Mistry, Rohinton

Average customer rating:

Beautifully written, woefully depressing
Beautifully written and haunting
A life changing read!
600+ pages that fly by like a good book should....
A Fine Balance

A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club)
Rohinton Mistry
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Family Matters
Such a Long Journey
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Suite Francaise

ASIN: 140003065X
Release Date: 2001-11-30

Book Description

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

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A Fine Balance displays a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens. This magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers -- a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village -- will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully written, woefully depressing.......2007-06-17

I could write a lot about this book. The author is truly a master storyteller. The story he tells is absolutely heartbreaking. I guess that means he has accomplished what he set out to do with this book. I recommend it for anyone and I can't wait to go out and try some of Mistry's other work. I hope it is as gripping as A Fine Balance.

Beautifully written and haunting.......2007-06-13

This is a well-written, well crafted novel. It's as if you could predict the characters' words and actions because Mistry has given them such dimension. Reminiscent of Dickens, it is at once sad, hopeful, humourous, and troubling.

One can dwell on all the horrors that occur to the characters in the book, but I found that though it was indeed sad, it displayed the resilence of humanity. No matter where we are and what we have, we are in fact all trying to find a balance in life. It's fragile (some places remarkably more so than others) but we try. And when our equilibrium is upset we pick up the pieces and try to find a center again. We wouldn't be human if we didn't.

A must read that.

A life changing read!.......2007-05-22

Rohinton Mistry will pluck your heart out, then crush it till it stops dripping, then wring it dry, then stomp on it till it goes numb, and then put it right back where it came from. After all this, what will surprise you most is that it is still beating. If Shantaram was a book where survival, happiness and freedom prevailed after every adversity, A Fine Balance is its nemesis where pain, suffering and injustice prevail every step of the way, thus illustrating the infinite human capacity to endure them.

Rohinton Mistry uses a unique technique for building the book's four main characters. He goes through an extensive characterization of their parents. The main themes of their families' lives are highlighted with great care but without over-indulgence. This technique is very effective in making the characters come to life. By the middle of the book, you can touch and feel the characters, identify with them and go through the events in their lives more intimately.

Then the author perfectly capitalizes on this setup by writing a book that epitomizes a depressing saga. You would be disappointed if you wish that the author is using exaggeration or making up the implausible, while the sheer pain will make you wish he would. Whenever a major event happens in the story, the author uses exactly the amount of emphasis or lack thereof so it hits you like it would in real life. You will feel the helpnessness, futility, emotion and blankness just like the characters would in real life. Slowly but surely time chips away at every reason for the characters to live. If you are suicidal, stay away from this book. However, if heatwrenching pain makes you feel human, it is hard to do anything better than to read this book.

The story of four regular people in Bombay is told with the backdrop of the state of India in and around 1975-1977 when Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency. Arguably, this was the turning point in the history of "free" India. This phase was India's chance to lay the foundation for social, economic and political progress as a free developing nation. In some ways, those years underline the beginning of India's decadence by diseases that plague the country's progress till date: corruption, crony capitalism, unequal opportunity, caste and religion-based crimes, disrespect of human rights, and breakdown of law enforcement.

As a teenager, it was my wildly held belief that the root cause of all of India's problems is over-population. Illiteracy, poverty and corruption, the other candidates for the same honor, were only second order effects. I also believed that democracy was the biggest barrier in addressing that root-cause. While Amartya Sen's writings made me question those beliefs for the first time, this book took it home and brought me closure about why I was wrong. In that sense, this has been a life changing read.

600+ pages that fly by like a good book should...........2007-05-09

As an India-phile, I have a special affection for many Indian and Indian-American/European authors and texts that have taught me so much about a land I've never been to but have been deeply touched by via its culture of spices, music, and the gifts of yoga ... most profoundly, the land of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, the land of the Bhagavad Gita and the Charaka Samhita.

This book is a very entertaining read, and an EXPERIENCE of spanda, the sacred thread that connects all. Mistry's ultimate compassion for human story manages to take the reader through a web of connections between people and land, time and space, without losing the reader's grasp on the tale or forcing the reader to stop and backtrack to figure out what the heck is going on. His dialogue writing deftly captures the simplicity of human exchange in the grand and mundane gambles of ordinary life amidst drama and consequences, and makes for a reading experience that is an experience of one's own humanity.

Each character Mistry presents is shown in a way that reveals the spark of the creator in all, and the divine comedy and tragedy wrought by negative tendencies of overgrown egos as well as the endurance and nobility that can also bloom and prosper in the soul, regardless of diverse situations. Mistry also chucks the mere romance of India's post-Gandhi independence and delivers a fierce-loving expose on the terrible ineptitude of the figureheads and gang bosses of partisan politics, and the illusions of democracy when it comes to the majority, the non-elite.

I most appreciated Mistry's delicate depiction of the private realities of mundane women and men's hearts in the struggles of daily life, that cut across the barriers of bias created by social structures. Reading this book has made me a better person... it's tuned up my self-compassion and my compassion with the world at large.

Amazingly, I read 400 pages in less than a week... and it has re-inspired my reading nook as a place of transformation.

A Fine Balance.......2007-05-09

One of the best books I have read. Will keep this one in my library for future reading. Everything about the book was wonderful. Each character was so well descriped that I could picture them all. Loved it.

Average customer rating:

Much finer than "A Fine Balance"
VIVID...INTRICATE PORTRAIT..AMAZINGLY TRUE TO ITS FORM..
Another amazing read
"Luck is the spit of gods and goddesses."
Really good, but not as incredible as A Fine Balance

Such a Long Journey
Rohinton Mistry
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Family Matters
A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club)
Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag
Bombay Time: A Novel
The Hero's Walk

ASIN: 0679738711
Release Date: 1992-06-02

Amazon.com

Mistry does something that only the really natural writers can do: without apparent effort, manipulation or contrivance, he creates characters you like instantly and will gladly follow for as long as the novel leads. The book is about an Indian family during the years of Indira Ganhdi's rule; it's also a study of the times, its politics and corruption, and was especially interesting for me, who knows so little about life in the rest of the world. It had to be a good book: after I read Such a Long Journey, I wanted to go right out and buy a plane ticket and see India for myself.

Book Description

It is Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over what was to become Bangladesh. A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter falls ill; his promising son defies his father’s ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his neighbours. One day, he receives a letter from an old friend, asking him to help in what at first seems like an heroic mission. But he soon finds himself unwittingly drawn into a dangerous network of deception. Compassionate, and rich in details of character and place, this unforgettable novel charts the journey of a moral heart in a turbulent world of change.

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Such a Long Journey is set in Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over what was to become Bangladesh. A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unraveling. His young daughter falls ill; his promising son defies his fatherâ¬"s ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his neighbors. One day, he receives a letter from an old friend, asking him to help in what at first seems like a heroic mission. But he soon finds himself unwittingly drawn into a dangerous network of deception. Compassionate, and rich in details of character and place, this unforgettable novel charts the journey of a moral heart in a turbulent world of change.

Customer Reviews:

Much finer than "A Fine Balance".......2006-10-24

Unlike many of the other reviewers, I was disappointed with "A Fine Balance," which I read after this book. I thought it was trite, melodramatic and, in the end, depressing -- all of which, of course, made it a prime book to be chosen for "Oprah," though I admit it was a fast read. But to what avail, if you don't like the book? I got rid of my copy as soon as I could.

By contrast, I've read "Such a Long Journey" three times and still love it. I'd agree that plot here is far subjugated to character. But the nuanced, subtle portraits of the family members, the description of their community and building, and the depiction of life in India at that time all make this a beautiful, well-written book. It steps back from the frequent depictions of Indian misery that crop up so frequently they're becoming a cliche, and by focusing on one normal, struggling family, really show a much more vivid and enduring picture of life.

VIVID...INTRICATE PORTRAIT..AMAZINGLY TRUE TO ITS FORM.........2006-05-09

THE AUTHOR IS QUITE TALENTED. WEAVES A SUPREME BLEND OF STORYTELLING AND INTRICATE WEB OF UNDERSTANDING. PAINTS THE PERIOD QUIET WELL. HE DESERVED THE BOOKER FOR HIS WRITINGS. HE IS STILL UNDERAPPRECIATED AND IS RELATIIVELY UNKNOWN. I RECOMMEND HIS NEXT NOVEL : A FINE BALANCE, WHICH IS WRITTEN ON AN EPIC SCALE AND DWARFS THE LENGTH AND BREADH OF THIS BOOK. ROHINTON MISTRY IS A GREAT AUTHOR AND SHOULD BE GIVEN HIS DUE.

Another amazing read.......2006-03-03

I read this book after A Fine Balance. Although I found A Fine Balance to be the most moving and brilliantly contructed novel I have ever read, I preferred this book as it didn't tear me apart emotionally as much as AFB. I adored the characters and was touched by the protagonist's kindness towards Tehmul when he (SPOILER) discovers the whereabouts of the doll. If I have any criticism at all, I felt that the so-called "plot" of the book (according to its cover), i.e. the conflict between father and son, was underplayed. I would assume this is more to do with the publisher's blurb than Mr. Mistry's storytelling. A compelling, touching read that I was sorry to finish...

"Luck is the spit of gods and goddesses.".......2005-05-17

Sometimes compared to Dickens or Victor Hugo for the strength of his descriptions, Rohinton Mistry uses "ordinary" men and women as his protagonists and fills his novels with the sights, sounds, smells, and color of India. Depicting his characters as neither saints nor sinners, he involves the reader in their lives as they try to survive the complexities of their culture.

In this novel, Gustad Noble and his wife Dilnavaz, living in a congested apartment building in Bombay, try to lead good lives and inspire their children during Indira Gandhi's rule in the 1970s, with all its political, professional, and social upheaval. India is on the verge of war with the Muslims of Pakistan, and though Gustad, a Parsi, is aware of political chicanery, he is far more pre-occupied with having his son accepted at a school of technology, doing his job as a bank supervisor, and supporting his family. Constant blackouts and continually deteriorating conditions on the street add to the frustrations of Gustad's life.

Then Jimmy Bilimoria, an old friend, asks Gustad for help, claiming that he is training freedom fighters in Bangladesh to act on behalf of the Indian government against Pakistani "butchers." Gustad reluctantly agrees to use his position at the bank to deposit money to a secret account, but he soon finds himself enmeshed in a spiral from which he cannot break out, his life turned upside down.

Throughout the novel, the wall outside Gustad's apartment building symbolizes the larger world of Bombay and parallels some aspects of Gustad's own life. At the outset, it is used as a latrine, breeding illness in the neighborhood but keeping the noise and tumult of the street out of the apartment house. When Gustad persuades a sidewalk artist to paint it, he depicts scenes from all the religions of India, and the wall becomes a shrine--until the government decides to widen the road and tear it down. Gustad's personal crisis and the fate of the wall intersect in a conclusion both moving and profound.

Though this novel lacks the grand scale of A Fine Balance, it is a beautifully constructed and emotionally involving story of a small family trying to live meaningful lives against almost overwhelming odds. The characters are finely drawn, and the plot, though not "exciting," reflects the traumas of an ordinary man and his wife caught up in events and crises not of their own making. Wry and often humorous in its observations of people and circumstances, this early novel by Mistry has all the ingredients which make his later novels so memorable. Mary Whipple

Really good, but not as incredible as A Fine Balance.......2005-02-04

This book was touching and well-written, but it didn't have the powerful heartbreaking ability or emotional resonance of A Fine Balance. I would recommend it, but make sure you read this one before you read his others. His style definitely developed over time, as is evident in the artistry of A Fine Balance. He is an amazing author whose works I enjoy. I also thought Family Matters was a better novel.

Average customer rating:

Human Matters
Intimate, Engaging Family Drama
family matters
Mistry delivers the goods with a little less tragedy
One the best books that I read in 2005.

Family Matters
Rohinton Mistry
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Such a Long Journey
A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club)
Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag
Bombay Time: A Novel
The Hero's Walk

ASIN: 037570342X
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Amazon.com

Set during the 1990s in an overcrowded and politically corrupt Bombay, Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters depicts a family being torn apart by lies, love, and its unresolved demons of the past. Nariman Vakeel is an aging patriarch whose advancing Parkinson's disease and its related complications threaten to destroy his large Parsi family. When Nariman breaks his ankle and becomes bedridden, his two stepchildren turn his care over to their half-sister, Roxanne, who lives in a two-room flat with her husband and two sons. What follows is each character's reaction to this situation, from Roxanne's husband's struggle to provide for his family without neglecting his conscience to their sons' coming of age in an era of uncertainty. Expertly interspersed between these dilemmas are Nariman's tortured remembrances of a forbidden love and its inescapable consequences ("no matter where you go in the world, there is only one story: of youth, and loss, and yearning for redemption. So we tell the same story, over and over. Just the details are different").

Family Matters is a compelling, emotional, and persuasive testimony to the importance of memories in every family's history. In a poetic style rich with detail, Mistry creates a world where fate dances with free will, and the results are often more familiar than anyone would ever care to admit. --Gisele Toueg

Book Description

Rohinton Mistry’s enthralling novel is at once a domestic drama and an intently observed portrait of present-day Bombay in all its vitality and corruption. At the age of seventy-nine, Nariman Vakeel, already suffering from Parkinson’s disease, breaks an ankle and finds himself wholly dependent on his family. His step-children, Coomy and Jal, have a spacious apartment (in the inaptly named Chateau Felicity), but are too squeamish and resentful to tend to his physical needs.

Nariman must now turn to his younger daughter, Roxana, her husband, Yezad, and their two sons, who share a small, crowded home. Their decision will test not only their material resources but, in surprising ways, all their tolerance, compassion, integrity, and faith. Sweeping and intimate, tragic and mirthful, Family Matters is a work of enormous emotional power.

Customer Reviews:

Human Matters.......2006-11-07

I was initially attracted to Rohinton Mistry's fine novel "Family Matters" (2002) because its central characters are adherents of the Zoroastrian (Parsee) religion living in Bombay. Zoroastrianism and its practitioners are rarely treated in fiction. The religion is ancient, one of the world's first monotheistic faiths, and small with a dwindling number of adherents. As emphasized in Mistry's novel, Zoroastrianim is threatened by assimilation and intermarriage, and there are currently factions between the more traditional and the more reformist elements of the faith. In reading Mistry's book, I was reminded of a nonscholarly but still good introduction to Zoroastrianism that I read some time ago, Paul Kriwaczek's "In Search of Zarathurstra: Across Iran and Central Asia to find the World's First Prophet". This book is available in paperback, and I recommend it to readers of this novel who may wish to explore Zoroastrianism. It more than merits studying.

With that said, Mistry's novel is less about Zoroastrianism per se than about common and intimate human concerns that, in this book, arise in a Parsee family in Bombay but, with allowances for place and culture, could arise frequently elsewhere. I was struck with the painful and in part intractable themes in this book. The story deals with questions of religious intermarriage, problems arising in a "blended" family between parents, steparents, children, and stepchildren, the difficulties of caring for an aged and ailing parent, and questions of guilt and change that can result in a family member as a result of dealing with these dilemmas.

The central character of the book is Nariman Vakeel, a retired professor of English, 79 years old at the outset of the story and suffering from Parkinson's disease. In middle-age, Nariman fell in love with a non-Parsee woman, Lucy, but reluctantly gave her up based upon objections from his family. He married instead a widow whom he did not love, Yasmin, with two children, a daughter, Coomy and a son, Jal. Nariman has never lost his feelings for Lucy who haunts and follows him incessantly during the early years of his marriage to Yasmin.

At the outset of the book Coomy and Jal, unmarried, live with each other and their stepfather. Nariman and Yasmin have their own daughter, Roxanna, who is married to Yezad with two young boys, Jehangir and Murad. They live in a small flat Nariman has purchased for them with his retirement savings.

When Nariman breaks his ankle and become bedridden, Coomy and Jal resent having to care for him -- particularly for the need of tending to his bodily function which are intimately and fully described in the book. They foist Nariman's care onto Roxanna and Yezad. The book deals with the difficulties the couple and their children encounter in their tiny flat in caring for their grandfather and in finding space and money. Roxanna and Yezad begin to quarrel and each member of the family engages in compromising, questionable practices to bring in more money, to the detriment of their views of themselves.

The novel details the fighting between Roxanna and Yezad and thier relationships with Coomy and Jal. The characters are admirably individual and well-differentiated in this troubled story. There are many well-drawn secondary characters, including Yezad's boss, Mr. Kapur, the owner of a sporting-goods store, and Daisy a violinist in the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and a neighbor of Roxanna and Yezad who befriends the family and Nariman. She visits the flat to play the violin to comfort him.

As the story progresses, events with Nariman and between Rozanna and her siblings come to a sharp climax and denoument. The plot line is melodramatic in places. Yezad, guilt-ridden and needing consolation from the difficulties resulting from caring for Nariman, becomes increasingly attracted to Zoroastrian observances, seeking the consolation of religion. As the book progresses, he moves from skepticism and secularism to a traditional form of Zoroastrian practice, to the distress of his family. In the long epilogue to the story, Yezad becomes highly critical of his adolescent sons for dating and becoming involved with non-Zoroastrian young women. In a sense, "the wheel has come full circle" as Yezad comes to adopt the behavior of Nariman's family, with their strong discouragement of Nariman's romantic interest in Lucy.

The book deals with common matters but not easy matters with a realism (in spite of some plot machinations) both provocative and wrenching. There are places in the book where each of the characters could have behaved differently. But I came away from the book with a feeling that I didn't want to judge any of the characters too harshly or to impose "shoulds" on them.

I want to mention two thoughts that stayed with me upon completing the book. First, the book left with me with a feeling of compassion for human frailty -- and with the vague impression of the importance of some form of religion for teaching a sense of compassion. (There is a wonderful passage in the book in which Yezad and his family discuss having pictures and memorabilila of all the great religions of the world in one's home -- to promote a sense of tolerance and to remind oneself that each religion has something to teach in approaching transcendent reality.) Second, and with a more secular bent, the book reminded me of the power or art, coupled with compassion, to ease the difficult problems of human life. I found Daisy, who faithfully comes to soothe Nariman with music from her violin exemplifies both art and compassion. In the book, Daisy realizes her dream of playing the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto with the Bombay Philharmonic. In this great work of music, and in the book, there is a timeless message of the power of art to transcend human suffering.

Robin Friedman

Intimate, Engaging Family Drama.......2006-08-20

Where do I begin? Mistry's prose is smooth, elegant, yet unpretentious; his characters are well-developed, interesting, and highly sympathetic; his sense of pacing is outstanding (a reader need only hop on at the beginning of his book and allow herself to be carried away); finally, the plot of this book is simple, direct. Unlike "A Fine Balance," "Family Matters" has a distinctly limited scope--the central characters are few, and all the action is limited to a narrow area in space and time. Yet what "Family Matters" lacks in grand sweep it makes up for in its engaging intimacy. But ultimately, this books makes one realize that the vistas of such grand sweep DO exist within a family's life, and even within one ordinary individual's life.

This book is often sad, but in a melancholy, bittersweet way. I highly recommend it, along with "A Fine Balance."

family matters.......2006-08-09

i recieved the book in very good condition and in a prompt manner

Mistry delivers the goods with a little less tragedy.......2006-04-14

A Fine Balance was brilliant, but it was also wrenching, a completely tragic book. In Family Matters, Mistry follows a Parsi extended family and their struggles with caring for a disabled father, seeking to make ends meet in modern-day Bombay. In the course of the book's events, we see flashbacks into the father's troubled life and how it shaped the current situation. This engaging family drama isn't quite as wrenching or tragic as A Fine Balance, but it resonates deeply.

Although I would have liked to get to know a few of the characters better, many of them are well-developed, fascinating people, motivated the frustrations and fears and angers that resonate with all of us. The patriarch is a kind, well-intentioned man who has made all kinds of mistakes; his son-in-law loves his family but constantly loses his temper at them. These characters feel real, and I wish I knew what happened to them "after the novel," always a signal to me that an author has successfully touched me emotionally. (I remember feeling that way about Tom Joad at the end of The Grapes of Wrath.)

In the course of this fine novel, Mistry succeeded in angering me, frustrating me, and comforting me. The book didn't draw me in quite as well as A Fine Balance, but the journey was also a little bit less painful.

One the best books that I read in 2005........2005-12-29

Family Matters is a solidly written and engrossing book which I literally could not put down. I read it compulsively over the course of two days and resented time spent on the mundane things like eating and family.

The story is a familiar one-- an aging father with Parkinsons falls to the tender mercies of his family. Unresolved past issues, insufficient pension, and a host of unrealized dreams combine to create a story that is moving and very relevant. Mistry writes with clarity and compassion and never consdescends to either reader or characters. It is not always an easy book to read, but it never gives in to either bleakness or despair.

Given the theme, and the remarkable number of sources from which it draws (Lear, etc.) it is amazing that Mistry does not fall into the trap of using stereotypes or cliches. Family Matters successfully avoids complaisance and completion, managing a satisfying ending without giving into the temptation to tie up too many loose ends.

Although there is a great deal of detail in the book that is specific to Indian culture and the contemporary politics of Mumbai/Bombay, there are still enough issues of general human import that it should appeal to readers from every culture. Very highly recommended.

Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag

Average customer rating:

Early Jewels in Mistry's Crown
CLASSY WORK OF A MINIATURIST, HARDLY READS LIKE A DEBUT!
Short stories from the master storyteller of Bombay's Parsis
Wonderful
Insightful potrayal of multiple dimensions of life in Bombay

Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag
Rohinton Mistry
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Such a Long Journey
Family Matters
A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club)
A Breath of Fresh Air (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Bombay Time: A Novel

ASIN: 067977632X
Release Date: 1997-02-11

Book Description

Firozsha Baag is an apartment building in Bombay. Its ceilings need plastering and some of the toilets leak appallingly, but its residents are far from desperate, though sometimes contentious and unforgiving. In these witty, poignant stories, Mistry charts the intersecting lives of Firozsha Baag, yielding a delightful collective portrait of a middle-class Indian community poised between the old ways and the new.

"A fine collection...the volume is informed by a tone of gentle compassion for seemingly insignificant lives."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Customer Reviews:

Early Jewels in Mistry's Crown.......2006-11-02

"Swimming Lessons", a short story collection, may be Mistry's earliest published work. He of course wrote the awesome "A Fine Balance", a panoramic look at life in India circa 1975. "Lessons" is set in about the same time period and chronicles the life experiences of middle-class Indians from a particular apartment complex. Major characters in one story show up as minor characters in other stories, giving the book a novelistic feel. Emigration, experienced directly by Mistry in his early 20's as he moved to Canada, is a major theme of the book. The story "Squatters", contains a "story inside the story" that affect your thinking about the trials of emigration (as it relates to bodily functions) for a long time. Those who know Mistry will enjoy this look at his early writing. Newcomers to Mistry might enjoy the short story form as an intro before tackling the epic "A Fine Balance."

CLASSY WORK OF A MINIATURIST, HARDLY READS LIKE A DEBUT!.......2004-07-19

And I thought that "A Fine Balance" was Rohinton's best! Yet again, I find myself speechless in my admiration for his astute command of language. His precise and inventive prose never quits until he has portrayed an image in sentences. Images that I grew up with myself but never quite would have thought of expressing in the grippingly sensitive way he can.

Swimming Lessons is a collection of such reminiscences from the author's childhood in a Parsi neighborhood in suburban middle-class Bombay. The setting itself may be confined to a particular community, but his compassionate brush carves such a wide sweep of the minutest of human emotions that the sheer force of this book is not in its plot or setting, but in its recognition of the universal bounty of life.

Our quirky residents of 'Firozsha Baag' have every reason to be disconcerted and baffled with their difficult lives. The walls of their building complex are coming apart. Washroom flushes don't work. One family has the refrigerator that's shared by the entire colony, and another has the common telephone. Their lives are marred by simple everyday things, innocent infatuations, unconfessed fantasies, fatal jealousies, neighborhood bullies, petty thefts, memory lapses, shared newspapers, cultural/generational clashes, etc etc.

Yet, beneath this veneer of this seeming hardships glimmers a subtle undercurrent of hope and happiness, of a bond that does not need expressing in the common social forms.

The high praise that Mistry has garnered is not exaggerated. The man has a disarming sense of humor and a lingering sense of what makes literature great. I laughed, I cried, I sat back and pondered. I was especially stirred by the moving story "Of White Hairs and Cricket", and the cover story, which is saved for the last, "Swimming Pools."

Couldn't recommend this brilliant compilation highly enough. It hardly reads like a debut.

Short stories from the master storyteller of Bombay's Parsis.......2004-07-02

A collection of interwoven tales told from the perspective of the different residents of Ferozsha Baag, an apartment building in Bombay. All the stories are good; some are outstanding. In particular, the story of the son who emigrates to Canada to become a writer has a uniquely autobiographical feel to it. =)

Wonderful.......2003-01-13

I read A Fine Balance about a year ago and loved it. I just finished Swimming Lessons and I'm going out to buy Family Matters right now. He writes so beautifully and descriptively that you feel that you lived alongside the characters in his books.He's my favorite author right now.

Insightful potrayal of multiple dimensions of life in Bombay.......2002-04-01

Rohinton Mistry's short stories are brilliant. Written in simple English without any pretentious embellishments, these stories vividly bring to life the characters described. Being an Indian myself and having moved to the US in the last few years, his two stories about an Indian youth moving to Canada seemed very beleivable and accurate representation. I would be surprised if these stories are not based on someone the author knows / has heard about -although I believe that Mistry also writes stories using news articles he reads in Indian newpapers these stories seem too real for the author not to have known someone like the characters he describes.

Reading the book made me feel as if the author were telling the story himself..in a very modest tone..yet the stories show a tremendous understanding of human character and human life. Mistry realizes that small and almost non-significant incidences are the heart of life in the apartments in India. Fortunately, in this book, he does not dwell on the fact that life in a third-world country can be tough. His tone is optimistic and non-judgemental - sometimes humurous - and sometimes a little serious.

The stories made my hair stand out. I would recommend it highly

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses A Fine Balance, the Novel by Rohinton Mistry (Bookclub-In-A-Box)
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Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses A Fine Balance, the Novel by Rohinton Mistry (Bookclub-In-A-Box)
Rohinton Mistry
Manufacturer: Bookclub-in-a-Box
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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