128th out of 3,797 books
—
20,693 voters
A Fine Balance
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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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 ove...more
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
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...more
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...more
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
Savanna
rated it
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 t...more
Ben Babcock
rated it
·
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. A...more
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, sa...more
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, sa...more
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.
Oprah likes it, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. Just deeply wounded.
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.
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 pl...more
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 pl...more
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. i...more
i never really thought a book could break one's heart. this one did. i...more
"(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 In...more
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 In...more
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.
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
this book was incredible. so sad and yet parts of it were uplifting and so lovely that the author's belief in the ability of the human spirit to soar stood out, for me anyway, as more powerful than the terrible hardships that the people had to endure. i don't mean to downplay or undermine these experiences in any way, because they are unimaginably awful, but the ability of the characters to create beautiful relationships in the midst of chaos was incredible. like run (ann patchett), which i was ...more
Loved this book...couldn't put down! Favorite of all time!
This is an ambitious book about how average people in India were affected by Indira Gandhi's emergency during the late 70's and early 80's. The story started with rural low caste Indians that were supposed to be the untouchables, the ones that tanned leather. They had a very hard life especially when higher caste members of the village tormented them. This family decided to change from leather to become tailors. They learned from a Muslim in a nearby village. That caused them a great deal o...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is a tough book to review, because there are a lot of things wrong with it, and yet the overall feeling that it left me with was that I had just read a book that described India the way that I see it.
I found the writing style very cumbersome and at times, a little too heavy, but that is typical of Indian authors who write in English, I have noticed. I also think that the ending was a little unsatisfying, though I can allow that maybe I missed some of its significance.
...more
I found the writing style very cumbersome and at times, a little too heavy, but that is typical of Indian authors who write in English, I have noticed. I also think that the ending was a little unsatisfying, though I can allow that maybe I missed some of its significance.
...more
Elizabeth
rated it
Recommends it for:
literature junkies; those interested in India's caste system
Recommended to Elizabeth by:
Mr. Ellis
This book is a gift from my former teacher and mentor, which I received in the year he would begin teaching it in his high school AP/IB class. It is a dense work, and a challenging work, especially for sheltered suburban teens, and I understand why he needed to teach it.
Prior to reading this, I was relatively unfamiliar with India's caste system, beyond simply knowing that one exists. This beautifully written story explores three separate individuals from separate backgrounds, and sh...more
Prior to reading this, I was relatively unfamiliar with India's caste system, beyond simply knowing that one exists. This beautifully written story explores three separate individuals from separate backgrounds, and sh...more
There is a bizarre novelty attached to the story in the absurdness of its characters and their enmeshed lives. Probably not the best treatise on the Emergency years in India, but Mistry does manage to prop it up as a great and bitter backdrop for his story which is primarily about the lives of four people and their fight - a believer, a cynic, a struggler and a fighter.
While Dina tries hard to let go of her past and struggles to find her place in the world, Maneck tries to salvage his...more
While Dina tries hard to let go of her past and struggles to find her place in the world, Maneck tries to salvage his...more
Oh crap. I didn't realize Oprah already marked this book her territory until after I finished it. My copy still smells wild and unbranded so I'll admit to reading it with that explanation.
This is a really, really good tragedy writ beautifully. It is, of course, a classic novel of modern India that stretches obscenely across time and circumstance like one of Russia's greatest. I like the efficient book more as a rule, which this story is not, but Mistry created characters I care...more
This is a really, really good tragedy writ beautifully. It is, of course, a classic novel of modern India that stretches obscenely across time and circumstance like one of Russia's greatest. I like the efficient book more as a rule, which this story is not, but Mistry created characters I care...more
This was a very good book. Mistry, often, left me to marvel at the sentence I had just read, and like most of the best authors, his writing has a genuine quality to it. It will require more of your concentration than a simple beach novel, as many of the themes are deep and dark indeed. If I wasn't going to India in a month (and hungry for intelligence thereof), I might've found it more difficult to plow through.
Dealing with four characters in India in the mid-70s, it reminded me m...more
Dealing with four characters in India in the mid-70s, it reminded me m...more
I have been writing and revising this review in my mind the whole flipping eon it took for me to finish this book, and I still feel like I just do not know what to say. Welcome to 1984-esque dystopia slash historical fiction slash holocaust meets india slash omg am I really spoiled or did life just totally bite back then... I don't know much about India in the seventies but GEEEEEEEEEEEZ. While I was struggling through it (is this how people feel when I recommend books and say, yea it's distur...more
marg
added it
I have been writing and revising this review in my mind the whole flipping eon it took for me to finish this book, and I still feel like I just do not know what to say. Welcome to 1984-esque dystopia slash historical fiction slash holocaust meets india slash omg am I really spoiled or did life just totally bite back then... I don't know much about India in the seventies but GEEEEEEEEEEEZ. While I was struggling through it (is this how people feel when I recommend books and say, yea it's distur...more
Preeta
rated it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people interested in real Indian writing
I think this is one of the best Indian novels published in the last 15 years, perhaps second only to The God of Small Things (caveat: I haven't read The Inheritance of Loss). [I'm using "Indian" broadly, to refer to India and the Indian diaspora.] It's not perfect -- there were times when I felt it rambled, and I generally like rambling but some of this irritated me because it was too expository, too much (I think) a concession to people who know nothing about India. But this book i...more
This is a compelling, heart-wrenching story. I found myself missing Ghandi while I read it. It's based in India and follows the lives of a handful of characters from different castes as they try and find their best advantage in the world. It is not a fun read. I think it's a valuable read, though. I cried at the end. The story lingers and is difficult to take sometimes. This is another story that makes me wonder what I can do to make the world a better place. It also makes me grateful fo...more
If you want to get lost in a good book, try this one! It is long, 600 pages, but it is an easy quick read.
The characters literally live in a fine balance between hope and depair. Just when you think everything is going well...the unhappy side of life happens. By the end of the 600 pages I felt like I knew these people. In fact the night after finishing there was a television program on and the story was taking place in India. I found myself searching the street scenes for a gl...more
The characters literally live in a fine balance between hope and depair. Just when you think everything is going well...the unhappy side of life happens. By the end of the 600 pages I felt like I knew these people. In fact the night after finishing there was a television program on and the story was taking place in India. I found myself searching the street scenes for a gl...more
Mistry always seems to write with flowing words and gripping "tales of India"stories. I really feel for his characters, and I see a side of life that millions of people struggle through. At times, I began to fear turning the page to find what might happened to the characters. And rest assured, when I turned the last page, and look for some comfort, there was't any.
I read Family Matters first, and the while the characters are not the same people by name, they are the same p...more
I read Family Matters first, and the while the characters are not the same people by name, they are the same p...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This is an exceptional book! | 21 | 84 | Feb 04, 2012 02:49am | |
| THE LISTS: Novel [2] Updates | 10 | 8 | Jan 17, 2012 12:54pm | |
| A 2012 Challenge:...: A Fine Balance Group | 96 | 105 | Jan 08, 2012 03:36pm | |
| Great Quote | 5 | 125 | Sep 16, 2011 06:12am |
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.
Author photo courtesy of Faber and Faber website.
Wikipedia article at THIS LINK.
More about Rohinton Mistry...
Author photo courtesy of Faber and Faber website.
Wikipedia article at THIS LINK.
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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.”
—
65 people liked it
“Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.”
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46 people liked it
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