I have been meaning to start blogging about the books that I read again but to be honest I haven’t read much this year that has really inspired me to blog.  This book though has been haunting me for a few weeks now since I finished reading it but not in a good way. Although it was certainly a well written book I found it too devastating.  It would most definitely be one of the most tragic books I have ever read and I have read a lot of tragic books.  I don’t mind a bit of tragedy in a book (something I can attribute to my mother I am sure) but this was too much for me.

The back of the book says, “A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit  in an inhuman state”.  While I would say this is true for most of the book it certainly isn’t for the ending.  I really enjoyed reading most of the book. It followed the four main characters through different trials and tribulations and described beautifully their context and how through it all the strength of their spirits and their growing friendship and love sustained them.  However, then in the last two chapters everything fell apart for all of them and the final pages left me feeling totally hopeless and despairing.  While I know that there can’t be happy endings for everyone in books (that would not be true to life) this book had no happy endings for anyone at all, not even a glimpse of one.  It all seemed to spiral down so quickly too.  I felt this was a little unfair of the author.  Just when I was expecting something good for them all it went wrong.  I didn’t expect the perfect they all lived happily ever after crap but I did expect something of the human spirit’s ability to overcome and it was devoid of that.