A review by ksparks
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

3.0

This is a tale that is unrelievedly bleak in it's plot, and yet there is something about the wide-vision lens Mistry uses, that for me softens the impact. By wide-vision lens I am thinking, he looks at life from the perspective of many lifetimes. The life that each of these characters receives, within the perspective of each person only having one lifetime, is utterly unfair. Really bad things happen to these characters, and they are not redeemed by any silver lining. Like Dickens or Tolstoy, Mistry captures the complete picture of social conditions in India in the 70's. None of the characters in the book are completely innocent--or completely guilty. What they are is resilient, and the hope to be found in this book lies in the moments of connection and caring, the small acts of bravery, and the learning that happens, however slowly.