Review: A Fine Balance

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the most magnificent pieces of literature I have ever read. Period. It's much much more than a story. It's an epic exploration of human frailty. This work drips with empathy, so intense, darkly beautiful. After I finished it--and this was years ago--I HID it, yes stuck it behind a bunch of other books on my shelf. Why? I couldn't bear to walk past it and inadvertently see it. If this had happened, that I casually saw it, I would've broken down and sobbed. It cast a hypnotic spell on me, so mesmerized was I, I couldn't eat, sleep, nothing. It had me in thrall. I read it when it first came out and when either the internet was not yet here or it didn't have such a strong grip on me..when I read this book, I read it in one giant greedy gulp, unable to let go, riveted by it. This is hands down one of the most remarkable works in the English language. It is rendered with ;layers and layers and layers of dense humanity, so deeply felt, it hurts but in a good way. If I were to meet this author, I'd be fan-girling, obsequious, embarrassing, genuflecting mess :-)

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