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A Fine Balance held me spellbound from beginning to end--Roy's descriptions of characters and the lives they have led show us people whose experiences are quite different from that of most Americans. These differences can be terrible, enchanting, fascinating and beautiful as the author reveals the various facets of the personality that come into play in response to events within the plot. The one thing in this book which struck me most was how everyone in Indian society, from the lowest beggar to the elected officials take their cut of any activity that occurs in the society--You want your garbage taken out? Pay the garbageman a monthly stipend and you get jolly good service. Forget that payment and you'll find your garbage all over the ground. Fascinating scams like local entrepreneurs taking advantage of a new government policy to elimate beggers in the streets, finds the beggers being scooped up by the police, essentially sold to the entrepreneur, and trucked umpteen miles away to work as free labor for a dam project. The entrepreneur pays the police so much per body to take the beggers, then resells them to the job foreman who pays the entrepreneur so much per body for the laborer, and so on until by the end of the book the author has humorously detailed the thousand-and-one ways people of little or no prospects manage to stay alive. The basic plot occurs during Indira Gandhi's tenure as prime minister (and no character has anything good to say about her!) when two tailors from a small upland village find themselves without anyplace to live despite the fact they have a good job as piece workers for a more educated character with many problems of her own. The manner in which the four main characters and several adjunct characters entertwine their lives is wonderful and we see each character learning and growing by this interaction even though their lives will eventully be turned upside once again by events none of them can change. This is a terrific book, one of the best I've read in sometime!Read full review
Mistry is a great narator, social explainer of this vast indian culture. The book reads like a mini series with vivid discriptions & characters. It walks you down the path of discovery, culture, tribalism, into the vast outside world busy and impersonal, full with elements of treachery, theft, crime, love...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Insight into the struggles of poverty in India. The perseverance of the characters...a story well told...will miss them now that the book has ended.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
One of the most complex and engaging novels I have read. Although set in an Indian context it is relevant to anyone in the world.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is one of the best novels I have ever read. Highly recommend.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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