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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
"Omprakash looked through the window to determine where they had stopped. Rough shacks stood beyond the railroad fence, alongside a ditch running with raw sewage. Children were playing a game with sticks and stones. An excited puppy danced around them, trying to join in. Nearby, a shirtless man was milking a cow. They could have been anywhere."
It cannot be more accurate or totally disparate at the same time. While the backdrop, language and culture may change much of the details remains the same, few kilometers into the city the landscape has a glossy disposition, meander of luxury and indifference at large.
Mistry finds a way to write politics into his book without really talking about it. Politics does come up in conversation every now and then, and is mostly spoken with disdain - an annoying prick that disrupts everyday life.
In a neatly caste based segregated village, a poor leather worker observes and absolves hypocritical upper caste members. He cries in silent when his wife is raped by a man for picking few oranges. He looks the other way when the women of the said class berates him
for bearing sons while they commit female infanticide. He finds himself at odds when he finds no support from any community when he wants to take up a profession that isn't his own. The caste system is so tightly hinged to the society that an authority is established on education, professions, living area and even color of the skin. [An upper caste woman bemoans the fair skinned lower caste boy and revels privately when the boy's cheeks are burnt and his face is disfigured.]
This poor man comes across activists who are fighting against the atrocities conducted under the guise of being in upper caste. The country fighting for its independence from British Raj was also fighting against country's oldest villains deep rooted into people consciousness for centuries. Mistry subtly points this out several times during the course of the book; be it in Dina Dalal's decision to separate out two cups for the tailors or the disproportionate response their actions receive.
Politically volatile and brutalization of democracy is seen from the perspective of everyday man. An upper middle class woman who runs textile export starts subcontracting the work instead of utilizing laborers who are identified by the unions. Each character take a stand on this issue and Mistry uses the issue as a factor that motivates actions and decisions of these characters. The characters talk about politicians and their motivations in the way it affects everyday life. The politics in itself reflects its ugly face on lives of the four protagonists and we see parallels to their story.
As is the case in politics, there is a fight for excessive power and in this fight, people become collateral damage. It wasn't revolution. It wasn't a movement done for the sake of people. Yet everyday man paid the price without understanding why. From communal to politically motivated riots, many died and many more were injured during the turbulent times - the bystanders, street vendors, daily laborers, small business owners. Mistry's characters are directly impacted by the happenstances around them. It shows fragility of life and how awfully helpless we are because of the circumstances around us.
The content is powerful and the characters pull you into their world and you find yourself speaking out loud, defending some of them on their behalf. Its saddening how this balance still exist today. The tragedy doesn't seem like tragic but an eventuality that you probably saw it coming. Had it been otherwise, it would be fiction. Mistry's writing will leave you mostly depressed and/or angry. This is the third time I attempted to read this book and the first time I managed to finish it. The depth of depravity was just too much to ignore and brave through the pages.
A fine balance exists in the way this world operates. Many strive to ensure this balance exists by reciting misinterpreted scriptures or a tradition that was installed centuries ago. Mistry's characters tests this balance, poke at it, question it, fight it and sometimes even manage to win. Every now and then we find ourselves standing on one of the sides. The question is - do we have it in us to break through the barrier?
I will never be amazed at how much books surprise me sometimes. Rohinton Mistry was recommended to me as a key Indian author, but I’ve never much been interested in books written about the 70s, so I was hesitant to read this. When I saw how BIG this book was…I won’t lie–I put this thing off until it was absolutely due at the library, and even then I extended my contract.
951 pages later (I mistakenly got the large print version, I think the regular one is only 600), I have laughed, cried, gasped, and near made myself sick over this book. Mistry has sewn together a quilt of patches from poverty to familial abuse, from fascist regimes to mob bosses. I expected India to seem as far away as 1975–decades and countries away. Certainly something I needed to learn about, but I didn’t think I would be able to relate to quite so much. But this story resonated in so many ways with what is happening in the United States today–this book was a little TOO real.
It was also impossible not to fall in love with the characters. Mistry flips prejudice and privilege on its head because the people he wants you to see aren’t the rich and freshly-bathed, but the beggars and Untouchables–those who most disregard completely. Dina struggles over and over with her prejudice against the tailors–she is us, our wrinkled nose and closed door. There are also those who are obsessed with political movements, and those who are being affected by the horrific changes by the massive changes made by the government…and those who just don’t seem to care at all what is going on until it is too late.
A Fine Balance is two things. It IS a brilliant book about Indian culture in the 1970s. I learned so much about the country and amazingly diverse people that I did not know before. But this book is also us, in our country, right now. It’s on my list of books kids should be reading in school but would never be allowed. I know it’s long, but devote some time this year for this one. It’s worth it.
951 pages later (I mistakenly got the large print version, I think the regular one is only 600), I have laughed, cried, gasped, and near made myself sick over this book. Mistry has sewn together a quilt of patches from poverty to familial abuse, from fascist regimes to mob bosses. I expected India to seem as far away as 1975–decades and countries away. Certainly something I needed to learn about, but I didn’t think I would be able to relate to quite so much. But this story resonated in so many ways with what is happening in the United States today–this book was a little TOO real.
It was also impossible not to fall in love with the characters. Mistry flips prejudice and privilege on its head because the people he wants you to see aren’t the rich and freshly-bathed, but the beggars and Untouchables–those who most disregard completely. Dina struggles over and over with her prejudice against the tailors–she is us, our wrinkled nose and closed door. There are also those who are obsessed with political movements, and those who are being affected by the horrific changes by the massive changes made by the government…and those who just don’t seem to care at all what is going on until it is too late.
A Fine Balance is two things. It IS a brilliant book about Indian culture in the 1970s. I learned so much about the country and amazingly diverse people that I did not know before. But this book is also us, in our country, right now. It’s on my list of books kids should be reading in school but would never be allowed. I know it’s long, but devote some time this year for this one. It’s worth it.
One of my top 5 favourite books of all time. Compelling characters, immersive culture. Now visiting India is on my Bucket List.
This is a difficult book to read, but despite its size, it would be a mistake to call it sprawling. Instead of taking in a vast cavalcade of characters, it shows the impact of The Emergency in India on not many, but on a few. Four, in particular. Although they know other people, it is through these four that we see how the state intruded brutally into the lives of its citizens, and how the vulnerable were, of course, the most vulnerable, while the powerful refused to believe that abuses were going on, preferring to blame the poor for their own fates.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I held it together until the end, then cried like a baby for the last four or so chapters. Heartbreaking, sweet, and occasionally sweetly funny. Haven't decided if Maneck's ending is the greatest farce or the ultimate tragedy, though I think Mistry would want me to believe Maneck missed the ultimate optimism.
It's quite a long book, but it's really good! It's so well written and intriguing.
I came across this book while searching about books set in the era of ‘Emergency’ in India when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. As the story unfolds we see mushrooming callous government officials , employment programmes that benefit higher authorities rather than down-trodden masses , violence of rights of lower caste, all ensuing from a government struggling to prevent its downfall while being scarred by corruption.
Mrs. Dina Dalal, a Parsi widow in her early 40’s, Maneck Kohlah, her paying boarder who she was forced to take in due to financial needs, and two Hindu tailors, Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, whom she hires to sew dresses for an export company are the four main characters about whom pivots the main storyline. All of them are fleeing from something. The book brings out the innate humanness in each person which might have been clouded by the man made barriers of caste and religion.
I did find a few hiccups such as abrupt entries and exits and the ending was not upto my liking. But the book has tackled an ambitious topic and nearly succeeded, or perhaps succeeded indeed.
Mrs. Dina Dalal, a Parsi widow in her early 40’s, Maneck Kohlah, her paying boarder who she was forced to take in due to financial needs, and two Hindu tailors, Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, whom she hires to sew dresses for an export company are the four main characters about whom pivots the main storyline. All of them are fleeing from something. The book brings out the innate humanness in each person which might have been clouded by the man made barriers of caste and religion.
I did find a few hiccups such as abrupt entries and exits and the ending was not upto my liking. But the book has tackled an ambitious topic and nearly succeeded, or perhaps succeeded indeed.
There is a fine balance between authorial detachment and narrative excellence, and Mistry maintains it throughout this book.
A Fine Balance is the second of Rohinton Mistry's novels that I have read, and, as of yet, it is without a doubt the saddest one I have ever had the opportunity to peruse. The pathos in this novel is constant, and constantly overbearing. And yet, the book does not cease to be gripping. In fact, it is commendable how Mistry explores the depths of desolation in this book; be it in the lives of its characters, or in the country their lives take shape within; without losing the hold he has on the reader: a hold that seems to have a grip on the readers' very fingertips, refusing to let go of his pages even after soaking in them for long enough.
Every single character in this book suffers in the throes of life. However, Mistry writes them with such lifelike abandon (and perhaps, it is in spite of this) that there emerges a certain tragicomic quality in episodes from their daily lives. The lifelike irony of happenstances and the brusqueness of actual conversation has probably never been written with as much of a flair. Mistry is, indeed, a caricaturist of common lives, and in A Fine Balance he draws the many faces of life during, before and after the Emergency of 1975. The real genius of Mistry's skill, I believe, lies in the detail in which he explores the pathos of each of his characters - from major characters like Dina Dalal, Omprakash and Ishvar Darji and Maneck Kohlah to Shankar and Monkey-man. The author's prose in this book is itself quite like the quilt that emerges within the narrative: an evocative and lovingly crafted patchwork of a multitude of emotions and lived experiences.
But there is more. A Fine Balance is based; as mentioned earlier, and following the pattern of Mistry's other novel; chiefly in Bombay of the 1970s, or as phrased in the book, 'the city by the sea. However, unlike in Such A Long Journey, it is not the where but the when that A Fine Balance focuses on. The spotlight is on Indira Gandhi's India, on the nation during the Emergency, and Mistry is ruthless in exposing it for what it was. Particularly in the lives of Ishvar and Omprakash as they're retold to us can one find woven bits and pieces of the real India: the caste-ridden, violence and corruption-ridden, suffering-ridden India, a nation that sees itself in herds and ignores it to keep going, a nation of forced sterilisation and dragging court cases. But more than anything else, Mistry's prose tells us that India is, first and foremost, a nation where the personal is the political, for the personal suffering of every character is touched by the arm of law, or of the government, in the most alarming (and yet, commonplace) ways in the novel.
The questions of life and death, and of change and loss, are also dealt with in the book, with instances and quips both fleeting and elaborate. One of the most striking things about Mistry is that he writes like life. His wisdom, which is never posited as such, is in many places entirely missable in the depths of the narrative, but also compelling, thoughtful and highly quotable. A Fine Balance is as reliable as Mistry's first novel in terms of the philosophical food for thought it offers.
Overall, this book is a powerful, politically charged and intricately done patchwork of reasons why it needs to be read. There are many, and it is beautiful enough to make the reader very, very sad. But read, anyway. For as the epigraph by Balzac says, "this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true''.
A Fine Balance is the second of Rohinton Mistry's novels that I have read, and, as of yet, it is without a doubt the saddest one I have ever had the opportunity to peruse. The pathos in this novel is constant, and constantly overbearing. And yet, the book does not cease to be gripping. In fact, it is commendable how Mistry explores the depths of desolation in this book; be it in the lives of its characters, or in the country their lives take shape within; without losing the hold he has on the reader: a hold that seems to have a grip on the readers' very fingertips, refusing to let go of his pages even after soaking in them for long enough.
Every single character in this book suffers in the throes of life. However, Mistry writes them with such lifelike abandon (and perhaps, it is in spite of this) that there emerges a certain tragicomic quality in episodes from their daily lives. The lifelike irony of happenstances and the brusqueness of actual conversation has probably never been written with as much of a flair. Mistry is, indeed, a caricaturist of common lives, and in A Fine Balance he draws the many faces of life during, before and after the Emergency of 1975. The real genius of Mistry's skill, I believe, lies in the detail in which he explores the pathos of each of his characters - from major characters like Dina Dalal, Omprakash and Ishvar Darji and Maneck Kohlah to Shankar and Monkey-man. The author's prose in this book is itself quite like the quilt that emerges within the narrative: an evocative and lovingly crafted patchwork of a multitude of emotions and lived experiences.
But there is more. A Fine Balance is based; as mentioned earlier, and following the pattern of Mistry's other novel; chiefly in Bombay of the 1970s, or as phrased in the book, 'the city by the sea. However, unlike in Such A Long Journey, it is not the where but the when that A Fine Balance focuses on. The spotlight is on Indira Gandhi's India, on the nation during the Emergency, and Mistry is ruthless in exposing it for what it was. Particularly in the lives of Ishvar and Omprakash as they're retold to us can one find woven bits and pieces of the real India: the caste-ridden, violence and corruption-ridden, suffering-ridden India, a nation that sees itself in herds and ignores it to keep going, a nation of forced sterilisation and dragging court cases. But more than anything else, Mistry's prose tells us that India is, first and foremost, a nation where the personal is the political, for the personal suffering of every character is touched by the arm of law, or of the government, in the most alarming (and yet, commonplace) ways in the novel.
The questions of life and death, and of change and loss, are also dealt with in the book, with instances and quips both fleeting and elaborate. One of the most striking things about Mistry is that he writes like life. His wisdom, which is never posited as such, is in many places entirely missable in the depths of the narrative, but also compelling, thoughtful and highly quotable. A Fine Balance is as reliable as Mistry's first novel in terms of the philosophical food for thought it offers.
Overall, this book is a powerful, politically charged and intricately done patchwork of reasons why it needs to be read. There are many, and it is beautiful enough to make the reader very, very sad. But read, anyway. For as the epigraph by Balzac says, "this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true''.