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Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Even though this book is not an uplifting story or one of those happy ending books, the story itself is really compelling. I enjoyed the look into India's caste system and once I got into the book I could not put it down.This is not beach reading, nor is it as depressing as some other Oprah book picks. If you enjoy reading about Indian culture you will enjoy this.
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Summary: One of the best
Review: Until I read this book I didnt realize how much I missed descriptive writing. Even though it was a long book I really hated for it to end.
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Summary: Overwhelming in the best sense of the word...
Review: *A Fine Balance* is a richly textured novel about four individuals swept up in the 1970's revolution in India, when personal safety was not guaranteed and political activism suppressed. Rohinton Mistry, a Canadian author, embeds fictional characters in a reality so oppressive that they almost seem alive to me. His depth for description kept me engrossed for many hours, and his story reminded me that the world as we know it is not as rich nor as secure as we believe it to be, even almost thirty years later. Dina Dalal, the central character, forced to give up a successful career as a tailor due to failing eyesight, hired two tailors to take over her business and rented out her own bedroom to a college student to support herself. Ishvar and his nephew Omprakash (Om) left their home to find work in the big city also as a means of financial support. And Maneck, the college student, left his apartment near campus to avoid the political upheaval on-going through the Indian state of Emergency. They seem to have nothing in common, yet within a year, they have forged a bond none will ever forget. The novel was so well written, I can't help but go out to find more novels from Mistry. Though the book may seem heartbreaking at times, it will surely be on the "new" classics list before too long. Enjoy!
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Summary: A land of human devastation
Review: India... after reading A FINE BALANCE... would be the land I could never visit; and when I look at the face of Mother Teresa, I can now understand it - she was spent to her last fiber. It seems to be a land with all take and no give.. the needs are endless, human rights are absent, dignity does not exist. Beggarmasters and pavement-dwellers need eachother for mutual exploitation; if there seems nothing to exploit anymore, those people still find more to ruin: eachothers health and life. The utmost civic anihilation, conducted by the government's ruthless sterilization program is an out-cry of merciless injustice comitted on any poor man or woman captured with means that lead to mutilation and death. It seems the only time people do find some peace is at the glowing funeral pyres, when the tortured human form turns into dust. As long as you read this book of human devastation, your companion will be depression; should you read it? Yes, to appreciate your own life. How can there be light without shadows?
In India: how can there be a peak without an abyss? How do these people find hope in all their despair?...
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Summary: Don't read if you don't want to be slapped with reality
Review: There are two words that always go to my mind when I think about this book. Completely heartbreaking. But don't let that discourage you from reading this poignant novel about four people struggling to live in India during the emergency. From the very first page you're thrown into a world that most americans have probably never seen before. A world where children are blinded so that they can make more money as beggars,where men and women are forcefully sterilized, and happy endings only seem to happen to wealthy people. I love how the author takes time to write about the history of each character. Every character seems so real from Dina the widow, Shankar the legless beggar, and Om and Ishvar two tailors running from a caste crazy village. In the beginning of every chapter I found myself wincing, hoping that nothing else horrible happens to the characters. I was completely shocked by the corruption and the absolute chaos that happened in India in 1975. But even through all of the turmoil and sorrow the author still gives you a little hope that maybe the characters will go on and live happy lives. But that hope is quickly distinguished in the last one hundred pages. I don't want to give away too much of the ending but what happens to Om and Ishvar in the end has been haunting me ever since I read the book a couple of weeks ago. YOU MUST READ IT!!!
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Summary: Fantastic!
Review: The characters themselves describe this book as a Mahabharat told to the cook in a small café. Like the ancient epic, the story covers many characters and their struggles against powerful beings who exercise control over their lives. With high emotive power, Mistry brings incredibly detailed description of life on the edge of modern India, from the jhopadpattis (illegal shanty towns), small villages ruled by feudal masters to the elaborate counterculture of the beggars guilds. Though outlawed 30 years earlier (the main action takes place in 1975), the caste of untouchables still remains a near insurmountable barrier to modernization.
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Summary: Finally Oprah picks a winner!
Review: This is a truely masterful book. If you have any interest in India this is a book for you! Rohinton Mistry brings India to life like no other writer has. I read this book years ago and have passed it on and recommended it to others. It is so far superior to Oprah's other book selections. If you have had bad experiences with her endorcements in the past, don't let that stop you from reading this. It really is a gem! (As are his other books!)
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Summary: Hardship and Humor in India
Review: This novel tells the story of how four individuals came to live together in a very cramped apartment in India. The author is very descriptive about the extreme hardships and poverty, but there is also a lot of light-hearted humor. I really felt like I came to know the personalities well (especially Om, yaar). However, I felt that Maneck was the weak link in this 600 page novel. When I was reading about Maneck, I felt the book dragged on a bit. I was also very disappointed with his ending in the book. This book almost needed a glossary to explain terms one wouldn't know if they haven't lived in India. (various castes, etc.) If you are an Oprah fan, looking for something light, with romance or a battered woman story - this is not the book for you! It is the men that take the beatings in this story.
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Summary: From an Indian, the truth about India
Review: For those people who like the descriptive style of writing of the 19th century masters like Dickens, but were put to sleep by the archaic language, here is the contemporary equivalent. A Fine Balance does not gloss over the unsavory parts of life in India, and it gave me chills as to how true the descriptions were, even today, twenty five years after the setting of the book. The anonymity of big city Indian life, the ..., the struggle against poverty, it's all here in this book. Even though life in India may at first alarm you, the way Mistry captures every oddity and particular of the struggle to survive will draw you into an affection for the place. I am a young Indian who frequently visits my family in India, but have never actually lived there. Many of my happiest childhood memories are of my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts, and this book brought all of them rushing through my head. The cement houses, the messy streets, the corner restaurants, the crowded railroads, the old buses, the ways of speech, all contribute to the unique tapestry of India, and are all perfectly depicted here. Short of visiting Bombay, this book is the best way to experience India. I cannot rightly say what effect this book is going to have on people who have no contact with India, but because of the power it holds over the senses, it should be enough to give anyone a memorable trip.
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Summary: Capitalism and government run amok in India....
Review: I was astounded to think that this was India in the 1970's, when the western world thought Indira Gandhi was doing just fine running the place. How mistaken we were! Government policies run amok, strong-arm thuggery, remnants of the caste system alive and well, the perils of pollution and over-population, all come alive unforgettably in this saga that does not end happily for anyone. It is a depressing picture, but a very strong lesson of what drives many in the subcontinent and creates, I think, a truer picture of India than I have ever read about before. With the current high interest in Asia's people and politics, it is a must-read.
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