4.5 stars rounded to 5

Set during  one of the bleakest times that post-Independence India has seen, this book traces the fortunes of four protagonists who find support and sustenance in each other during the state imposed emergency of 1975. The narrative sweep of the novel is equalled by the intricate and empathetic characterization and the exhaustive but precise details on the social and political landscape and most of all, the everyday life in India --  from segregation of utensils for different castes to why tailors have the nail of their pinky finger left out to grow. And yes, I almost drowned in the deluge of the heart-wrenching misery of their lives which felt unbearable at times. In the book's defense, Balzac did warn the reader on the first page:

n  Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. After you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity. Accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true.n

Yet in the midst of all this wretchedness, in the face of the blatant unfairness of fate, there were invisible silken threads of hope to hold on to and the will to persist and carry on, most of all good-humouredly, one day at a time. Both the prologue and epilogue feature a death on the railway tracks, indicating disenchantment with the apparent futility of life's journey, but in both the cases the business of survival perpetuates, not entirely indifferent to such rude jolts but assimilating them and assuaging the pain on the way forward.

n  If there was an abundance of misery in the world, there was also sufficient joy, yes - as long as one knew where to look for it.n

The four protagonists are a study in diversity, hailing from different backgrounds and social classes and endowed with remarkably disparate temperaments. Skepticism makes this provisional intersection uneasy at first, but with the passage of time their days of closeness are alive with warmth and the joys of companionship. I found the characters true to life and the gradual transformation of their relationship authentic. This is my second book by the author, having read "Family Matters" some years back. Mr. Mistry does craft memorable characters and relationship dynamics, it is almost impossible not to care about them. Dina Dalal, the fiesty and stubborn widow who had been content in her solitude, opens up her heart to this makeshift family composed of a paying guest (Maneck) and two tailors (Ishwar and his nephew, Om).  Though the disparity in castes and classes makes this intimacy somewhat incredible, especially in the India of the 70s, such capacity for love does not seem impossible. Unfortunately, for the 70's, caste-based violence was not a rarity and even today some pockets of the country's heartland rattle you with abhorrent cases of such discrimination.

Like always, the already marginalized are trampled upon and the "emergency" affects the rich and the poor differently, with it being only a minor inconvenience for the more privileged classes. The desperately poor don't have many avenues to climb out of the deep well of poverty and generations after generations decompose in this bottomless pit, their lives less valuable than the price of a dinner for two.

I found a superlative audio version on Audible, narrated by Vikas Adam who single-handedly brought to life all the major and minor characters, bestowing on each of them a distinct voice. It was impossible to distinguish that a male narrator was behind the strong-headed and tender-hearted Dina or the innate humility of Ishwar and the prickly defiance of  Om sprang from the same vocal chords. On the flip side, it is not possible to pause an audiobook every time I want to mull over some part of the text, so I have to rely on my rickety memory to record any impressions. 

The book is page-turning-ly immersive but a few parts felt stretched, especially the meandering antics of the Rajaram, the hair-collector. Nevertheless, it is a "small obstacle" to surmount, he doesn't occupy much space. As I look for my next Mistry book, I will leave you with this simple advice from Ishwar, the gentlest tailor I've ever met:

n  The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter there will be no room for crying.n

This is one of my favorite books. It will absolutely gut you from beginning to end. The characters are complicated and melancholic but also lovable and deeply loved by one another. The suffering is so real; some succumb to it while others do not.

I read an article by Umberto Eco stating that a good book's title should be as neutral and non-informative as possible. The reader decides what she is reading about and what it means. In this case, though, I disagree. The title is necesarily spot-on, saying it all in an open, matter-of-fact (but somehow also compassionate) way. The book spells out the delicate and often incomprehensible balance - or, rather, imbalance - of dark and light that to me is what life amounts to. There is no mincing words or interpreting the reality of human suffering or the scarce but sustaining power of human joy. Ironically, I finished the last page with tears streaming down my cheeks, my insides feeling as if they'd be wrenched out, and a bizarre smile on my face. I think the author believes that on a scale that seems to pit the Goliath of pain, cruelty, hate, and fear against a David armed only with small acts of kindness and interconnectedness, David still holds his own. I have to agree.

This is about as close to an epic Victorian novel as modern fiction gets.

Mistry weaves together the stories of four main protagonists whose fates are thrown together by the upheavals of India's Emergency in 1975. Dina is a Parsee widow, with a rich family but struggling to maintain her independence in her late husband's flat. She employs Ishvar and Om, two tailors taking refuge from their rural community after reprisals following their family's refusal to conform to the expectations of their low caste status. The fourth is Maneck, a young student who lodges in the house.

Much of the plot is driven by Mistry's determination to expose the injustices of Indian society and the brutal repression and arbitrary violence of the Emergency. On one level the book could be seen as relentlessly bleak, in that the expectations of the protagonists are constantly dashed. Mistry's characters are masterfully drawn, and there is also a lot of humour and picaresque adventure. My only slight criticism is that, as in many Victorian novels, there are too many coincidences in the chance encounters, particularly those with the peripheral characters, and that the ending seems a little too neat given the chaotic and brutal events that characterise the rest of the book.

n  What an unreliable thing is time - when I want it to fly, the hours stick at me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be a pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair. Or the lines in your face,stealing your youthful colour and your hair. But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.n

I have just finished reading this book by an author who wrote the above words; which at one read would seem pithy and intriguing. But then, when you've read the story of the people that Mistry chose to tell you in this book, you'd be contemplating each sentence with a different perspective. You'd end up with a huge fight inside your head, because half of it would want you to renounce all the faith in humanity/system/God itself. And the other half would want you to believe in hope/silver lining because we are so pathetically weak that we need an anchor to go on.

Ultimately you'll be in a quest to find A Fine Balance to settle the thoughts and move on.

This book is written around one of the most difficult times that India has faced. The time at which we were independent of the British Raj but ended up in Gunda Raj. The time that tested every trait of us humans - Compassion, Honesty, Faith, Love, Friendship, Empathy etc. The time when we failed at each of them.

At some points I felt so wretched that I felt I couldn't read one more word. At some others I felt a subtle joy because of the way the characters could find happiness and satisfaction with so little in hand. I got goosebumps when a chapter ended and I read the name of the next one. They could kindle a hope in my heart for the good time to come or they could fill me with dread, as to what now!

The Beggarmaster, Monkey-man, Hair-Collector and the diseased Proof-reader were extremely fascinating. Ultimately, the story of the four main characters, a widow, a college student, a chamar-turned tailor and his nephew, was beguiling. Happy to move this to my Favorites.

رواية اجتماعية سياسية، تتحدث عن الاضطهاد الطبقي والديني والفقر والفساد السياسي في الهند في قالب قصصي إنساني جميل ومؤثر.

أشد ما جذبني في الرواية التفاصيل المرعبة والمأساوية عن التعقيم القسري الذي شرعت فيه حكومة أنديرا غاندي في الهند، وعندما بحثت في النت وجدت أن التعقيم القسري ما زال متواصلاً في الهند ودول أخرى رغم اعتباره جريمة ضد الإنسانية.

الرواية جميلة ومؤثرة إلا أنها مليئة بالتفاصيل غير الضرورية، لا أنكر أنّي في بعض الأحيان فكّرت أن أضعها جانبًا بسبب الملل الذي اعتراني في بعض فصول الرواية، لولا شغفي لمعرفة مصير كل بطل في القصة لما أنهيتها.



اقتباسات



“الحياة حفلة عزف منفرد دائمة بحضور مجموعة من المستمعين”.

“يا للجنون! لقد عاش هؤلاء الناس معًا طوال أجيال، ضاحكين وباكين معًا. والآن، ها هم يذبحون بعضهم”.

“بالنسبة إلى السياسيين، إن إقرار القوانين أشبه بالتغوّط؛ إذ ينتهي كل شيء في بالوعة الصرف الصحي”.

“رجاءً، تذكّر أن سرّ البقاء يكمن في تقبّل التغيير بسرور والتكيّف معه”.

“أحيانًا عليك استخدام إخفاقاتك كوسيلة للنجاح. عليك الاحتفاظ بتوازن دقيق بين الأمل واليأس”.

“أظن أنّ حواسنا كلها معدّة للاستمتاع بعالم مثالي. ولكن، يجب علينا وضع غِمامات على حواسنا بما أن العالم غير مثالي”.

“لو كان الوقت لفّة قماش، لأزلتُ منه كل الأجزاء السيّئة، وقصصتُ الليالي المريعة، ودرزتُ القطع الجيّدة لأتمكن من تحمّل الوقت. وعندئذٍ، سأتمكن من ارتدائه كما لو أنه معطف، وأعيش بسعادة على الدوام”.

“الذكريات لا تزول، وتبقى تلك المليئة بالأسى حتى مع مرور الوقت، ولا يمكن أبدًا استعادة الذكريات السعيدة كما كانت، واستعادة الشعور بالفرح الذي رافقها. فللتذكّر سرّه الغريب الخاص به، ويبدو الأمر غير مُنصف بسبب تحوّل الحزن والسعادة إلى مصدر ألم”.

“الوقت هو خيط المصّيص الذي بربط حياتنا بالسنوات والأشهر، أو الحزام المطاطي الذي يلائم مخيّلتنا، أو الخطوط في وجهك التي تسرق لون شبابك وشعرك. ولكن في النهاية، الوقت هو أُنشوطة حول العُنُق تخنقنا ببطء”.

“ما العمل عندما يتصرف الناس المثقّفون كالهمجيين؟ كيف تتحدث إليهم؟ عندما يفقد أصحاب النفوذ عقلهم، لا يعود هناك أمل”.

“معظم ما أراه يصيبني باليأس. ولكن ماذا نتوقع عندما يصبح القضاء بين أيدي وحوش، ويستبدل قادةُ البلد الحكمةَ والحكمَ الجيّد بالجُبنِ وتعظيم الشأن؟ مجتمعنا يبلى من أعلى الهرم إلى أسفله”.

“من يريد دخول معبد العدالة الملوَّث من حيث توجد جثة العدالة التي ذبحها حرّاسها؟”.

“هناك أمل على الدوام؛ أمل يكفي ليوازي يأسنا، وإلّا ضعنا”.

“ليست حياتنا سوى سلسلة من الحوادث، سلسلة من الأحداث العرَضية. سلسلة من الخيارات، العرضية أو المتعمَّدة، تُضاف إلى تلك الفاجعة الكبيرة التي ندعوها الحياة”.

“القانون صارم لا يبتسم، ولكن العدالة مختلفة؛ فهي ظريفة ومتقلّبة ولطيفة ومكترثة”.

“What an unreliable thing is time–when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl’s hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful color and your hair. …. But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.”

He is a finely balanced writer. This was the first thought that erupted in my mind, the moment I finished this book. This book did not force me to undulate to the long amplitudes to two extreme ends, like a pendulum’s bob. Yes, the author definitely produced a ‘to and fro’ motion with his compelling storytelling, his story kept this reader hinged near to the center. My faculties were vibrating coherently near the center only, with a cheery smile, throughout. As the story could not overwhelm me to any of the extreme ends! The story could not impress me to that level, what I was expecting. But I would like to quickly swim out of this mood like that of Dina Dalal, a central character, whose past was bright but her present was grim, and every time she thought about delving into her brighter past, she quickly changed her mood and brought her faculties back to her harsh and realistic present.

n  “If she did sink one of these rare moods she quickly swam out of it.” n

The story begins with a train journey, where a young boy Maneck meets two tailors inside a bogey, Ishwar Darjee and his teenage nephew Om Prakash, who coincidentally turned out to be heading for the same address. Dina Dalal was the name whom they were going to visit. Two tailors were going there for employment and the Maneck was a student from a hill station and was a distant relative. Dina Dalal was a widow for more than twenty years and she had decided not to remarry.

Two tailors had come from an inland village and the city was the city by the sea, though you can easily guess which geography do these locations belong to, if you are aware of the Indian subcontinent, the author has kept them unnamed. The story moves from the past to the present, going to the village life, coming back to the city, going back to the village again and, from the border to the hill station and so on. These all characters found themselves entwined in interdependent situations in one cramped apartment. And here, exactly from here, I started noticing the exceptional storytelling that the author has manifested in weaving together the stories of four different and unrelated characters, in a remarkable manner. His authority and command over the prose and structure is something that made this book un-put-downable for me. Another thing is that he has made such an amazing concoction of politics, city life, village life, and individual aspirations in a great manner that this literary amalgamation made this book a top-hole reading.

During the 1975 emergency era of India’s political history, the intervention of government and pressure groups in the lives of ordinary people, the communal tensions, the fight of the human spirit, love, depression, and comedy, you will find everything here. Apart from the main characters, there is a gamut of common community-based characters, who will present themselves for a short period in the plot but their presence and their dialogues will make you feel some sort of ‘a waggish reposte’, but you will feel depressing too. In such places, you will get the feel of a tragicomedy!

There was no melodrama, but I will consider this book, a form of dramatic art for sure. For me, apart from all that I said above, the most prominent thing in this book was its immense sweep and huge span in terms of individual lives, geographical extension, and political and societal attributes. I will highly recommend this book to all those who are willing to absorb too much of an art, in one go, in an extremely sophisticated manner.

“You see, we cannot draw lines and compartments and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.' He paused, considering what he had just said. 'Yes', he repeated. 'In the end, it's all a question of balance.’ ”

n  n
A Fine Balance

I sometimes take a moment to focus on the corner of my office. The way the two walls come together forming a line, a demarcation. I think of it as bringing the two halves of my brain together, to focus, to think, to ponder. It is an illusion of course, but I’m fortunate that some of my life can be given to fanciful thoughts like thinking I can marshal the powers of my mind by staring meditatively at a conjunction. We all worry about things, ponder things, and even dream about being somewhere else or about being someone else. We all have loose threads that bother us, sometimes they are consuming us, and little do we know these bothersome threads are becoming stronger, like a man imprisoned, who spends vast amounts of time doing pushups and situps, waiting for the bars to open.

But it is a small matter,

because I eat three meals a day, take a hot shower every morning, and sleep six solid hours a night on a bed that is not too soft nor too hard.

I have rights that protect me from my government (at least for the moment). I have law enforcement that doesn’t have to be bribed to protect me from those that wish to do harm for harms sake. I have a circle of family and friends who wish me well and will lend a shoulder to lean on if I falter. I have healthcare and life insurance in case I am unlucky. I live in a bubble of civilization that almost insures me a certain length of life span.

So when I do get time to snip those loose threads of my life I’m doing so with a brain that has the luxury of worrying about something more than just NEEDS. As large as my “problems” become they are still,

but a small matter.

There are a vast array of characters in this novel. Some are at a slightly higher economic level than the rest, but regardless of their circumstances no one can feel safe, no one can worry about matters beyond the most basic needs of water, food, and shelter.

The bulk of this story occurs in 1975 in an unnamed Indian city by the sea. It is the time of The Great Emergency which really means that the government has declared a form of martial law...for the safety of the people of course. They have implemented a rigorous Family Planning Program that at first entices people with cash and better ration cards for food if they are willing to have the operation for sterilization. When bribery doesn’t elicit the results the government wants their methods become more invasive and more drastic.

The government also implements a beautification program that translates to bulldozing all the temporary structures that have been erected around the city. These were thrown together to house the influx of country people coming to the metropolis to try and scrounge a living doing what others don’t want to do. The hodge podge of housing built out of cast off materials, rubbish to people of means, is not beautiful, not in the way that we are taught to evaluate beauty, but the creativity and the determination to build something for themselves is beyond beauty. It is simply magnificent. As they make a little money they fix something, add something, make it more their home.

n  n
You build it and they will come. There is no field of dreams in this India.

So the government eliminates these eye sores, but does not provide a place for these people to live. They are thrown to the elements to shift for themselves. If truth be known the government would like to see these people vanish, stacked in the same pile as the rubbled remains of their homes.

“What sense did the world make? Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair? Couldn't He read a simple balance sheet? He would have been sacked long ago if He were managing a corporation, the things he allowed to happen...”

The two tailors Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash were there when the bulldozers started knocking down homes. Only after all the homes were destroyed did the monster machines stop for twenty minutes to allow people to salvage what they could.

The tailors are working for a woman named Dina Dalal who is fortunate to have her own apartment. She still mourns the death of her husband taken from her in a freakish accident many years ago. She nearly went over the brink with grief. “Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.” She has a relationship with her brother that is complicated. She dislikes having to accept his help; and yet, finds herself going to him for money when she is short of rent. In a bid for more independence and more financial security she decides to start making clothes for a large manufacturing company, but her eyesight is failing and so she hires Ishvar and Omprakash to do the sewing.

n  n

Further help arrives in the form of Maneck Kohlah, a rich boy in comparison to the other people in the apartment, who contributes much needed rent while he is going to school.

She is not supposed to run a business out of her apartment. She is not supposed to sublease. The landlord is looking for any reason to get his hands on this apartment so he can finally break the rent controls. It is a recipe for disaster born out of desperation. It is a bid for freedom.

“After all, our lives are but a sequence of accidents - a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life.”

Through a series of unpredictable events they all end up living in the apartment together. The tailors out on the veranda. Dina shoehorned into the sewing room. Maneck in Dina’s old bedroom. There are difficulties mainly because Omprakash begins to resent Dina’s position as overseer. Om perceives her as a big shot, a rich person, when nothing could be further from the truth. Being a manager myself I really identified with Dina’s issues. She would try to be more lenient and the two men would take more and more advantage of her. She would try yelling and the men would become resentful. She would try negotiating with them, but any concessions she was willing to make was never enough. How quickly the men forgot how bad things were before the found the benevolence of the woman with an apartment.

Despite those issues for a little while, too short of time, they were happy.

“…God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the quilt is grown so big and confusing, the pattern is impossible to see, the squares and diamonds and triangles don’t fit well together anymore, it’s all become meaningless. So He has abandoned it.”

The mystery of happiness. It is so hard to obtain and so difficult to duplicate. You can bring together the same people under the same circumstances and not be able to achieve it again. There is a magic missing, a zing, a spice, a mood or just the will to let it happen.

There are a host of satellite characters who add so much vitality to this novel. My favorite was the Beggarmaster. As his title indicates he managed and took care of an army of beggars. He also, for a price, extended protection to people like the tailors, to people like Dina. He is as powerful as a magistrate and the police know not to mess with him or his people. He sees everyone the same whether they are people missing limbs or people still retaining every body part they came into this world with. He sees the world through the lens of the poor.

”Freaks, that’s what we are--all of us.”... “I mean, every single human being. And who can blame us? What chance do we have, when our beginnings and endings are so freakish? Birth and death--what could be more monstrous than that? We like to deceive ourselves and call it wondrous and beautiful and majestic, but it’s freakish, let’s face it.”

The Beggarmaster would have been perfectly at home stepping into a Dickens novel as would many of the characters in this novel. Many reviewers have made comparisons to Charles Dickens and nowhere is it more apparent than in the cast of characters that Rohinton Mistry has assembled. Dickens would have also certainly loved taking on the issue of forced sterilization, the issue of sanitation, the issue of deprivation, and the overreach of a government completely out of touch with the largest majority of their population...the poor.

You will find yourself living with these characters. You will even feel like you are sharing their deprivation through the power of a gifted writer’s words. Success is fleeting. Disaster ever present. Hopelessness is a shadow around everyone’s heart. No one is immune and everyone is walking on the ledge hoping the wind doesn’t blow. The things that matter to them the most are the essential things. The very things the rest of us take for granted.

n  n
Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry very well may have written a masterpiece. This was recommended to me as a favorite book. I can’t resist when people say a book is their favorite book. So what I would like is for everyone to share their favorite book with me on the comments thread. I will do my best to eventually read every one of them that I haven’t read before. This novel is Highly Recommended!

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I read this book back in 1997 or 1998.
It remains my number 1 favourite book of all time.
It’s one of the greatest drama that I have read.
Although the storyline is sad, the writing is superb!
The characters are rich and vivid.
There is so much poverty and misery and at the same time there is this energy of positivity and hope that jumps at you from between the lines.
It’s a rollercoaster of emotions.
There are moments of joy and moments of anger.
It’s all about finding that fine balance in life.
This is an unforgettable masterpiece.

The ebook is on sale today for $3.99 (Canadian), so I thought that I should mention it.

What to say about such an overwhelming book.

It is a masterfully written story of four people who happen to come together in the 1970s in India. Of course there are more than four people involoved in this tale of everyday life, death, misery, occasional happiness, government excess and cruelty in the most densely populated country on earth. The four are: Dina, middle-aged at 30 and struggling to maintain her independence; Maneck a 17 year old student who will take a room in her apartment; and Ishvar and Om, uncle and nephew tailors seeking a living in the city so they can return as successful men to their country homes.

This is a powerful and difficult book to read but also, I believe, important for those of us who have not experienced such a tenuous existence, a life with no rights, little future, no real hope, where power resides in the greedy and evil.

But still there are wonderful moments of humanity amidst the squalor. There are also eye-opening scenes about the caste system that still remained at the time this book was written.

Though the book is lengthy it is so well-written that it passed quickly for me, except when I was slowed by sadness at events occurring.

Highly recommended

Mình khá phân vân khi quyết định chọn Cân bằng mong manh trong những ngày đầu năm 2018 chính là vì độ dài của nó. Hơn 1000 trang sách, dài gần bằng với "kỳ quan" Suối nguồn mà mình đã vật vã mãi mới xong, ấy vậy mà quyển sách này mình lại hoàn thành khá nhanh chóng và cũng rất có cảm tình.

Xã hội hiện lên trong Cân bằng mong manh là một cái xã hội hoàn toàn khác với những gì trước giờ mình từng được biết, cũng khốc liệt và tàn bạo hơn bất kì điều gì mình từng được nghe qua. Ấn Độ hồi những năm 1970 hệt như một ván cờ người khổng lồ nơi mà có đi nước nào thì cũng cảm thấy là mình sai. Dina, Maneck, Om và Ishvar đã gặp nhau trong hoàn cảnh đó. Bốn cuộc đời lần lượt hiện lên dưới ngòi bút của Rohinton Mistry, hạnh phúc có mà đau thương cũng có. Họ đến với nhau, gắn kết với nhau, cùng nhau chia sẻ những ngày hạnh phúc hiếm hoi trên cái lằn ranh mong manh của tạo hoá, rồi kể từ đó mỗi người lại phải tự gánh chịu hậu quả từ cái trò chơi ác nghiệt của ông Trời.

Ở giữa cái u ám mịt mù ấy, ai cũng như diễn viên xiếc nghiệp dư đang tập trò đi dây thăng bằng. Cân bằng mong manh đã vẽ nên một bức tranh với vô số nhân vật xung quanh, dù vai trò của họ là lớn hay nhỏ, họ đều là những mảnh ghép buộc phải có để có thể tạo nên một bức tranh chân thực nhường ấy. Trong cái ma trận ấy, chẳng hiểu sao mình lại thích nhất Ông trùm ăn mày. Ông như là hiện thân của cái thiện và cái ác cùng một lúc. Có đôi lúc ông rất đáng yêu (như khi ông mới phát hiện ra mình có một đứa em trai), có nhiều khi lại rất đáng sợ, lắm lúc lại rất ngầu. Mình yêu biết bao nhiêu mỗi lúc Ông trùm xuất hiện, mỗi lần như thế mình lại cảm thấy cuộc đời không đơn giản như trắng và đen mà nhạt nhoà như những mảng xám vậy. Hay như vô vàn mảnh ghép trong chiếc chăn của Dina.

Đây là một cuốn sách tuyệt vời, mình đảm bảo cho dù bạn là fan của thể loại nào thì cũng sẽ không thất vọng khi đọc. Cuốn sách sẽ đem lại cho bạn đủ mọi sắc thái cảm xúc: vui, buồn, hồi hộp, ngỡ ngàng, đau đớn. Khi đóng sách lại, mình tin là bạn sẽ phải đọc đi đọc lại cái kết vài lần, để tin chắc rằng đó thực sự là cách câu chuyện đóng lại, như mình đã từng.

My Heart is Heavy. I Feel Numb.

Often times we hear about political acts being passed, laws being enforced for the beneficiary of the working class but does it really benefit the designated people?

Well, A fine balance is the narrative of four ordinary individuals whose lives come together in the midst of the Emergency period in India.

Here, Mishtry comments on the drawbacks of the Emergency of 1975 and what sufferings it actually brought to the under-privileged people. What stands out is the way he weaves the lives of the characters maintaining a balance between hope and despair. Mishtry is an accomplished writer and there shouldn't be any doubt about that.

Beautifully written literary fiction set in India in 1975 during the “state of emergency” in which civil rights were suspended for political purposes. The story follows four protagonists of differing socioeconomic backgrounds who form into an unlikely “family” in their struggle to survive. Themes include political corruption, abuse of power, the passage of time, overcoming differences, poverty, dignity, injustice, memory, and the different facets of change.

Dina, at forty-two, has made her living as a seamstress but her eyes are failing. She desires to retain independence from her controlling family, so she hires two tailors, Ishvar and his nephew Omprakash, from rural India, who have broken away from the traditional caste system at great personal cost. She also takes in a border, Maneck, a college student from the mountains of northern India, to make ends meet. The tale is intricate and complex, flowing forward and backward to provide the backstories of the main characters.

It is a tragedy, a dark and sad tale that does not shy away from describing the many cruelties people inflict upon each other. Fortunately, it also describes acts of kindness. The characterization is stellar, and the author takes his time in developing them. In contrast to many books these days that create primarily unlikeable characters, the main characters in this book are basically good-hearted people trying to make the best of extremely challenging circumstances.

The book feels intimate, and I cared what happened to these people. I also felt I learned a great deal about India, its cultural variety, and its history. The drawbacks were few. It is rather lengthy at over 600 pages and I wish the ending had been as well-crafted as the rest of the book. Overall, I found it touching, heart-breaking, thought-provoking, and memorable. Recommended to those that can handle sad tales of endurance of the human spirit in the face of great hardship.