Rating: 
Summary: Life-changing
Review: Before I read this book, I had little interest in India. Now I've read it, I'm hooked.
Rating:
Summary: engaging, enraging, and encouraging at the same time
Review: I read about 2-3 novels per week, and I love to write short stories. Once I read this I thought this is the writing skills that I would give anything to be blessed with. My husbands family is from India, and I have always been curious about history - epecially human history. It is the most moving account of human condition I have ever read. It is true to the nature of India, and I feel that I have traveled there myself. A truly great work of writing should transport you into another life - Mr. Mistry did that effortlessly and I thank him for it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best!
Review: I could not put this book down. I read it about a year ago and still talk with wide-eyed enthusiasm when I recommend it to someone. The characters became friends and it was truly sad when I had to leave their lives.
Rating:
Summary: rating 10, book clubs
Review: l am writing to you on behalf of 12 women who formed a book club in turkish republic of northern cyprus. After reading a book everymonth in our own homes we come together for discussions. we were all very exited to finish and discuss it. even I my self l read it twice. I had seen the difficulties people experinced when they wanted to change the casts they lived. for me with the help of the caracters of om, maneck and Ishvar the author gave the personality aspect, om being id, ishvar being superego and maneck being the ego. all of them being 'cripled' in one way or the other the normal human being couldnt carry on his life and commited suicide. dina was the motherly figure, although at first sites she was reluctant. the quilt she made was someting special showed the womens touch to life. l had seen that when human beings dont have any history to relay on they cant carry on with their future progress. lt made me think about the importance of our own history. the thing we couldnt figure out was the methaphorical meanings behind the hair and the chess. our hearts beated with the people of india and we were very happy when we all had the empathy. we all would like to congratulate the author with our hearts for letting us experince his feelings. l am giving this book proudly to my friends as a gift. thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is the most exquisitely written book I have read. It had me giggling for hours on end (not only while I was reading the book), and it had me balling afterwards. I didn't want it to end. Mistry is a gifted writer who is able to find the perfect words/ expressions for what is often difficult to express in words - a very rare gift indeed. "A Fine Balance" has convinced me to visit the land of my ancestors - because the book has given me a different, and sensitive perspective of everything that is India.
Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece
Review: This masterpiece had this reader wavering between hope and despair along with the characters. I felt privileged to enter the worlds of these Indians, especially the untouchables. I'd also like to mention "The Holder of the World," by Bharati Mukherjee, another Indian-born writer living in the US. It's a very different kind of story but one that also left me breathless with admiration.
Rating: 
Summary: I can't put it down. Rohinton puts you right there!!
Review: I don't get much time for reading between three kids and a business but for the past week the laundry is piling up and the house is a mess! I can't put the book down, it gets depressing but the way the author put s you right in the middle of the tragedies you have to have a glimpse of hope that if you read on things HAVE TO GET BETTER. I am only three quarters through it but I must finish it soon or the laundry will TAKE OVER!!
Rating: 
Summary: When bad things happen they "all" happen to just two people?
Review: Just above average. My god, how could all the bad things happen just two people...this was so amazing. I mean he tried all the way to create the Indian in that era, but for gods sake was this how all villagers turned out to be. I thought it to be amazing, it really was just okay. I read the book more out of curiosity, but was disgusted by the end of it. Lack of characters was a problem and Mistry just burdened the ones he had tremendously. Please...have a heart those two did not deserve to be so demolished by life.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This was the first book that I read by Mistry, and I thought it was a great book, one of the better books I have read in the last year. Mistry writes in a very clear, engaging and somehwat simple manner, but at the same time the book is deceptively intellectual. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A book I can't forget.
Review: I read this book a year ago. In the early going (the first 250 pages or so), I had to force myself to keep going. I wondered why this guy couldn't write better, and why all the upmarket critics were raving about it. At about this point, Mistry seemed to "find his voice." (I live with a writer.) Either that or I finally adjusted to his cadence, but I really think he just sort of took off. So now I often think about this book. I was always interested in India, and A Fine Balance has demystified it for me, warts and all. If you want to be happy, don't read this book. If you want Hollywood, forget it. But if you want to read about the human condition, in a series of interwoven universal stories, read it, it's all here.
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