Book Review: Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance

After my raving feedback on his previous recommendation to me (Beyond the Beautiful Forever’s), my friend Simukai sent me a copy of Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance.’

It’s a bulky book so I struggled with it at the beginning especially given the pressures in my life that are leaving me with little time to read. I finally resolved to get an audio version. Audiobooks have been working great for me lately as I can get through a book as I do other things.

Nonetheless, I had posted a picture of the cover when I started reading and realised that the book has quite a fan base. Yoh! I completely understand why.

The book opens thus: “”The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed. The train’s brief deception jolted its riders. The bulge of humans hanging out of the doorway distended perilously, like a soap bubble at its limits.” What follows is a captivating tale of the lives of four main characters in post-colonial India, during the ‘Internal Emergency.’ Circumstances (largely a series of misfortunes) see widowed Dina Dalal, tailors Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash Darji ( who worked for her), and young student Maneck Kohlah end up living together in a small flat. We see the characters struggle to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.

I was constantly thinking how true many of the events narrated here are for so many people around the world.

I would highly recommend this book to readers. The imagery is impeccable, the language is elegant, the tale is epic. I would highly recommend this.

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