Reddit reviews A Fine Balance

This was a real tearjerker for me in grade school. I cried in the middle of class... and man I never heard the end of it until I moved.

Now, as an adult I read this and it was probably one of the more emotional experiences I've had reading a book.

Also, "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, and the graphic novel, and "Maus" by Art Spiegelman all elicited more than enough tears to fill a bucket.

Octavia Butler's novel, "Kindred" is more like watching a speeding truck start to wobble left and right. There's this impending disaster that's looming ahead and you can only watch as it unfolds.

Umm... I read a lot of sad stuff, it seems.

A Fine Balance - this is a novel about the class system in India in the 70s. It was really well written, but really depressing, especially at the end.

What about the subcontinent?

Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (ignore the Oprah sticker) is fucking heartbreaking to the point where, when you finish, you will want (simultaneously) to punch and hug the person who recommended it to you.

After, if you need a light, breezy, but still thoughtful and well-written "beach read" to cleanse your palate, there's Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games, which is essentially "The Godfather" set in Mumbai.

For a happy medium between existential pathos and action-packed bildungsroman, see also The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru.

I have been reading a lot of Philip K. Dick lately, and I really like his writing style. Even though it's not sci-fi, I'd like to suggest reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Besides having a great storyline, it's a fascinating look at another culture and another time.

Tough call! I'd say Grunt by Mary Roach. My wife will probably say A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

I really enjoyed the book A Fine Balance. It's fiction, of course, and I'm not sure how much is historically accurate, but it was an excellent read about that times period.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry


http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Balance-Rohinton-Mistry/dp/140003065X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421846437&sr=1-1&keywords=a+fine+balance

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Link to Amazon description below.A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Two nonfiction books I have recently read that are beautifully written and on important topics most of us are not generally aware of:

Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America

Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty

Fiction:

Confederacy of Dunces

A Fine Balance

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Do not be put off by the fact that it's an Oprah's Book Club book. It is one of the singularly most devastating things I've ever read.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's so good, but it destroyed me. Fiction, but based in a real place and a real crisis. I've never read a book with characters so fully realized, that I rooted for so much. As you read you're just thinking "Oh God, please, just let this character catch a break, please..." but then they don't, and you want to cry. I think about it regularly to this day, 12 years after I read it. The suffering and pain and dread that many people in the world live with on a daily basis is almost impossible for most 1st world residents to comprehend. I'm literally scared to read another book like this again - I don't know if I can handle it.

Best book I read this year: A Fine Balance