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A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

Start date: May 26, 2019

Finish date: September 15, 2019

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A Fine Balance

* A Fine Balance - Chapter 16 & Epilogue
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* A Fine Balance - Chapter 14 & Chapter 15
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What Members Thought

Feb 17, 2012 Kris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: india, fiction, 1001, favorites, five-stars

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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Jul 29, 2019 Cindy Newton rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, owned-books, kindle

This book gives a detailed and chilling picture of India during the 70s and 80s. The only books I have read about India before were set in the past, during the 1800s, but it was nice to recognize some of the customs and cultural details in this more modern story.

The story involves four protagonists--Dina Delal, a widow fighting to stay independent after her husband's death; Maneck, a college student trying to find his future and build a better relationship with his father; and Om and Ishvar, tw This book gives a detailed and chilling picture of India during the 70s and 80s. The only books I have read about India before were set in the past, during the 1800s, but it was nice to recognize some of the customs and cultural details in this more modern story.

The story involves four protagonists--Dina Delal, a widow fighting to stay independent after her husband's death; Maneck, a college student trying to find his future and build a better relationship with his father; and Om and Ishvar, two tailors from a small village trying to make their fortunes in the big city. This unlikely group is brought together by economic necessity as Dina hires the two tailors to sew for her in-home business and takes in young Maneck as a boarder. The story introduces a host of colorful characters as all of the main characters struggle to survive in a city that seems to be plagued by lawlessness and ruffians, many of whom are part of law enforcement. Om and Ishvar come into contact with many of these strange people--beggars, the Beggarmaster, a hair salesman, a Monkey Man, and many others. While they are entertaining, they also emphasize the cruelty that flourishes in the society. People at the bottom of the food chain have no recourse, no protection against those who prey on them.

I know that America is not perfect and has many problems that need solving, but every page of this book made me glad that I was born here! There are people here who live in poverty and deal with terrible situations. I'm not going to pretend that I know what it is like to live in some of the lower-income, crime-riddled neighborhoods in our country, because I don't. I have never heard of anything to rival the atrocities these people suffer in the book, though. The government gives permission for the homeless to build tents and huts in an area and actually collects rents from them, then shows up one day and bulldozes all of it down without even letting them retrieve their belongings. Homeless people are pulled forcibly from the streets, being beaten in the process, and are driven to remote locations where they are kept as unpaid slave labor.

The beggars are the worst, though. Children are taken or sold to beggar masters at young ages--even as babies. There are a lot of beggars in India--a LOT. This means that to be a successful beggar, you've got to have an angle. So the beggar masters maim and mutilate the kids to give them an edge over the average beggar. There are discussions about cutting off hands and noses, and about how, as competition heats up, that just blinding babies isn't enough--you have to actually remove their eyeballs so that only empty sockets are left. That will inspire more compassion than an old woman or even a legless man, after all. Not for the squeamish!! So as bad as things can be here, I don't think we've quite reached this level.

The thing that is so heartbreaking is the overwhelming indifference to life that seems to permeate this society. No one cares that these children are being crippled and mutilated--literally no one. The story of Om's and Ishvar's lives is a heartrending tale rife with terrible injustices. Multiple members of their family are murdered, and no one is arrested. African-Americans experienced this before Civil Rights, in many ways, but even they did not have their children taken and their eyes gouged out and noses cut off. That sense of helplessness, though, of there being absolutely nothing you can do to help yourself or those you love, is frightening. Reading a book like this just reminds me that there are a lot of other countries in the world, places where the rights and freedoms and protections that I take for granted don't exist. I'm just glad to be an American!!

*** SPOILER ****

The ending was unexpected and devastating, for me. I hadn't really formulated any specific predictions about the end, but I guess, subconsciously, that I was expecting something a little more upbeat than what we got. I guess that the ending as it is, though, is appropriate for the society it exists in. Worth the read! ...more

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Jun 20, 2019 Mekki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-read, 1900, looks-interesting, indian-literature, 1001-book, g1000-state-of-the-nation, g1000, chunkster, award-man-booker-nominee

I've never read a novel so emotionally draining... I've laughed out loud in some parts and had to put this down due to the shock and sadness.

This is one of the best novels I ever read. Highly recommended. ...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Amy rated it really liked it

This devastating novel chronicles the intersecting of four characters during Indira Ghandi's Emergency measures in 1975, which included mass sterilization, work camps and slum demolitions, to name a few. It is a shocking and very depressing commentary on the injustices that were suffered by the poor and the helpless during this period. Yet, as depressing as it is, it's also uplifting how these characters endure their hardships with such generosity and compassion for each other. The book's title ...more

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