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A Fine Balance,
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Rosemary
Once I'd read the line 'a fine balance between hope and despair' I realised what the book was about. It became very clear at the end when one character 'tipped over the edge' of despair whereas two others, who could well have done, managed to go about life chuckling.
Martine Taylor
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Andrew Scharlach
While the author clearly telegraphs one answer ("a fine balance between hope and despair"), I was struck by the "fine balance" between individualism and societal norms, and between modernity and tradition. Individuals who attempt to go beyond their assigned social roles (e.g., chamars who become tailors, Hindus who mix with Muslims, widows who live independently, etc.) suffer the consequences, either physically or psychologically. One reason why the book seems so devastating is that every character we get to know (i.e., everyone who becomes a unique individual to us) becomes maimed in the process of asserting their individuality. Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of all.
Kent
The character who turns up three times in the novel, on the train with Maneck as he is going to the city, as the lawyer at the court house when Aunty trie to save her apartment, and finally as the assistant to the Bal (hair collector) answers the question. life is a balance between hope and despair, it moves to the left and rights, and sometimes stays upright. The people who succeed in balancing hope and despair are those who are able to reinvent themselves during time of change
Joe Heffernan
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Deborah Byrd
The character of the lawyer who has lost his voice speaks for the author. At one point, he speaks of the "fine balance between hope and despair."
Subhodip Mukherjee
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John
Quote from the book:
"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"
...
"In the end, it;s all a question of balance."
"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"
...
"In the end, it;s all a question of balance."
Rose
Not finished with book. It appears to me that their very survival is a continual challenge to keep their lives balanced. It doesn't take much to upset the balance. Only by their wiles and a bit of luck are they able to maintain a balance in their lives between ruin and having life be "good".
HalcyonDaze
I think it refers to the fine balance of fate - the being in the wrong or right place at the wrong or right time that can change your path, fortunes and the experience of life. At a time in a fine balance.
Jeanne
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Ryan
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Elisabetta
The balance between hope and despair
Haluk
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Kristine Walker
The title refers to the symbolism of one of the characters when Om and Ishvar are moved to the work camp and witness someone who plays a game with children who are used in a show. The show is about how he balances the children on a pole, high up in the air, in order to entertain the beggars and others who have been forced into labour on the outskirts of Delhi (although the name is never mentioned in the book) As someone else pointedly named, it's a balance between hope and despair. Unfortunately, in Rohinton Mistry's book, despair prevails. But you don't know that until the very end of the novel.
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