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Summary: A Soul Squeezing, Life Sucking, Hypnotic Tale of Awfulness
Review: I cannot begin to describe how completely this novel absorbed me. I was unable to put it down. Mistry gives even the most insignificant characters full life and motivation. Each has his or her own bizarre and heart wrenching story. Woven into each of these bizarre stories is full visceral details like worms, bodily fluids, grime, garbage, and mud. I finished the book well into the night, and was so overwrought by the ending that I was incapable of falling asleep. If you are the kind of person who finds other people's misery an indication that your life is not so bad, then you will find this book very uplifting (I did). If you're the kind of person who identifies so strongly with other people's misery that it depresses you, then you should probably read something else.
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Summary: Reaches beyond the heart and mind to transform the soul
Review: Set in India, A Fine Balance brings together four people from varying backgrounds to create a story that transcends time and culture leaving the reader a bit more appreciative of the little things so often taken for granted. As the four main characters grow and change, lose and win, fight each other and bring joy to one another, mourn life changing losses and celebrate fleeting happiness, the reader can't help but feel a connection that makes one wonder how human beings can allow such suffering to exist in the world anywhere. Mistry's words accomplish what fiction does at it's best reaching beyond the heart and mind to transform the soul.
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Summary: A Fine Work Of Literature
Review: "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry was quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read. I belong to a book club and due to the very sensitive souls in our group, I was hesitant to bring this book to the table. The fact that it was highly recommended by someone I have a great deal of respect for gave the courage to put it on the agenda. To make a long story short, "A Fine Balance" was a hit, and I'm very happy that I was able to persuade our club to choose it. Everyone that participated in our discussion brought a different and fresh perspective to the table. The book explores the fine line between living and merely existing, loving and being in love, hate and ignorance, wanting and needing. In the face of irrefutable horror, the main characters emerge showing each persons vulnerabilities along with their incredible strength of character. When you cut through the cruelty of this book, you can't help but marvel at by the acts of kindness, bravery and generosity. Human nature with all it's ugliness and all it's beauty hits you in the face. It is a story about love, friendship, coping, betrayal, life, death and survival. My advice? Be strong. Brace yourself for a tragic epic. Read this book, and share it with your friends. Sincerely,
Jeanette Thums
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Summary: Towering patchwork of protagonists
Review: Mistry tore me apart by pitting four protagonists against each other. After a short introduction of the characters' meeting, Mistry delves into one pair's history. He returns to his present setting (1975 India) and begins a conflict between a new character and the two with which I now sympathize. He then shows the other character's story, bringing even more sympathy (without stooping to emotional manipulation). Further on, even fringe characters step in with their accounts and explanations, forming a Tolstoy-esque web of conflicts caused by decent people trying to make it in a broken-down society. In 1975, India fell under a state of emergency declared by Indira Gandhi. Corrupt police and civil servants sold the poor to slave camps, accepted bribes to ignore organized crime, and forced "family planning" castration measures in poorly equipped medical stalls. In this setting, the best characters must push their way past others just to hang onto their fine balance. There is one weakness with the text: the ending drops into such tragedy that it touches the comedy of "Candide". The epilogue may be safely skipped.
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Summary: Gorey, gruesome, gripping
Review: I had to take an antidepressant after reading this book. It's very well-written and completely develops the four main characters who invite you into India during its years under Emergency rule at the hands of a ruthless Indira Ghandi. The writing is superb, and humor is generously interwoven between the gruesome cruelty scenes. Overall, the book is a very depressing look at injustice from the view of those shouldering the pain. The story is the best I've read yet. I'm looking forward (antidepressants in hand) to Mistry's other works.
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Summary: gut wrenchingly sad
Review: great book for an ABCD (if you're one you know, otherwise don't worry about it), great book to make you feel really sad (and possibly cynical and hopeless)
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Summary: Ultimate Stand for Human Rights
Review: Even though I was skeptical about this book at first, it turned out to be one of the best novels I have ever read. To appreciate Mistry's literary achievent the reader does not have to be familiar with the history of India or any of the events that provide the background for this book. The very magnitude of drama and beauty in the sometimes mandane lives of the characters are enough to make this book appealing to anyone who is willing to be effected by it. The situations that the book deals with are especially compelling because such blatant violations of basic human rights and dignity are still very real and Mistry makes it very apparent that unless everyone speaks up, no one is safe. This book is sure to move you to tears.
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Summary: Excellent book set in India during Emergency Rule
Review: Rohinton's book "A Fine Balance" is a humane work of peoples lives set against the background of "Emergency Rule" in India during the 1970s. The simple lives of the lowest level of people in India exploited by the upper class touched me and made me ponder many times about their misery and exploitation. A widow trying to make a living and helping the simple village folks in a large city like Bombay under all kinds of hardships, a Parsi college kid in Bombay, a Parsi's family's ambitions for their son are all beautifully woven and Rohinton has a special talent in depicting the every day struggles of the middle, lower middle and poorer sections of Indian society. A fine novel as all of Mistry's are - a must read book.
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Summary: An amazing piece of work!!
Review: The truth is, I was a little nervous about reading this book. Having been completely ignorant of Indian history, I felt that it wouldn't "click" with me. I am so glad I gave this book a shot! Mistry writes with such eloquence and beauty...very intelligent without being condescending. This is a beautifully woven story of four people in 1975 India, all struggling with different conditions. They all find solace and hope in one another as their country is torn apart by politics. Let me tell you, this novel made me get on my knees and thank the good Lord for each blessing we have in America. You must read this book!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
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Summary: An amazing book
Review: This book was so compelling I couldn't put it down. I don't want to give away what happens in the book, but it really made me appreciate how easy we have it in the US or the West in general.
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