Book Review: A Fine Balance

I love reading novels that center on Asian culture.  Most books I have read in this genre have centered around Chinese culture, so I was excited to find one set in India so I could learn about a new country.  Rohinton Mistry's novel centers around four people from three different communities who are brought together as a way to survive the difficult financial climate.  It is difficult for Dina, a woman raised in the city, to let the other three into her home and life but realizes it is necessary if she wants to maintain the independence she struggled to earn.  Eventually, Maneck, a college student from the mountains and Ishvar and Om, an uncle/nephew team from the slums, become Dina's family.

The story itself was interesting and introduced plenty of amusing characters like a hair collector and a beggarmaster, but it was the setting that i found most fascinating.  The novel takes place in 1975, but you would think it was the 1800s by the lack of modern conveniences.  The poverty is so out of control and the system so corrupt that it is hard to believe that by this point in history, it was commonplace to find a microwave oven in every American kitchen (and had been for 10 years).  I was most shocked and intrigued to read details of the slums.  What is technically uninhabitable is tolerated by millions.  In the middle of The Emergency period, which compromised civil liberties and included forced sterilization and destruction of slums, the four central characters find a way to settle their differences and live in harmony.  This equilibrium can't last forever, and eventually a sadness seeps in that I still can't shake after having finished the book.

4 out of 5 stars.