A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry meshes the lives of four people of diverse backgrounds into a bond that lasts a lifetime. The in-depth look at a culture and a people that I knew little about has brought about an understanding that I previously lacked.

Dina Dalal, widowed and determined to make it as an independent woman in a world where women have little value, becomes the unwilling glue that supports 3 other lives. Maneck Kohlah is a student, sent by his parents from his mountain village to attend school in the city. Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash are tailors escaping the terror in their village by moving to the city to look for work. This unlikely group of people become dependent on each other out of necessity, their lives entangling to create the basis of the story.

This book is written with much sadness as well as humour and has touched a place in my heart. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future. Bravo!

I belong to a book club and due to the very sensitive souls in our group, I was hesitant to bring this book to the table. The fact that it was highly recommended by someone I have a great deal of respect for gave the courage to put it on the agenda. To make a long story short, "A Fine Balance" was a hit, and Im very happy that I was able to persuade our club to choose it. Everyone that participated in our discussion brought a different and fresh perspective to the table.

The book explores the fine line between living and merely existing, loving and being in love, hate and ignorance, wanting and needing. In the face of irrefutable horror, the main characters emerge showing each persons vulnerabilities along with their incredible strength of character. When you cut through the cruelty of this book, you cant help but marvel at by the acts of kindness, bravery and generosity. Human nature with all its ugliness and all its beauty hits you in the face. It is a story about love, friendship, coping, betrayal, life, death and survival.

My advice? Be strong. Brace yourself for a tragic epic. Read this book, and share it with your friends.

Sincerely,
Jeanette Thums

The four main characters, Dina, the strong willed, hardened widow, Maneck, the sheltered young student who comes to live with her, Ishvar and Om, the tailors fleeing the horrible caste system of their village and hoping to build a new life, are well drawn and sympathetic. The array of supporting characters reveal a great deal about the best and worst that mankind is capable of: Beggars, innocents, con men, landlords, thugs, gangsters and revolutionaries. In the end, no one is perfect, and each person (and even animal!) must do his or her best to survive in a world that is seldom fair, often cruel, and never predictable. These people somehow go through their tumultuous lives with grace and courage, always seeking something to hope for, some reason to go on surviving, some future that is better than the dismal present. I could see the strength of the people and thought that Mistry did a wonderful job portraying a nations anguish through the characters he created.

Having said all that, and having enjoyed reading it as much as I did, I have to say that I was ultimately disappointed by this novel. It seemed like there was little redemption, or hope, for anyone and that every single bad thing that could happen to a poor person in India happened to these 4 characters personally. It was just too much, and in the end, the suffering inflicted on them was just too heavy handed for me as a reader to accept. There were also far too many incredible coincidences that seemed too often contrived. The writing was clean and well done, and the setting of the tale was incredibly well drawn. It just seemed as if Mistry were trying too hard to explain the beauty and pain that is his India. In seeking the balance between hope and despair, he found only despair. Characters either survived, or were destroyed, each in their own way, but the ending was totally unsatisfying for me and I felt that it weakened all that had gone before. That is ultimately why I have had such a hard time writing about this book. I wish I could have been able to say more that was positive about a novel that I sincerely enjoyed reading and about a work that is obviously well-received.

Perhaps I am like the reader in the Balzac quote at the start of the book and I am blaming the author for my own "insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy." All is probably true, and I can tell that Mistry feels very deeply about his subject, but it seems to me that fiction should illuminate the truth in such a way as to make it seem more real, while at the same time illustrating the basic truths of existence. To merely drive the sad truth into the ground, without giving ones characters at least some feeble hope for redemption, seems like a sad and wasted effort.