A Fine Balance in On Paths Unknown

Mar 26, 2015 Gisela rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary, long-fiction, _favorites

If you don't like depressing, tragic novels, this book is not for you. In many ways, I'm still puzzled why I fell in love with this book. Maybe I'm a sucker for tragedy. But this isn't grand tragedy in the traditional sense where the focus is on royalty or famous historical figures. Instead it's a heart-breakingly, achingly story about a group of people who are the poorest of the poor - the most downtrodden and vulnerable.

With great compassion, humanity, restraint and dignity, "A Fine Balance" If you don't like depressing, tragic novels, this book is not for you. In many ways, I'm still puzzled why I fell in love with this book. Maybe I'm a sucker for tragedy. But this isn't grand tragedy in the traditional sense where the focus is on royalty or famous historical figures. Instead it's a heart-breakingly, achingly story about a group of people who are the poorest of the poor - the most downtrodden and vulnerable.

With great compassion, humanity, restraint and dignity, "A Fine Balance" depicts the extraordinary heroism and perseverance that can mark even the most inherently disadvantaged. In setting the tragedy of his main characters against the broader, historical backdrop of Indira Ghandi's rule, Mistry also gives us insight into a turbulent period in the sub-continent's history and shows us the impact that macro-politics can have at the micro-level on those with the least power.

Mistry is exquisitely restrained in his prose and the depiction of his characters and the world they inhabit. I must read this book again to see how Mistry weaves his magic. Why was I compelled to read, what is on the surface, a most depressing case of "life's a sh*t, and then you die"? Is it like watching a train wreck (ha! I wrote this without consciously thinking how appropriate this expression is in the context of this book)? Did I keep reading because I loved these characters so much that I wanted to believe that there would be a happier ending? And yet such an ending would have been totally dishonest.

In many ways, "A Fine Balance" reminds me of John Williams's "Stoner" in its depiction of heroism at the level of "ordinary people", in its measured and exquisitely crafted prose, and in the piercing observations about human frailty and tragedy at an everyday level. In each case I was mystified why I could not put either book down even though, on the surface, both books were presenting me with accounts of bleak outcomes for apparently unprepossessing characters. Yet books tear at my guts and heart in the same way that "King Lear" does, no matter how often I read it or see a performance. ...more

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