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Socialist Review Book Club7pm, Friday 30 July 2004 Bookmarks Bookshop
The time is 1975; the place is India, in an unnamed city by the sea. The corrupt and brutal government has just declared a State of Emergency, and the country is on the edge of chaos. In these precarious circumstances, four characters form an unlikely alliance: two tailors, uncle and nephew, who have come to the city in flight from the cruel caste violence in their native village; a middle-aged widow desperately trying to preserve her fragile independence; and a young student from the northern mountains, bewildered by the end of his idyllic childhood and his parents' slow collapse. Through the dramatic and often shocking turns their lives take, we get an intimate view not only of their world but of India itself, in all its extraordinary variety. Rohinton Mistry creates unforgettable characters and vast social panoramas, all portrayed with a remarkable generosity of spirit. "Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance deals
with questions of class and caste in India. The brutality of the police,
army and the system in general in their treatment of the poor and dispossessed
is described in biting detail. In places it's quite harrowing, but it also
makes you angry about the dehumanising aspects of modern capitalism. The
book describes the resilience of the human spirit to fight for a better,
more just and more civilised world despite all the horrors that the world
imposes." A Fine Balance won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize. Come Along! |
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Fine Balance