Rating: 
Summary: Lasting and True Friendship, Despite Tragedy and Poverty
Review: This was a great book. Well-written and difficult to put down. It is certainly not the "feel good story of the year", however, it speaks deeply of perseverence, the incredible will of humans to bear all kinds of disappointments and hardships - in fact, to have the world bite down to the marrow of their bones. This is NOT a storry for sissies, that's for sure. Tough emotional read, but well worth the journey.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Uplifting
Review: A Fine Balance was powerful and disturbing. Although it gave me a better perspective of life and the narration was skillful, I don't think I would read it again. The horrors people can endure are awful, and witnessing the lives of Dina, Maneck, Om and Ishvar shows people at their worst as they struggle to survive. The writing style of Rohinton Mistry is delicate and binding. It kept me hungry for more and reluctant to continue at the same time. I was scared for the characters I came to know through the chapters and I really wanted the best for them, but in the end, reality prevailed. The book is about real life in all its brutal aspects, and it explores this unflinchingly through the four lives the reader is given to dissect. Dina Dalal is a widowed seamstress struggling to preserve her life without the help of her patronizing brother. Maneck Kohlah is a naïve college student and Om and Ishvar are two tailors trying to escape their caste and the gruesome past that came with it. With thorough detail and time they become intertwined and together they deal with the injustice of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Mistry has a lot to learn
Review: I agree with the reader who offered "Nectar In A Sieve" as an antidote to this book. Sad, but poetically written. About F.B., I disliked the writing, especially...Is it really necessary to compare someone's necktie to a samosa just because it is a book about India? The book could have been trimmed by at least 200 pages. The story would probably make a passable screenplay. Also look at R.K. Narayan's novel, The Guide, which puts Mistry and those like him, to shame.
Rating:
Summary: Well written...
Review: ...just don't read this if you're suffering from depression. I have been to India many times and am part Indian as well... I found many aspects of this book to be eerily accurate and some parts I had to laugh out loud... but I wish it would have been different at the end. I won't say more but I put the book down and didn't feel that great. A better suggestion for a foray into well-written and (imagine!) inspiring Indian work: LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel. That is a fantastic book and won some international awards. You get a great idea of India in that one and it has a more uplifting tone. :)
Rating:
Summary: A very real book
Review: I enjoyed A Fine Balance. I loved the way it was written. I felt as if I knew all the characters personally. I found it very informative - learned a lot about India. I thought it was a great read even though the end was somewhat depressing. I expected a happy ending - even for Ishvar and Dina to get together and live happily ever after, but then it was India not Hollywood. I still can't decide if I would add this one to my Must Read list. Maybe I would.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disapointment
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend. I found the characters to be very real and engaging. However, the book was too long. I found myself getting bored at times when the explaining and story telling seemed endless. Much of the book was slow too. But I would have to say that the biggest disapointment was the fact that the hardships of the characters went steadily downhill throughout the entire book, clear to the end. There was nothing redeeming about the end - VERY DEPRESSING.
Rating:
Summary: Tough, but Engaging
Review: I had a hard time putting this book down, though it was hard to take at times. The lives of the characters was so brutal, yet their determination to survive was inspiring.
Rating:
Summary: slow and depressing
Review: I thought this book was terrible. I read maybe the first 100 pages and had to force myself to read that far. My friend finished it and said the end was just as slow as the beginning. Basically a lot of terribly depressing things happen, with no bright or meaningful moments to draw you into the characters. It is not worth reading at all. If you want a book about India that is awesome read "Necter in a Sieve". Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: This was a great book, very interesting. Well written. It will stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding piece of work!
Review: This book is amazing in terms of holding one's attention and affecting its readers, touching by its simplicity of characters and haunting by the situations these characters get in.
I believe this is whats the sign of a great writer, being able to touch our hearts by using simple language and bringing out the beauty of the characters involved.
The story, though not very convincing, has been depicted wisely. Four entirely different people, having their own stories, come under one roof in a cramped apartment of an unnamed city in India. The setting is from the small time frame in 1975 when India was declared to be under emergency, otherwise always under democracy, when a few rights were taken away from its citizens.
This book dwells on the repurcussions of that and how different classes of people were affected by it, though not really getting into it politically. Another great aspect of this book is to bring out humor from stark and harsh realities of life.
I've been born and brought up in India and was able to relate to a few situations but some of the incidents sound very hard to believe, at least under present circumstances. The author has also used the slangs from Hindi language occasionally, however, I don't see them hampering in any way, if not understood.
Overall, strongly recommended and in "hard to put down" category.
|
