SOURCE: Mantel, Hilary. “States of Emergency.” In India: A Mosaic, edited by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein, pp. 181-93. New York, N.Y.: New York Review Books, 2000.

In the following essay, Mantel assesses A Fine Balance as a political novel at its core—one overtly critical of the political forces in India.

“Un roman est un miroir …” Stendhal said. “A novel is a mirror which passes over a highway. Sometimes it reflects to your eyes the blue of the skies, at others the churned-up mud of the road.” Of course, not all novelists choose to carry mirrors of perfect clarity. Some travel with just a wicked sliver of glass, some strut along with a gleeful grin and a distorting mirror; others respectfully support a windowpane through which little is seen but the author's own face. But when Rohinton Mistry published his first novel, Such a Long Journey...