Book Review: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Amongst the piles of books that could surround you in a stuffed book shop, once in a while you are bound to find a piece that is truly worth every effort spent for it. It will take you a little by surprise at times, while at others it will bring back reminiscence of such power, you will feel you've lived those moments yourself. Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance’ is one such piece of work.

Set in the back drop of post independence India, lost in the frenzy of emergency, the book is a time capsule to take you back to there. The story is set in the nameless ‘city by the sea’ where lives of four strangers are joined by a delicately interwoven plot. Mistry’s deliberate lack of mention of the city’s name offers nothing to hurt the sentiments of the readers but fails to create a sense of enigma either. One of the stories that truly justify its title, ‘A Fine Balance’ is truly a story of balance of lives of four people, who go up and down the hurdles of lives, trying to make the most of it. The story flaunts the genuineness of plain struggle of common people, specked by pure grief at times only to be mottled by joy of little things. 

The story follows progress of its four characters, which come together by stroke of fate, each one carrying a bit of his own puzzle, an incomplete picture. The four bits meet to make a rather simple but complete picture. An otherwise complex plot, the story skirts on verge of drifting to one side. But Mistry’s ability to keep it simple keeps the story in a perfect balance. So even though at times when brutality of life falls on two village people, lost in frenzy of city life or a woman wanting to live life on her own terms struggled with little things to find joys, the story never becomes outright depressing.

Mistry, in ‘A Fine Balance’ has churned out a work of art that is so subtle in its nuances of genius, by the end you are sure to feel a difference. It deals with everything that is little and oblivious to a common man’s life, and everything that is not. The book starts with an innocuous train ride, which actually is beginning it all. It then transcends into story of these people. Mistry, with his storytelling dexterity easily guides his readers along the threads of these stories that weave the plot, right to the very core of it. Each of the characters has his truth to tell, his own tale that Mistry carefully places for his readers, taking them to their childhood, their struggles and everything else that makes them who they are. The end, like the rest of the story is devoid of any romanticism, crudely honest to the point of being painful. It’s not sad, it’s not happy but it is life. And it goes on.

With that, Mistry completes his work which leaves his readers a little joyous, a little sad, and a little more aware of the world from eyes of four simple people but utterly satisfied. The only caution for readers is to be prepared for the afterthought that follows.

Review contributed to Bookzmandi by Smita Singla

Bookworm rating: 4.5/5