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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
This is a difficult book to review. It's one of the best there is. You get involved ! Disturbingly so. You know that it is is fiction ,a novel,a story - yet , it isn't. The tale is spun so well, the characters so surreal , that you end up living their life - with them. I think this is what makes Mistry a great storyteller.
Dina Dalal , Maneck , Ishvar and Om , delicately balanced between the pages - hovering between hope and despair.
My heart goes out to the characters, their struggle during turbulent times of the emergency - their grief , the constant uncertainty , mourning , and the fleeting happiness that they share. And their happiness is so contagious - it almost lifts your spirits.
This book certainly made me realize how fortunate I am. To have the scales of balance tipped towards hope. And my problems - almost appear first world ! A truly humbling book and one that will certainly stay with me for a long long time. Thank you Rohinton Mistry! Thank you for the fine balance.
Dina Dalal , Maneck , Ishvar and Om , delicately balanced between the pages - hovering between hope and despair.
My heart goes out to the characters, their struggle during turbulent times of the emergency - their grief , the constant uncertainty , mourning , and the fleeting happiness that they share. And their happiness is so contagious - it almost lifts your spirits.
This book certainly made me realize how fortunate I am. To have the scales of balance tipped towards hope. And my problems - almost appear first world ! A truly humbling book and one that will certainly stay with me for a long long time. Thank you Rohinton Mistry! Thank you for the fine balance.
This was depressing as heck and was emotionally draining to read. However, I fell in love with these characters and I loved watching their relationships grow and change. The writing was fantastic and drew me into their worlds. One of my new favourite reads.
When educated people behave like savages, when the ones in power have lost their reason, there is no hope"
A fine balance is a delve into the infamous Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, a conviniently muffled part of our dark history. The story is built around four central characters. Dina Dalal, a Parsi widow who hires Ishvar and Omprakash, two tailors who belong to the Chaamars caste of untouchables. She also takes in a student, Maneck Kohlah as a paying guest, to make ends meet.
Through these characters, Mistry weaves history, a tale of caste based violence, oppression of women and of atrocities rained on the lower classes during the emergency.
A few examples of these,
° the burning of an entire family because one chaamar demanded the right to vote.
° The maniacal scheme of sterilization to curb population explosion during the emergency. These surgeries were often carried out with unsterilised instruments costing many people their lives and livelihoods.
°The city "beautification" scheme of the Govt that drove scores of people out of their homes and made them slaves at labour camps.
The authors no nonsense narration of these events will move you to tears. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to know about life during the Emergency in India. It pushed me to do some research of my own
A fine balance is a delve into the infamous Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, a conviniently muffled part of our dark history. The story is built around four central characters. Dina Dalal, a Parsi widow who hires Ishvar and Omprakash, two tailors who belong to the Chaamars caste of untouchables. She also takes in a student, Maneck Kohlah as a paying guest, to make ends meet.
Through these characters, Mistry weaves history, a tale of caste based violence, oppression of women and of atrocities rained on the lower classes during the emergency.
A few examples of these,
° the burning of an entire family because one chaamar demanded the right to vote.
° The maniacal scheme of sterilization to curb population explosion during the emergency. These surgeries were often carried out with unsterilised instruments costing many people their lives and livelihoods.
°The city "beautification" scheme of the Govt that drove scores of people out of their homes and made them slaves at labour camps.
The authors no nonsense narration of these events will move you to tears. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to know about life during the Emergency in India. It pushed me to do some research of my own
A beautiful, truly heartbreaking book. There was some boohooing from me on this one, maybe a little. A sweeping narrative about the ways that poverty renders people powerless, about the ways in which corrupt political systems affect every individual who lives under them, and the ways that love and friendship find their ways into the crevices of even the bleakest of circumstances. Most (not all) of the relationships in the book revolve around fathers, or adults put into fathering roles, for good or ill. Maneck and his father, Om and Ishvar, Dina and Nusswan, Narayan and Dukhi, Shankar and Beggarmaster-- each relationship an affecting one. Unflinching.
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
This is an exceptional story that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in post-colonial Indian history, and more specifically ‘The Emergency’, declared by Indira Gandhi from 1975-1977.
Mistry seamlessly integrates the horrors of the caste system, state-wide forced sterilisation programme, partition, the aftermath of colonisation (specifically on local businesses), and general issues like poverty, begging, and corruption which plague Indian society, into the story.
When we study these moments in history, they are often facts removed from reality and can be difficult to envision, but this book forces you to confront the harshness and violence from a human perspective. For most of the book, this is specific to the experiences of the lower classes, represented in the characters of Om and Ishvar - uncle and nephew who have trained as tailors (from the Dalit or ‘untouchable’ caste) and travelled to a big city to find work. Their lives cross with the other two main characters in the book, Ms Dalal - a 40 year old widow, and Maneck - a refrigeration and air-conditioning college student, and we witness their relationship and personal character development.
There are many trigger warnings that should have been included at the start of this book - rape, sexual abuse, suicide, and castration, to name a few. At times it did get quite challenging to read but I felt it was an accurate representation of the sheer hopelessness and pain that is a reality for many, even today. Mistry’s writing is easy to read, his story telling is incredibly raw and moving. He does a brilliant job at world building, and introducing secondary characters meaningfully, at the right time.
The author doesn’t name any identifying places or people, he simply refers to the “hill station” or “prime minister”. This allows the reader to take control in placing the story into locations and circumstances familiar to them.
Read it, when you’re ready. I think the book changed me, and will influence how I engage with history going forward.
Laiqah
Mistry seamlessly integrates the horrors of the caste system, state-wide forced sterilisation programme, partition, the aftermath of colonisation (specifically on local businesses), and general issues like poverty, begging, and corruption which plague Indian society, into the story.
When we study these moments in history, they are often facts removed from reality and can be difficult to envision, but this book forces you to confront the harshness and violence from a human perspective. For most of the book, this is specific to the experiences of the lower classes, represented in the characters of Om and Ishvar - uncle and nephew who have trained as tailors (from the Dalit or ‘untouchable’ caste) and travelled to a big city to find work. Their lives cross with the other two main characters in the book, Ms Dalal - a 40 year old widow, and Maneck - a refrigeration and air-conditioning college student, and we witness their relationship and personal character development.
There are many trigger warnings that should have been included at the start of this book - rape, sexual abuse, suicide, and castration, to name a few. At times it did get quite challenging to read but I felt it was an accurate representation of the sheer hopelessness and pain that is a reality for many, even today. Mistry’s writing is easy to read, his story telling is incredibly raw and moving. He does a brilliant job at world building, and introducing secondary characters meaningfully, at the right time.
The author doesn’t name any identifying places or people, he simply refers to the “hill station” or “prime minister”. This allows the reader to take control in placing the story into locations and circumstances familiar to them.
Read it, when you’re ready. I think the book changed me, and will influence how I engage with history going forward.
Laiqah
A beautiful book that ultimately broke my heart. How can humans be so cruel to each other. Well worth picking up.
Note to self: Never read anything on Oprah's Book Club
Du vonar og vonar at det skal gå bra til slutt, men så gjer det ikkje eigentleg det. Men det er vakkert på vegen.
This book was a great read. Loved the author's prose and how each character came full circle. Very heartbreaking at various moments.