Sign in with Facebook
Paul Bryant's Reviews > A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
by
by
Rohinton Mistry has written three whopping novels set in India, Such a Long Journey, A Fine Balance, and Family Matters, and they're all brilliant. He doesn't have pyrotechnic prose like the DeLillos and Pynchons, he's the tortoise to their hares, he plods on with his careful beautiful pictures of the details of people's lives, the complexities and the horrors and the unnoticed pools of affection, where the money comes from and where it goes, how they get through the day and how they don't - his camera never lies. I recommend all of these three novels without any ifs or buts. You may be weeping at the end of them, because life is sad, but you won't mind that.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
A Fine Balance.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-24 of 24 (24 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Praj
(last edited May 06, 2011 09:02AM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
May 06, 2011 09:02AM
Mistry writes gracefully and captures the Indian essence eloquently. He is the only author of South Asian fiction, with whom I have no complains at all.
reply
|
flag
hi praj, what about Amitav Ghosh? he seems like a good chronicler. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36...
I'm always crying over books ;0 This sounds good.
Tuck, it may sound a bit preposterous , but reading 'Sea Of Poppies' approximated to viewing one of the 1960s Indian movies with a regional touch. Kindly, do not take my word on it, I tend to adhere callous cynicism when it comes Indian fiction.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Tuck wrote: "hi praj, what about Amitav Ghosh? he seems like a good chronicler. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36..."Tuck, I have read two of Ghosh's novels and was a little underwhelmed each time. I like his writing style though. In The Shadow Lines there doesn't seem to be a central idea tying the entire thing together. For the most part, the characters talk about one or the other incidents in their lives, set against the backdrop of a certain period of history, and then it just ends. Sea of Poppies does have a coherent plot, but it ended very abruptly.
I am told The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide are the better ones of what he has written. I have yet to read either of these.
We agree at last.
A Fine Balance is wonderful. I read it right after a trip to India a few years ago. I learned a lot from this book (and from the trip).
I havent read Such a Long Journey but loved both A Fine Balance and Family Affairs. A Fine Balance still remains my No 1 book.
well, I envy you that you have one you haven't read yet...
This was one of the most memorable books I've ever read but also perhaps the most traumatic. As to the last phrase of your review, "...you won't mind that," well, maybe not mind it but haven't got over it yet. So I'm scared to read his other books. Color me cowardly.
Oh well, I think you must! This is the most wrenching of the three by a long way though.
Megha wrote: "Tuck wrote: "hi praj, what about Amitav Ghosh? he seems like a good chronicler. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36..."Tuck, I have read two of Ghosh's novels and was a little ..."
Sea of Poppies is the first in a trilogy, The Ibis Trilogy. The second has been published now
River of Smoke, but we are waiting for the third. I agree that the first one ended abruptly and that is why I am waiting for the third to read the second.
I am aware that your post is dated May 2011, so you may already know this.
Paul wrote: "Oh well, I think you must! This is the most wrenching of the three by a long way though."Are these three a trilogy or independent of each other?
I loved both Such and Long Journey and Family Matters, but I was disappointed in this one. 'Plods on' is about right. Maybe I read it too late.
Maybe three was one too many. But I thought this one was the most Dickensian of the three. He's probably the only novelist I'll buy whatever he publishes.
A year and a half ago, Paul said, "Oh well, I think you must!" (read Mistry's other books)I have just read a New Yorker article from September on the genocide prior to the founding of Bangladesh (which unfortunately in their wisdom they have locked so I can't post it here) that starts with a quote from Such A Long Journey. So at long last I'm adding it.
I have yet to read Family Matters. I plan to pick it up just before his next one comes out so that I'd still be left with at least one to look forward to. He's indeed one of the best. :)
A profound read. Goodness. I almost did not make it emotionally. It will take a while to get to the next one by this author. There's some balance to restore first! Love your review, Paul.
thanks M - I'm impatiently waiting for the next vast novel - it's very late...
that or Beautiful Losers....
Wonderful wonderful book, read more than twenty years ago. Will look for his other works.
