A Fine Balance - Book Review

A FINE BALANCE. Rohinton Mistry. 1995/2002. Read by Madhur Jaffrey. Abridged. 4 tapes. 6 hrs. Random House Audio. 0-553-75614-1 $25.95 Cardboard, plastic; plot notes. SA

A FINE BALANCE. Rohinton Mistry. 1995/2001. Read by John Lee. Books on Tape. Vol. 1: #5820-A 10-1.5 hour tapes. $80.00. 0-7366-8433-6. Vol. 2: #5820-B. 7-1.5 hour tapes. $56.00. 0-7366-8453-0. Vinyl; plot notes. SA

The setting is India, 1975. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has declared an emergency, and the forces of repression, greed, and revenge are unleashed. In an unnamed city by the sea (Mumbai), four unlikely people ally to carve out a better life. Dina Dalal is a 40-something widow intent on keeping her independence--and her apartment. Ishvar and Om Prakash Darzi are "untouchables" who have turned to tailoring and fled the caste violence of their village. Maneck Kola is a nice Parsee boy down from the hills to learn refrigeration and air-conditioning. Illegally and at great risk, Dina employs the tailors and lodges the student. By the end of the tale, these four people are as real as our own neighbors, their colossal tragedies and fleeting triumphs our own.

Born in that unnamed city, Mistry came to Canada in 1975. With this magnificent epic novel (an Oprah Book Club pick and recipient of many prizes), he joins the ranks of the great humanitarian novelists, inviting comparisons with Dickens, Zola, and Tolstoy. For a highly detailed and vivid picture of life in modern India, listeners should choose the unabridged audiobook version. It's long, but the 25 hours fly by.

British narrator Lee will be familiar as the reader of The Death Of Vishnu (reviewed in KLIATT, November 2001); here again he deftly represents Indians of different backgrounds with a variety of accents. The abridged version, only about a quarter of the original work, covers the broad outlines of the story, but omits much of the (sometimes gruesome) subplot detail, with an inevitable loss of texture. Madhur Jaffrey (actress, television chef and author of Indian cookbooks) has a somewhat raspy voice, but reads with understanding and sympathy. The violence here is portrayed in a matter-of-fact manner. Helen Elizabeth Woodman, Andover, NH

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