lmp101010 's review for:

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

3.0

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I read this book because I love being immersed in other cultures or time periods vastly different than my own. I definitely experienced both with this book, though I have to say it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Sometimes reading a truly sad tale can be a cathartic experience that momentarily severs one from their trials and stresses and provides some worldly enlightenment or reverent reflection about important events. This novel didn’t do that for me. It simply dumped a pile of misery in my lap and walked away without explanation. That said, the writing is excellent and the main characters are wonderfully developed. It will transport you to 1970s India in the most brutal of ways. I am glad that I read this book, I just felt it was too heavy a dose of wretched sadness when it didn’t have to be that way.