Book Review: A Fine Balance

FINALLY!! I FINISHED IT!!! I will have to look back through my blog to figure out when I decided to start reading Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance so that Meghan and I could have a mini book club discussion. Months for sure. (Update: according to Goodreads I added it March 17th...so ya, basically 4 months!!). I didn't think I was going to make it. It's fairly thick book (713pages to be exact) so I wasn't keen on carrying it with me on the subway so I thought that I could use it as my book to read at home, while having another on the go for to and from work. that obviously didn't go well. I kept letting it sit on my bedside table, but last week I was determined to finish it!! Meghan finished it a while ago, so I owed it to her to get 'er done! Honestly, I don't know that I would have been able to get through it if it wasn't for her. But I did.

My friend Sandra (I hope it's ok I used your name!!) from book club often talks about A Fine Balance and how depressing it is, and comments on how she would get to a "good part" (or happy part) and simply close the book and say to herself "THE END!!" No kidding Sandra-I know what you mean!!

Chapters.ca describes it "From the publisher" as: Set against the emergency measures imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s, A Fine Balance follows the lives of four unlikely people as they struggle "to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair." Originally published in 1995, A Fine Balance is both a warning about the human terrors that await a society without compassion and a testimony to the enduring greatness of the human spirit.

It is definitely a depressing book-but there must be more to it than that!! I printed off some info from various places online including some discussion questions-so I hope we can find at least a grain of goodness!!

Wish us luck!

Have you read a Fine Balance? What did you think? I would be VERY HAPPY to have your thoughts!!