.02.21 — A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

What it is?

A novel following the twisted lives of four beleaguered characters as they come together in an attempt to endure and understand the oftentimes random misfortune of the world around them. Set primarily in an unidentified city in India during The Emergency period in the mid 1970s, the characters live in conditions of poverty and injustice scarcely imaginable for many readers. Though the bulk of the narrative focuses on a brief year during which the four major characters interact, readers in turn explore each character’s past lives on a journey that spans generations. Through their seemingly endless trials they remind us that despite our best efforts to create order, often “our lives are but a sequence of accidents — a clanking chain of chance events.”

My thoughts

There is beauty in the arc of this story, the web of events and choices that connect each character and provide the winding yet easily navigable plot that guides us back and forth through the often struggle filled lives of the major characters. Mistry writes beautifully, with simple and direct prose that makes this an easy marathon read, but dotted with occasional fragments of wisdom that almost surprises you with their appearance, presented as they are with no pomp or sanctimony. What truly defines this novel however, is the depth and harmony of each of the four major characters, Dina, Om, Ishvar, and Maneck. I like to believe that each may represent part of a confused yet wistful longing for India and what is past. Om breathes fire at the fundamental injustice of a broken world, tamable only by his uncle Ishvar’s respect and fond longing for the past, itself equally brutal, yet softened by memory. Dina and Maneck together witness a rapidly changing world, and feel themselves precariously sliding down into the chaos they were born above. At times they each retreat into a shell of themselves to survive, yet for one this is an act of remarkable endurance, the other an act of resignation.