... . I said asinine already? So brainless, really." I would defend Mistry, because I have been to Bombay a couple of times and find his descriptions on target, just as Anita Desai's were in Baumgartner's Bombay (1988). Both writers catch the city's squalid side, the poverty, disorder, filth and ruin, the chaos, but at the same time engage its ... what one character calls "a fine balance between hope and despair." This summary merely skims over the agony these haunting characters endure: humiliation in every form possible, torment in a government-run work camp, torture, violation of human d...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . I said asinine already? So brainless, really." I would defend Mistry, because I have been to Bombay a couple of times and find his descriptions on target, just as Anita Desai's were in Baumgartner's Bombay (1988). Both writers catch the city's squalid side, the poverty, disorder, filth and ruin, the chaos, but at the same time engage its ... what one character calls "a fine balance between hope and despair." This summary merely skims over the agony these haunting characters endure: humiliation in every form possible, torment in a government-run work camp, torture, violation of human d...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate