, because for all of the good things that happen in this book, the moments of joy, I knew how it was all going to go wrong. And t...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Jean rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone with a beating heart

Shelves: all-time-favorites

This is one of my favorite books. It will absolutely gut you from beginning to end. The characters are complicated and sad but also lovable and deeply loved by one another. The suffering is so real; some succumb to it while others do not.

Umberto Eco always writes about how a good book's title should be as neutral and non-informative as possible. The reader decides what she is reading about and what it means. In this case, though, I disagree. The title is necesarily spot-on, saying it all in an...more

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May 30, 2008 sandra rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Beth Haymaker

A flowing and epic book with excellent characterization and masterful narrative. I was hooked.

Oprah likes it, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. Just deeply wounded.

7 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2008 Staci rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this a long time ago but it has stayed with me. I am intrigued by India and their social caste system and this book is enlightening and sad. You won't regret reading it.

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 21, 2012 Shirley Schwartz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: prize-winners, my-5-star-reads, my-special-favourites

This book is a modern-day masterpiece. Mr. Mistry won the 1995 Giller prize which was the second prize to be won. I have been reading my way down the list from the most recent so I have finally reached the point of the second and then the first winners of the prize. It has been a journey well worth the effort, but this book is something over and above a mere Giller Prize. It is a wonderfully written masterpiece, a tapestry of human happiness and great sadness. The characters are beautifully draw...more This book is a modern-day masterpiece. Mr. Mistry won the 1995 Giller prize which was the second prize to be won. I have been reading my way down the list from the most recent so I have finally reached the point of the second and then the first winners of the prize. It has been a journey well worth the effort, but this book is something over and above a mere Giller Prize. It is a wonderfully written masterpiece, a tapestry of human happiness and great sadness. The characters are beautifully drawn. I feel as though I am leaving old friends as I close the pages on this very big and beautiful book. I loved Dina, Ishvar and Omprakash the tailors and young Maneck Kohlah, a young student studying in the big city and far away from his beloved home in the mountains. But not only these four characters will haunt me for many days. There is a wonderful cast of minor characters too that fit into the tapestry of the lives of these four people. Beggarmaster, Shankar, Nusswan and a whole host of other characters-each individual and each unforgettable. But while I was reading I had to keep reminding myself that this book was set in India in the mid 1970's. It seemed more like the middle ages to me. There was so much sorrow, hardship and sadness that these people endured. The book actually only covers one year in time from beginning to end, but so much happens in that one year. There were many times when I couldn't endure to read the terrible things that happened to the people in the book and especially to Ishvar and Omprakash that I had to put it down for a time until I felt I could assimilate it and go on. But the book is not all sadness there is love and laughter and the closeness of family here too. And Mistry often lets a little humour into the book which helps alleviate the sadness and depair and also helps to make these characters seem even more real. This book is unforgettable and a must-read for anyone who loves to read for the vivd pictures a very talented author can create. I also read in order to better understand human nature. Humanity is a big patchwork quilt, all connected but separate too as we lead our own lives in our own corners of the world. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I feel priviliged to have read it. I must admit it haunted me, even at night.(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Lori rated it 5 of 5 stars

"There is always hope - hope enough to balance our despair. Or we would be lost." So Mr. Valmik says to Dina when she enlists his legal services one day. Laughter and tears, strength and weakness, hope and despair; such is A Fine Balance; a tale of life, love and loss so wonderfully told by Mr. Rohinton Mistry. This was a book so difficult to read at times that it almost hurt and yet so beautifully and eloquently written that you could not bear to put it down. The story focusing on 4 key individ...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 18, 2009 Clif Hostetler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

The fine balance being referred to in the title is between hope and despair. Unfortunately it left me with more despair than hope. Nevertheless, the small glimmer of hope that does appear is most precious in contrast to its surrounding despair.

Most of what I previously knew of life in India is what I learned from the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire." So perhaps I needed to be exposed to a more complete rendering of Indian life. But at least the movie ended with a burst of joy and happiness -- though...more The fine balance being referred to in the title is between hope and despair. Unfortunately it left me with more despair than hope. Nevertheless, the small glimmer of hope that does appear is most precious in contrast to its surrounding despair.

Most of what I previously knew of life in India is what I learned from the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire." So perhaps I needed to be exposed to a more complete rendering of Indian life. But at least the movie ended with a burst of joy and happiness -- though a bit unrealistically. This book in contrast is a long drawn out taste of bitter medicine with not much reward at the end.

The book focuses on four intersecting lives during Indira Ghandi's Emergency measurers that date from 1975 to 1977. However, there are extensive narrative flashbacks to earlier times -- circa the 1947 partition and leading up to the 70's. The cruel effects of the emergency measures including mass sterilization, work camps and slum demolitions are described in the story. This novel was a real eye-opener to the gross injustices against the poor and helpless during this time. If you have any interest in India or the caste system this is a must read. But be forewarned: it can be very depressing. Yet, as depressing as it is, it's uplifting how these characters not only endure their hardships, but endure with generosity and compassion.

This novel is a testament to how the human spirit can prevail through hopelessness and despair. The following is an excerpt from the book that caught my eye:

What an unreliable thing is time--when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair." .... "But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly."

After finishing the book it has occurred to me that the title, "A Fine Balance," can have a slightly different meaning. The story shows that freedom from poverty doesn't bring happiness, nor does abject poverty. The secret is in achieving a fine balance between the two. It's not between hope and despair, but rather a stoic acceptance versus hopeless despair.

The book deserves five stars, but I can't give five stars to a book that makes me feel such sadness and despair. Nevertheless, I acknowledge the book is well written and the plot carefully crafted. I really have to admire the author for putting together a heck of a story.

The following is a review from PageADay's Book Lover's Calendar for 3/13/13:
Reviewers and voracious readers routinely rank this exceptional novel among their top ten of all time. Set in 1975, in an unnamed coastal city in India, four strangers are forced to share one cramped apartment due to the recent declaration of a State of Emergency. Often compared to Charles Dickens’s character-rich fiction, A Fine Balance is a modern classic that’s not to be missed.
A FINE BALANCE , by Rohinton Mistry (1997; Vintage, 2001) (less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hf, india, kirkus, sample-ok, audio, 2013challenge

I did enjoy this book very much, so I must give it four stars. How I determine the stars is that simple! Explaining why I feel as I do, that is the point of the review.

I came to care for people that are so very different from me. The author made their lives tangible to me. The author taught me about a time and place in such a way that it became MY world. You learn about life in Bombay during the 70s when Indira Gandhi implemented the "Emergency Rule", "Beautification" and enforced sterilization....more

13 likes · like · see review

Jun 01, 2007 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-lit

I don't know what to say really. Its a tough book I mean, I guess that goes hand in hand with this world being a tough, sad, generally unfair place. Sometimes I can't figure out how to store that all in my heart.

Favorite moments from the book:

"Maneck studied Beggarmaster's excessive chatter, his attmept to hide his heartache. Why did humans do that to their feelings? Whether it was anger love or sadness, they always tried to put something else forward in its place. And then there were those who...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2008 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

"(The secret to survival) is to maintain a balance between hope and despair".

This quote between two strangers on a train in 1975 India. This devastating novel chronicles the intersecting of four lives during Indira Ghandi's Emergency measures, which included mass sterilization,
work camps and slum demolitions, just to name a few.
This novel was a real eye-opener to the gross injustices against the poor and helpless during this time. If you have any interest in India or
the caste system this is a m...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jun 17, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

4.5 /5
Just finished and feeling a bit stunned. Amazing how history in other countries passes you by even more than that of our own. So well written, I really cared about the characters. Without wishing to give too much away that made it hard reading in places. At a talk at the Hay Festival last week I learnt Rohinton Mistry's work had been removed from the syllabus at Delhi University as it was 'not suitable'
I had no idea about the 'Emergency' or the other dreadful programmes outlined here.
D...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Stephen P rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

A book, along with two others which mysteriously appeared on my living room couch. My wife, equally at a loss had no idea where they came from. No one had been to the house previously, certainly not the dear family friend who just finished A Fine Balance and asked if I would read it. Reluctantly taking a break from Walser and The Tanners, I began my 600 page responsibility to a person who has always been there for us.

The book's first four pages were partially folded from use, not to signify any...more A book, along with two others which mysteriously appeared on my living room couch. My wife, equally at a loss had no idea where they came from. No one had been to the house previously, certainly not the dear family friend who just finished A Fine Balance and asked if I would read it. Reluctantly taking a break from Walser and The Tanners, I began my 600 page responsibility to a person who has always been there for us.

The book's first four pages were partially folded from use, not to signify any important passage or point. The remainder of the pages were white and crisp except for the occasional single letter or short word erased from use. It wasn't clear whether they were fading or attempting to emerge. No name of ownership or penned notes showed anywhere or any other sign the book hand been read in another's hands.

On a good day I can read thirty pages. Immediately the words vanished and one hundred pages were completed each day. Immersed in a foreign culture, India, 1975, under the brutal reign of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi and her State of Emergency, the tortures of a caste system, the mass murders of a government discarding citizen rights and reaching for complete and lasting control, left me as fearful as the characters whose lives I lived. The world of death and torture was hideous, the stench of relentless fear. Other manners of the denial of life emerged more silent yet still brutalizing the living of a life. In small villages in order to provide safety for oneself and one's family life had to be ordered according to one's station as provided within the unwritten sanctions of caste. Aspirations, dreams, uniqueness were sacrificed to live as one was expected to live by the citizen's of the town. The hope flourished that children would follow suite, marrying and having their children quietly dragging the yoke of this life, participating in the small happinesses of the allotted conventions. In the large and growing cities life also was abdicated by the grasp for power where no matter where it was found there was a higher power controlling it, or the striving for upper or middle class existence with its conformity, safety, accoutrements, and agreed upon cliche's which passed off the burden of hypocrisy, the breath-quickened unreasoned reason for the, "Necessary," flood of blood. Precious life was taken, but also discarded by buckling to what others thought, the pronounced model of success, being, "Right," kneeling before the altar of arbitrary convention created to support the edifice of reigning power.

The great vampire that sucked the blood out of life was, time. It devoured individuals. Families were crushed, their ways of life vanishing, then vanished. This is the work of the world, the passage of time lost opening to its precarious renewal in different forms. A tragedy in this story is that time passed but did not open onto a new time for the many that might provide a continuation or a new existence with further meanings. Many reached a dead end as did the repetitions of the changing of power in new vestments with old designs of clothing hidden beneath.

Yet, there was a woman who defied custom and went off to make a life on her own despite the expectations that she was chosen for success within the fence-lined beliefs of her village. It was always difficult, one obstacle after another, then another waiting in line to follow. She was not the customary hero, nor never sought that trophy. Her heroism was in being herself and trying to survive where odds said she could not. This question hung in the air till near the end of the story, survival. Over time she found unexpectedly a familial love with the two tailors and a young border who lived with her in her small flat. Concern, giving, and caring sprung from people I never imagined could, would. The evil also carried hearts which could warm at times. Did she make the right choice? It could have been easier if she listened to the insistence of her brother and married at an early age, or marry at all. Tough, with all the difficulties she did live her life, patch-worked as it may have seemed to those doing what they were supposed-to-do. Those readers who love quiet heroes, this is a woman to adore, a story to adore, who can adore unexpected small gestures of kindness that flourish tender within bleakness.

This is beautiful and seamless writing that does not call attention to itself but gifted to the reader for the telling of this story. As I write I am understanding why when I finished and since, I have been emotionally wrought. I wanted to get back to reading Walser, a newspaper, listening to music, anything. This may be due to something personal within me and my identification with these characters and this story, or the literary accomplishment, or both. Although writing about it has now helped me to understand it there is still no resolution. I sit here embroiled. The past tells me to allow it to rage within and not get in its way. In the end it will open up for me, as great books do, a life with a fuller meaning.

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Jan 24, 2013 Suchitra rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is actually a 4 star book. The only reason I have downgraded it to 3 is because it is so so full of hopelessness!
What I liked about this book- the writing is excellent, the author can create characters and places so well that I can see it all happening rather than the words, there r clues in the whole book as to what is going to happen next so u envision possibilities and only one of them comes true, it told me a lot about the emergency period...
What I did not like about the book- it's hopel...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 01, 2007 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazing in the sense that I was continually drawn to read more even though it contained nothing but misfortune for the innocent characters. Very moving, very sad. I am really motivated to learn more about the politics and turmoil of India at the time of the settiing of the book.

4 likes · like · see review

May 02, 2012 Leslie Kent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-so-far, books-i-have-read-more-than-once

I read this when it was first out but don't remember very much just liking it alot. Nothing was catching my fancy and the other two I'm reading weren't beckoning to me. So I thought time for a reread. 5/2-finished reread. It was just as good as I remembered. It was also just as sad. However somehow this time I found the pieces of beauty and happiness sprinkled in between easier. I found more out of the relationships and at the end I wasn't bogged down like the first time. I didn't close the book...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 03, 2013 Dolly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of historical fiction

Shelves: 2013, historical-fiction, india, van-noy-book-club, religion-philosophy, education-school, library, poetry-song-music, money

What a miserable tale of woe. So completely depressing. Just when there's the smallest glimmer of hope, despair comes crashing down far worse than you could ever imagine. Over and over again. Sheesh.

This book offers an enlightening look at India in the 1970s, with an Epilogue set in 1984. The historical lesson is an important one to learn, but it is certainly hard to take. The tragic lives of so many people is heartbreaking, and I have little doubt that this book is fairly accurate in its portr...more What a miserable tale of woe. So completely depressing. Just when there's the smallest glimmer of hope, despair comes crashing down far worse than you could ever imagine. Over and over again. Sheesh.

This book offers an enlightening look at India in the 1970s, with an Epilogue set in 1984. The historical lesson is an important one to learn, but it is certainly hard to take. The tragic lives of so many people is heartbreaking, and I have little doubt that this book is fairly accurate in its portrayal of life in those times.

This book was selected as the January read for my local book club and I am glad that I read it. I cared for the characters and the plot was engaging, if horrifying. I was a bit put off by the coincidental meeting of a few of the different characters on different occasions, but otherwise, I thought it was a well-written book.

I took a break from reading the book right before a business trip. I had about 100 pages to go and I didn't want to lug such a large book with me. Besides, I had enough time to read the last bit before my club met and I wanted the book to be fresh in my mind. To a great extent, I wish I had stopped there. Those last 100 pages were so completely devastating and utterly heart-wrenching. I am glad that I read this book and I feel that it's an important story, but I just had to read something light afterward.

interesting quotes:

"Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off." (p. 48)

"There was no such thing as perfect privacy, life was a perpetual concert-hall recital with a captive audience." (p. 56)

"We feed them milk from our breast when they are babies, but we cannot feed them good sense." (p. 134)

"Please always remember, the secret of survival is to embrace change, and to adapt. To quote: 'All things fall and are built again, and those that build them again are gay.'"
"Yeats?" guessed Maneck.
The proofreader nodded, "You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair." (pp. 228-9)

"What an unreliable thing is time - when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair." He sighed and smiled sadly. "But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly." (p. 507)

"But what else to expect, when judgment has fled to brutish beasts, and the country's leaders have exchanged wisdom and good governance for cowardice and self-aggrandizement? Our society is decaying from the top downwards." (p. 551)

"After all, our lives are but a sequence of accidents - a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life." (p. 554)

new words: anfractuous, buccal, caparisoned, bedizened, sortilegious, parturition, langurs, crepitating, cyclostyled, horripilate, funambulating, triturated, panegyric

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5 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2010 notgettingenough rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: indian, modern-lit

What is reality? I collect statistics for my Masters. Cases of economic violence in Indian agriculture. Break them up, analyse them, caste, crop, nature of economic relationship to the landlord, nature of employment relationship. Season, where, how, type, killed, tortured, influence of communists in the area, influence of media in the area. Turn it all into numbers and percentages. That’s what academics do. It is about being neutral. ‘Objective.’ What I was doing mattered. It would make a differ...more

28 likes · like · see review

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About Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry is considered to be one of the foremost authors of Indian heritage writing in English. Residing in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, Mistry belongs to the Parsi Zoroastrian religious minority.

Mistry’s first novel, Such a Long Journey (1991), brought him national and international recognition. Mistry’s subsequent novels have achieved the same level of recognition as his first. His second n...more

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“...you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.” — 124 people liked it

“Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.” — 102 people liked it

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