A Fine Balance is vast yet personal. It is about India the country and about its people. After spending weeks with the book, I feel like I almost know India, know the people, the roads, the food, understand their jokes and misery. The book has a lot of characters, with the four main ones: a widow, a student, two tailors (uncle and nephew), and a cast of incredible side characters: beggars, beggar-master, hair-collector, rent-collector, monkey-man. There are so many characters, all unique and memorable, with their own little story, how everything comes to be, how they survive life.

I was quite surprised to find how India is in a lot of ways similar to Indonesia. The chaotic nature of the nation, the corrupt Government, extreme poverty, survival techniques, unbalance of power, massive gap between the rich and the poor, we even share a few similar words.

There are also obvious differences, for example the caste system and the beggaring culture. India is often identified with its odd organized ways to produce beggars, by mutilating body parts. I’m really curious about the origin of that, because we don’t have anything like that in Indonesia, even though poverty is as rampant. The fights between different religions are easy to understand, as we have similar calamity in Indonesia. It seems that human always find reasons to blame and attack those who are different than ourselves, be it religion, race, or tribe.

“You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.” ~ p231

There are a couple of references about ‘a fine balance between hope and despair’, and I honestly didn’t get it until I finished the book. How true that you need a fine balance of hope and despair to live. When despair is too much, everything will topple over, be it a nation or an individual person.

One of the things I loved most was nothing is dramatized. Even the most horrifying parts are written in only a couple of sentences or paragraphs. It’s like Mistry is trying to emphasize that they’re facts. That it happens. It’s nothing like soap-opera. It’s not a made-up drama. And because of that I didn’t experience explosions of emotion, just deep long lingering sorrow at all the misfortunes and anger at all the unfairness.

A Fine Balance impressed me immensely. I closed the book with a big sigh of sadness and happiness. Sadness for it had to end and I had to part with the characters, and it might be a long while before I find any book like this ever again. Happiness for it has touched me very deeply and I feel very lucky to get a chance to be taken on such an amazing journey.

Deep down I wish that someday there will come an author who is able to write about Indonesia as great as Rohinton Mistry did for India. Many voices need to be heard, many tales deserve to be told. If I were to meet Mistry one day, I would say, thank you, thank you, for writing this wonderful book.

1996, 614 pp

A Fine Balance is Jackie’s Best Book Ever. Have you read it? Have you read other books by Rohinton Mistry? Would you recommend them?

More Favorite Quotes

“Independence came at a high price: a debt with a payment schedule of hurt and regret.” ~ Dina, p473

First line
The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed.

Awards
1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Overall Best Book
1995 Giller Prize
Shortlisted for 1996 Booker Prize

Challenges
Book Awards IV (book #7), 1001 Books (book #31)

Also reviewed by
Farm Lane Books Blog | Arukiyomi | Lotus Reads | Books and Cooks | Vulpes Libris | Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-holic | Fluttering Butterflies

The Slap starts with a barbeque party at suburban Melbourne. The explosion breaks when a man slaps a child who is not his own. The ripples affect everyone there: the family where the barbeque takes place, the family of man who slaps, the family of the child who is slapped, and all their family and friends.

The book won Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best Book and it was/is huge in Australia, reserving the number one place for many weeks. I was then quite surprised to find the quantity of swearing in it. At one point, it was so overwhelming I wondered if I should give up (and I’m not even the type who’s sensitive to coarse language). Not only that, I found the beginning was very slow, and it only started to pick up the pace a third way through.

The book is written in third person close view of eight different characters in chronological order. Interestingly, and unfortunately, the first four characters are easily the least interesting of them all. It doesn’t help that the first two men whose heads you are “privileged” to get into are so hard to read. It’s like getting into a very male head, whose thoughts are completely unfiltered, and an angry male at that. There are excessive swearing, drugs, sex, racial slurs, you name it. There’s just so much anger.

But if you succeed to pass through the first four characters, I would say that the last four would make up for the former. My favorite would be the mother of the slapped child. I don’t agree with many of her opinions, but it’s amusing to get into her head. My second favorite would be the old Greek immigrant who is the uncle of the slapper. Melbourne has the biggest Greek community outside of Greece. So it was fun to know their side of the story.

The setting was a big enticement for me. I lived in Melbourne for 6 years before studying and working, and love the place dearly. I recognized many of the place references and lifestyle that I had fun reminiscing. I also loved how multicultural the book is. It’s not Australia the white man country. It’s Australia that I know. Australia the country of immigrants and multicultural pot. In this book we meet Greeks, Indians, Vietnamese, Jews, white Aussies, and Aborigines. The boldness of racial slurs and how each race is portrayed, again, sent jolts to my system. The Slap is a very brave book in many aspects to show the contemporary Australian life. The slap itself is often just a noise in the background amidst the loudness of everything else.

Despite wincing at many points, I found myself noted down quotes with strong opinions from the book:

On racism:

“Her own parents’ racism had been casual, was certainly never expressed violently or aggressively. Her mother pitied the blacks and her father had no respect for them; but beyond that they prided themselves on tolerance.” ~ p245

On the young generation:

“These kids, they’re unbelievable. It’s like the world owes them everything. They’ve been spoilt by their parents and by their teachers and by the fucking media to believe that they have all these rights but no responsibilities so they have no decency, no moral values whatsoever.” ~ p270

On love:

“This, finally, was love. This was its shape and essence, once the lust and ecstasy and danger and adventure had gone. Love, at its core, was negotiation, the surrender of two individuals to the messy, banal, domestic realities of sharing a life together.” ~ p406

On aging:

“But age did silence dreams, did mellow desires, even the most ferocious lusts and fantasies.” ~ p295

“He believed he had glimpsed a truth, a possibility: equanimity, acceptance, a certain peace–in old age, all men were equal. Not in work, not in God, not in politics, only in age.” ~ p324

On women:

“Not for the first time, he sighed inwardly a the innate conservatism of women. It was as if being a mother, the agony of birth, rooted them eternally to the world, made them complicit in the foibles and errors and rank stupidity of men. Women were incapable of camaraderie, their own children would always come first.” ~ p325

On the future:

“… it slowly began to dawn on him that the future was not a straight linear path but a matrix of permutations and possibilities, offshoots from offshoots. The map of the future was three-dimensional.” ~ p439

2009, 485 pp

First line
His eyes still shut, a dream dissolving and already impossible to recall, Hector’s hand sluggishly reached across the bed.

Awards
2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best Book
2009 ABIA (Australian Book Industry Awards) Book of the Year

Challenges
Book Awards IV (book #4), Aussie Author (book #1)

Also reviewed by Liked it! — Farm Lane Books Blog | Mad Bibliophile | Reading Matters

First Tuesday Book Club – May 2009 episode (with 11:35 mins video)

Contrary to my thoughts before reading the book, it is hardly about the outcast professor and his student than him and his daughter. In fact the daughter fills at least half the book, because the farm where she lives is where the problem of racism occurs, which I think is the major topic of the book: racial tension in South Africa– the problem between them who are “of this earth” and them the others–ones with Western heritage or the Whites.

As most racism, it usually occurs in more ‘uneducated’ places by ‘uneducated’ people. Not in the city where everybody is supposed to be smart and sophisticated, no. It happens in the corners of the town, in back suburbs, behind bushes and shadows. I should know. I experienced extreme racism for many years of my teenage life — the problem that is unconsciously stuck with you to the bone, the matter of ‘my people’ against ‘your people’ — all too familiar elements that made me queasy.

I can’t remember when I first associated award winner with ‘hard to read’, but Coetzee wrote in straightforward style that is easy to read, though not necessarily easy to digest. I particularly don’t care much about Byron and Teresa, the 18th century British poet and his lover, who are featured often in the book. Coetzee is also fond of symbolism. Stray dogs are used throughout (including the cover), though I sometimes failed to understand the meaning, especially at the very end.

David and his daughter Lucy have many arguments that present most of the opposing ideas in the book: old and new generation, male and female, rural and city, the conflicting races.

“I can’t run my life according to whether or not you like what I do. Not any more. You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character, I am a minor character who doesn’t make an appearance until halfway through. Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor. I am not minor. I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions.” ~ Lucy, p198

Disgrace is the theme of the book. I think at the end acceptance is the solution.

I would recommend it for people who would like to read thought-provoking book that touches uncomfortable issues. It’s also a pretty short book so it won’t take a lot of your time if you’d like to try Coetzee.

1999, 220 pp

Note: Apparently Coetzee emigrated to Adelaide, Australia in 2002. [source] No wonder he made appearances during previous Writers’ Festival here.

First line
For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.

Last line
‘Yes, I am giving him up.’

Quote
“That is what whores are for, after all: to put up with the ecstasies of the unlovely.” ~ David Lurie, p44

Awards
1999 The Man Booker Prize
2000 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize – Best Book
2003 Nobel Prize for Literature (the author)

Also reviewed by

Everyday I Write the Book | The Critical Lass | Incurable Logophilia | caribousmom | Out of the Blue | Ink and Vellum | Books for Breakfast

You wouldn’t realize it at the beginning though, because Kambili is so reserved and so in awe of her father, that as the narrator, she doesn’t tell you the story as it is. It feels like she tries to hide the fact that her father isn’t the perfect guy she desperately believes and wants him to be. That’s probably why for the first half of the book, I felt the story was almost static. It was a fine family story, but I wasn’t sure where it’s gonna go.

It peaks in the middle of the book when something terrible happens to Kambili and it is a revelation to everyone. And by everyone, I mean Kambili, her family, and us readers. At this point we’re definitely sure what’s going on and it is not right. That’s when the pace starts to pick up and the storyline runs with full force.

As central characters, apart from Kambili’s immediate family: Jaja her older brother, Papa and Mama, there are Aunty Ifeoma and her three children, and Papa-Nnukwu (Papa and Aunty Ifeoma’s father, Kambili’s grandfather). They play a big part in showing Kambili and Jaja the real world, the other world, just a different world with the one they’ve been living.

I often found myself wanting to shake Kambili to open her eyes, to stop yearning for approvals from her father, to see things as they are. On the other hand, I pity her and probably understand in some ways. Fortunately her character is developing throughout the book and we are left with hopes in the end. For me it doesn’t end up bleak. It ends okay.

The mood and atmosphere of the book reminds me of The Color Purple. Somehow when I started reading I had the impression that there would be politics involved. There are some, but really, it’s a story about family and religion. I love the writing. It’s very accessible and it captures the innocence of a confined 15 year-old.

2003, 302 pp

Awards
2005 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize – Best First Book
Shortlisted for 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction

First line
Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the etagere. (inspired by Adichie’s favorite author Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart)

Last line
The new rains will come down soon.

Quotes

“Papa spent some time describing hell, as if God did not know that the flames were eternal and raging and fierce.” ~ p61

“She said ‘teenagers’ as if she were not one, as if teenagers were a brand of people who by not listening to culturally conscious music, were a step beneath her. And she said ‘culturally conscious’ in the proud way that people say a word they never knew they would learn until they do.” ~ p118

Chimamanda Adichie’s Top Ten Favorite Books (I found at the end of this book):

1. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
2. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
3. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
4. Efuru by Flora Nwapa
5. Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
6. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
7. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
8. Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane (aren’t they Harry Potter’s friends? :P)
9. A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri
10. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If You Loved This, You Might Like … (also at the end of this book)

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangeremgba
3. Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
4. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
5. In the Heart of the Country by J. M. Coetzee
6. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
7. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
8. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
9. Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Also reviewed by

1morechapter | caribousmom | The Hidden Side of Leaf | Book Haven | A Striped Armchair | Farm Lane Books Blog | Books for Breakfast | Joystory | Book Maven’s Blog | Out of the Blue | She Treads Softly | Everything Distils Into Reading | things mean a lot

By finishing this book, I completed 1 challenge, and a step up ahead for 2 others! An important book :)

So the story starts when Christopher, a 15 year old boy with autism finds his neighbor’s dog dies. Everything is written from first person point of view, which makes it interesting, because you get to know the way Christopher sees everything, which is of course, different with normal people.

I’m kinda surprised that it won Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize because in my opinion, it’s nothing close to being kiddie, with the swearing and all (I think they’re good at showing how frustrated the people around him can be). The topic is pretty heavy and even though some people say it’s a funny book, I found it pretty sad.

I like the book. It’s different. I like Christopher and I don’t like him. I could feel his pain and was frustrated about him too. Often, I took pity on him, and it made me think of everybody else in this world who just doesn’t fit into what is considered “normal”.

I laughed seeing his list of Behavioral Problems (that was pointed out by other people, of course) includes Not Smiling. Funny how it’s true. Even a small thing like that.

I love how he uses prime numbers for chapter numbers. That’s the very first thing I noticed when I opened the book. I flipped the book back and forth, confused why it starts from 2, 3, then 5, and so on (It’s explained early on in the book). I remember that in primary school I was also fascinated by prime numbers. Although for me I only memorized prime numbers between 1 to 100.

Pages: 272
Rating: 4 out of 5 [Very good]

Awards
2003 Whitbread Book of the Year
2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book
2003 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize

First line
It was 7 minutes after midnight.

Last line
And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.