Rating: 
Summary: every body should read this book
Review: I was very surprised at the book. How real the subject matter became. I wanted to keep reading but my mind would wonder to the ways this story paralleled so many other real events in the lives of families. The fight of the freed slaves to make a mark as human beings with intelligence and talents. The surpression of their schooling and ability to learn the basics of the American free culture.It also followed the story of the Jews trying to win their freedom and become people of dignity. How the people tried to
enter into the society and build a trade and be beaten down when it looked like they may achieve. The history of the Irish also has a familiar ring throughout this book. The story of ANGELA'S ASHES brought this to my mind
as I read. The plight of the poor today in our own country, the richest in the world, is left to fend for themselves in many areas. The brave boys of Africa who walked from the Sudan to Ethiopia to get away from the brutality of their homeland. In finishing the book there are so many more similarities to other life experiences. Why do we as people try so hard to be accepted and then treat others so poorly? We all need to become aware of the plights of others and do what we can to help our fellow man to be lifted up.
E.M.S.
Rating:
Summary: Similar in "depth" as I Know This Much Is True
Review: I just finished reading this amazing book and I am truly depressed - what a heavy, heavy book, and no happy endings here. Now I have to read a very light book (which I normally do not read) to make up for this "heaviness". However, it is enlightening, intriguing, informative and fascinating. Mistry intertwines the characters so that you know what happens to everyone at the end, even the minor characters. And each characters has some interesting (though dreadful) story. What a compelling book. I compare the "heaviness" and "depth" of this to I Know This Much is True (for you fellow Oprah fans). The stories are completely different, but they both have the same deep, heavy reading. This book is also very readable, not "out there" like some of the Toni Morrison's books. Has anyone out there read "Such a Long Journey" by Mistry? Did you like that one too? Please respond if you did, thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: One of My Least Favorite Books of All Time
Review: I read A Fine Balance a few years ago at the urging of friends. I found the characters so appealing and the depiction of lower middle class life refreshingly different but then Mistry starts heaping misfortune on his characters over and over and over again. Orphaned, deprived of inheritance by evil relatives, losing loved ones, eviction, maiming, loss of livelihood etc., etcetera. Just when things seem to be getting better he tortures them with something else. I found it so depressing and unsettling, I kept putting it aside, taking several months to read it. I persevered because I kept hoping all the ends would be tied up in some sort of almost-happy ending. But, no! Mistry just keeps on tugging at your heart-strings, throwing you a bone of improved circumstances for the characters, then snatching it away again. I felt manipulated and heart-sore and truly sorry I had read it. Any interest I ever had in visiting India was obliterated by this book. I can only see it now as a place of incredible inhumanity to man.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Piece of Work!
Review: It's unbelieveable to me how someone could write something so horrific, beautiful and humorous all at the same time. I actually paced myself so that I wouldn't read the whole book at one sitting because I wanted to enjoy every page. Thank you ... for drawing my attention to this book!
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Balance
Review: This is by far the best book I have read this year. Probably on the top 5 of the books I have read. I could not put it down. A definite must. Rohinton Mistry did an excellent job capturing the reader in the lives of all the characters in the story. I wish the book didn't end.
Rating: 
Summary: "A Fine Balance" Echoes "The Good Earth"
Review: I actually have yet to finish "A Fine Balance" by Mistry. I have only devoured the first 200 pages. However, I needed to stop and pass on this message: "A Fine Balance" echoes the themes and characters found in "The Good Earth." In all the reviews I have read, I found Mistry compared to Dickens and Rushdie, but we cannot forget to compare him to Pearl Buck. I had to write this review before finishing the novel since I cannot escape the endless journey through the Hindu culture without feeling the similaries to the Chinese culture represented in "The Good Earth." The marriage rituals, families, social conditions, social sanctions, rising to wealth, and falling to shame... "A Fine Balance" even surpasses "The Good Earth" as it encompasses many more vivid characters and their histories, woven into each other's lives during desperate times. The characters truely become your friends, and I am forcing myself to read the book slowly so that the characters stay with me even longer. I will rewrite this review once I finish, but I highly recommend this literary microcosm already.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Balance/A masterpiece
Review: Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance is a literary mastpiece. This book was very real to me, having grown up as a Parsi woman in Bombay, India. The characters experience grief and despair throughout but still are able to mantain resilence and strength. I thought the writing was brilliant and in the class of Toni Morrison. It's entertaining and sorrowful at the same time.
I've tried to find other publications by Mistry but have not come across any in the bookstores.
Rating:
Summary: Want to Feel Lucky?
Review: Read this book and you'll count your blessings. Mistry does a magnificant job engaging the reader with his four wonderful characters. This portrait of India in the 70's is so vivid that I felt transported as I felt linked with the hapless characters. I'm going out to get his other books! What a great writer!
Rating:
Summary: heavy!
Review: Beyond heavy ... not on my list of recommended reading...you keep hoping for a turn for the better yet it never happens!
It is yet an educational glance at the state of affairs in India in the 70's...Has it gotten better since then?
berenice
Rating:
Summary: Not your typical Oprah
Review: I was stunned but delighted to see this favorite of mine show up on Oprah's list a few weeks ago. Mistry's sad, wrenching, yet often comical saga of strife and resilience in India held me captive in it's world when it was first published. The resurgence in interest which comes from an Oprah selection should win Mistry the wider audience he deserves. He's a Dickens for our times as he lovingly crafts unforgettable characters and plot set against a heartless, corrupt regime with no regard for the preciousness of life. I've just convinced myself to read A Fine Balance again.
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