A Fine Balance (Paperback)

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Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1975, in an unidentified Indian city, Mrs Dina Dalal, a financially pressed Parsi widow in her early 40s sets up a sweatshop of sorts in her ramshackle apartment. Determined to remain financially independent and to avoid a second marriage, she takes in a boarder and two Hindu tailors to sew dresses for an export company. As the four share their stories, then meals, then living space, human kinship prevails and the four become a kind of family, despite the lines of caste, class and religion. When tragedy strikes, their cherished, newfound stability is threatened, and each character must face a difficult choice in trying to salvage their relationships.

Review
It's long, it's full of life, and it's a really fast-paced read. Mistry is a master storyteller and knows how to hold a reader's interest. The plot concerns the interconnected fortunes of four characters; of Ishvar and Omprakesh Darji, rural tailors adrift in a fictionalised Bombay, Maneck Kohlah, an unworldly student form the Himalayas, and Dina Dalal, owner of the constricted flat where these lives collide. The book weighs heavy but reads light, brimful with comic incident, fear and farce, as Mistry unfolds how each character copes in the aftermath of the internal emergency of 1970s India. Liberally sprinkled with local detail and language, the personal takes precedence over the polemical and a complex tale emerges involving a wide cast of incidental, but memorable characters. Like all good feasts, this novel is to be savoured slowly. Booker-shortlisted in 1996. Death in the Andes (Kirkus UK)

From the Toronto-based Mistry (Such a Long Journey, 1991), a splendid tale of contemporary India that, in chronicling the sufferings of outcasts and innocents trying to survive in the "State of Internal Emergency" of the 1970s, grapples with the great question of how to live in the face of death and despair. Though Mistry is too fine a writer to indulge in polemics, this second novel is also a quietly passionate indictment of a corrupt and ineluctably cruel society. India under Indira Gandhi has become a country ruled by thugs who maim and kill for money and power. The four protagonists (all victims of the times) are: Dina, 40-ish, poor and widowed after only three years of marriage; Maneck, the son of an old school friend of Dina's; and two tailors, Ishvar and his nephew Om, members of the Untouchable caste. For a few months, this unlikely quartet share a tranquil happiness in a nameless city - a city of squalid streets teeming with beggars, where politicians, in the name of progress, abuse the poor and the powerless. Dina, whose dreams of attending college ended when her father died, is now trying to support herself with seamstress work; Maneck, a tenderhearted boy, has been sent to college because the family business is failing; and the two tailors find work with Dina. Though the four survive encounters with various thugs and are saved from disaster by a quirky character known as the Beggarmaster, the times are not propitious for happiness. On a visit back home, Om and Ishvar are forcibly sterilized; Maneck, devastated by the murder of an activist classmate, goes abroad. But Dina and the tailors, who have learned "to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair," keep going. A sweeping story, in a thoroughly Indian setting, that combines Dickens's vivid sympathy for the poor with Solzhenitsyn's controlled outrage, celebrating both the resilience of the human spirit and the searing heartbreak of failed dreams. (Kirkus Reviews)

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110 Reviews 5 star:  (89) 4 star:  (12) 3 star:  (7) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.7 out of 5 stars (110 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   68 of 69 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Balance, 20 May 2006 By  E. Hardy - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This is a truly great book. It chronicles the story of 4 individuals from very different sectors of the Indian Caste system. Not only does it accurately portray the political and social situation in India in the 1970s,it reflects the predudices within the upper castes and the fatalistic attitude of the lower castes, formed from their religious beliefs that suffering is their destiny and the reward will be in the afterlife. This story is overwhelmingly sad and also shocking as the reader can identify the ethical question of human suffering for a possibly laudable goal (in this case it is population control). However, the novel is also uplifting in a peculiar way; that individuals who struggle so hard to exist in appalling conditions can find joy in their lives is humbling. It also allows the reader to identify with the predudices and to see a situation from another side. Maybe at the end of the book, the reader feels that they have grown a little in spirit and have the capacity to be a 'better' person as a result. For me, the mark of a great book is one that remains with you long after the back page is read. This is such a book. Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   26 of 26 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite novels ever., 5 Mar 2002 By A Customer This novel is really fabulous. Mistry is a spectacular storyteller with a wonderful way of writing about the minutiae of daily life and weaving it into a wider picture of what was happening in India in the mid 1970s. The story is incredibly depressing - I kept turning the page in the hope that things wouldn't get any worse, but they inevitably did - but the ending provides some sort of closure and a sense of the main characters gaining some happiness in their lives. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. Please read it! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   24 of 24 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars I could not put this book down!, 10 April 2001 By A Customer By far the best novel I have ever read. It is a joy to envision the milieu for this epic novel. You cannot help but be drawn to the characters and their plight. An often moving and emotional insight into the lives of India's street beggars and an excellent reminder of how deeply the caste system is embedded in this lost society. The portrayal of corruption, inherent at every juncture of 1970-80's India, leaves the reader with a sense of injustice and an added impetus to read on in the hope things may get better. A marvellous and compelling book, and a must on any bookshelf! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 110 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Potent stuff It should be a depressing read, given the context of a brutal caste system, utter poverty and political corruption. Read more Published 10 days ago by Top Banana 4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book... I really enjoyed this, although it took me a while to get through it. It wasn't one of those 'rattle through at a rate of knots' books. It was more one to savour. Read more Published 26 days ago by C. Ball 5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC - a 'must read' I read this book several years ago and I still think about it and recommend it to date. It is beautifully written - a literary masterpiece. Read more Published 1 month ago by M. I. Syed 4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully written, but leaves a bitter after taste I finished reading this book this morning, and this afternoon, I still feel like I have a black cloud following me around. Read more Published 1 month ago by Ms. N. Mamujee 5.0 out of 5 stars An eye opener! An excellent read. A real eye opener as to what really went/goes on in India. Couldn't put the book down. Published 2 months ago by Jay 5.0 out of 5 stars A cracking read This book is a fascinating insight into the caste system of India in the 1970s, it follows the lives and deaths of 4 people. Read more Published 2 months ago by willow 3.0 out of 5 stars Well written, but not very engaging for me This is a very well written book, but I didn't feel the emotional connection to the characters that some other people felt. Published 2 months ago by Z. Harris 5.0 out of 5 stars excellent and haunting story-telling This is a wonderfully written book by any standard and undoubtedly one of mistrys best novels Published 3 months ago by Clive Kirby 4.0 out of 5 stars Rohinto Mistry, A fine balance A beautifully written engaging and insightful slice of life in India. The characters are masterfully brought to life and their lives intertwine before your eyes. Read more Published 3 months ago by C. L. Harrison 5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful... My first Rohinton Mistry book. I enjoyed it so much, was sad that it ended. It touched me in so many ways. Read more Published 4 months ago by James Monkman Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 110 customer reviews...

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