A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
This has got to be the darkest, bleakest, lowest book I’ve ever read. The book is moving, passionate and emotional. It is shocking.
No matter how low Dina, the tailors or Maneck sink in their life situations, Mistry finds a way to just crush them. Stories of class struggle, riots, corruption, deception, death, murder, beatings, forced sterilization, revenge castration, and maiming are par for the course, but so are stories of friendship, sacrifice, selflessness, love and solidarity. There is a lot packed in this book which ends with…no I can’t ruin it for you.
If nothing else, the book is incredibly ironic.
The story is set in India and develops with Indira Gandhi’s corrupt rule. The cast system is stifling. The corruption coupled with governmental reforms leads to crushing oppression of the lower casts. Population control becomes forced sterilization. Beautification projects become forced slavery and homelessness. Homelessness becomes criminal and is punished with slavery, death, and even forced political action. And through it all, the characters of this book are especially and ironically oppressed beyond what they deserve.
I loved the book. I think it was important for me to read. I never want to read it again.
Rohinton Mistry
This has got to be the darkest, bleakest, lowest book I’ve ever read. The book is moving, passionate and emotional. It is shocking.
No matter how low Dina, the tailors or Maneck sink in their life situations, Mistry finds a way to just crush them. Stories of class struggle, riots, corruption, deception, death, murder, beatings, forced sterilization, revenge castration, and maiming are par for the course, but so are stories of friendship, sacrifice, selflessness, love and solidarity. There is a lot packed in this book which ends with…no I can’t ruin it for you.
If nothing else, the book is incredibly ironic.
The story is set in India and develops with Indira Gandhi’s corrupt rule. The cast system is stifling. The corruption coupled with governmental reforms leads to crushing oppression of the lower casts. Population control becomes forced sterilization. Beautification projects become forced slavery and homelessness. Homelessness becomes criminal and is punished with slavery, death, and even forced political action. And through it all, the characters of this book are especially and ironically oppressed beyond what they deserve.
I loved the book. I think it was important for me to read. I never want to read it again.
As a note, I read it because I met a young lady of Indian descent on Southwest Airlines from Detroit to Baltimore reading it. She liked it but said it was very hard (graphic and dark).
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