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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 23, 2016 Hugh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016, favourites, booker-shortlist, modern-classics, modern-lit

This is about as close to an epic Victorian novel as modern fiction gets.

Mistry weaves together the stories of four main protagonists whose fates are thrown together by the upheavals of India's Emergency in 1975. Dina is a Parsee widow, with a rich family but struggling to maintain her independence in her late husband's flat. She employs Ishvar and Om, two tailors taking refuge from their rural community after reprisals following their family's refusal to conform to the expectations of their lo ...more

50 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2019 Pamela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read, boxall-1001-read, india, favorites

Set in 1970s India during The Emergency, this is the story of four people whose lives come together - the widowed Dina who is determined to maintain her fragile independence, the two tailors Ishvar and Om who left their village to find work in the city, and the student Maneck. This epic novel tells how their lives and fates entwine through a bleak period of political turmoil.

This book is a masterpiece of black comedy and utter tragedy. It is a scathing attack on the policies pursued during the E ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

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

11 likes · Like · see review

Dec 13, 2017 Greg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-century, reviewed, 1001-books-to-read, favorites-of-all-time

"Then she dried her hands and decided to take a nap before starting the evening meal" reads the final line. And what a magnificent line on which to end, as it says it all. This epic story seems so alive, so real: I can't help but feel Mistry experienced this world and these lives. A heartbreaking but at the same time beautiful stunner. There is a scene toward the middle of this book in which the government puts on a grand show for the public but the stage/set built literally falls apart to revea ...more

6 likes · Like · see review