Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
The Literary Review (London) said it best for me in their review of this book: " A Fine Balance is THE India novel... I know of no other post-war writer who has the capacity to make the reader pray to him, as if to God, please let your creations escape into happiness."
This book is by no means an easy read in that you do find yourself completely wrapped up in the lives and hopes of the four main characters. Intersection and forcing twists and turns on the lives of these characters is the fifth main character - that of the state.
This book is well worth reading especially for those who are not only interested in India but those who want to understand the cycle of poverty and how people behave when they feel their hands are tied by their superiors or the state or their cultural norms. Like the HBO series the "The Wire". You start to understand why people behave the way the do (wrongly or rightly) and the lines between the good guys and the bad guys are often blurred. For example, in A Fine Balance I found myself sympathetic to the Beggarmaster because he was portrayed as being a complex individual, and not as a caricature.
Overall it was well worth the read. I feel very emotionally connected to this book. I know that many of the images, both the intensely sad and difficult moments as well as the tender, funny and hopeful ones will stay with me.
This book is by no means an easy read in that you do find yourself completely wrapped up in the lives and hopes of the four main characters. Intersection and forcing twists and turns on the lives of these characters is the fifth main character - that of the state.
This book is well worth reading especially for those who are not only interested in India but those who want to understand the cycle of poverty and how people behave when they feel their hands are tied by their superiors or the state or their cultural norms. Like the HBO series the "The Wire". You start to understand why people behave the way the do (wrongly or rightly) and the lines between the good guys and the bad guys are often blurred. For example, in A Fine Balance I found myself sympathetic to the Beggarmaster because he was portrayed as being a complex individual, and not as a caricature.
Overall it was well worth the read. I feel very emotionally connected to this book. I know that many of the images, both the intensely sad and difficult moments as well as the tender, funny and hopeful ones will stay with me.
Not the happiest, cheeriest book every, but an incredible look at what life was really like in India at that time. Hard to comprehend such poverty.
How does one even begin to review a masterpiece that is A Fine Balance?
Magnificent, gut wrenching, heart breaking, gory, haunting. Set in India in the '70s, Mistry describes the lives of four people that come together at a time of civil unrest, riots and political mayhem. The novel takes you through the horrors of life in the slums, caste system in rural India pre and post partition, lives torn apart during the Indo-Pak partition, and doesn't spare us any gory details of the atrocities committed. Sure, there are some joyous moments in there too, but they just made me feel even worse because I could see how short lived it was going to be. Sometimes I was guilty of accusing the author of being a sadist - subjecting these poor people to all kinds of hell repeatedly with absolutely no hope of any potential happiness - but then, such is life, right? These things did happen and are still happening. There's this passage at the opening of this book which I find so apt:
"Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true."
Depressing as it may be, the four characters - Dina, Maneck, Ishvar and Omprakash - will surely make their way into your heart and their lives will make you feel an immense gratitude for the countless blessings in your life, from the roof over your head to the smallest, most mundane of things like tap water. A 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 read through and through.
Magnificent, gut wrenching, heart breaking, gory, haunting. Set in India in the '70s, Mistry describes the lives of four people that come together at a time of civil unrest, riots and political mayhem. The novel takes you through the horrors of life in the slums, caste system in rural India pre and post partition, lives torn apart during the Indo-Pak partition, and doesn't spare us any gory details of the atrocities committed. Sure, there are some joyous moments in there too, but they just made me feel even worse because I could see how short lived it was going to be. Sometimes I was guilty of accusing the author of being a sadist - subjecting these poor people to all kinds of hell repeatedly with absolutely no hope of any potential happiness - but then, such is life, right? These things did happen and are still happening. There's this passage at the opening of this book which I find so apt:
"Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true."
Depressing as it may be, the four characters - Dina, Maneck, Ishvar and Omprakash - will surely make their way into your heart and their lives will make you feel an immense gratitude for the countless blessings in your life, from the roof over your head to the smallest, most mundane of things like tap water. A 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 read through and through.
I had a life changing epiphany while reading this book
I read this book after reading The Four Winds, which I hated. However, I could not help but think as I read this book that it felt very similar to The Four Winds, but I was actually enjoying this book (if enjoyed is the correct term for such a dreary book). It's true they are about different times and set in different countries. But both books are slow character builds, horribly depressing to the point of hopelessness for the characters, and both are political (which I hate given the current political chaos). However, where I hated one, I loved the other. This author had the ability to reach me where it felt like Hannah tried too hard to drive her point across and she just ended up annoying me.
This is a horribly tragic book, but it was very well written. The author did a wonderful job at portraying the characters as they fought to survive. It's a long book that I finished in record time because I couldn't put it down. This is probably the best book I've read so far this year, even if I don't fully agree with the author's handling of Maneck in the end.
This is a horribly tragic book, but it was very well written. The author did a wonderful job at portraying the characters as they fought to survive. It's a long book that I finished in record time because I couldn't put it down. This is probably the best book I've read so far this year, even if I don't fully agree with the author's handling of Maneck in the end.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated