Rohinton Mistry
Rohinton Mistry is an acclaimed Indian-born Canadian novelist and short-story writer, known for his poignant storytelling that often highlights the Parsi experience and the lives of ordinary people facing adversity. Born in Mumbai to a Parsi family, Mistry's background as an outsider in a predominantly Hindu society informs much of his work. After moving to Canada in 1975, he pursued his passion for writing following a career in banking, which led to international recognition. His first major work, "Tales from Firozsha Baag," captures the nuances of life in Mumbai and Canada, setting the stage for his subsequent novels.
Mistry's notable works include "Such a Long Journey," which won several prestigious awards, and "A Fine Balance," which addresses the struggles during a politically tumultuous period in India. His writing combines elements of humor and compassion, even when depicting grim realities, allowing readers to connect with the humanity within his characters. Throughout his career, Mistry has received numerous accolades, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and a nomination for the Man Booker International Prize. His narratives explore themes of resilience, the absurdities of life, and the capacity for humor amidst suffering, resonating deeply with diverse audiences.
Rohinton Mistry
Novelist
- Born: July 3, 1952
- Place of Birth: Bombay (now Mumbai), India
INDIAN-BORN CANADIAN NOVELIST AND SHORT-STORY WRITER
IDENTITY: East Indian Canadian
Biography
Rohinton Mistry spent his first twenty-three years in the predominantly Hindu city of Mumbai (formerly called Bombay), India, where, as a member of the Parsi community, he was considered an outsider. The Parsis had fled Persia in the eighth century and, as followers of Zoroaster, were looked at askance by Indian traditionalists. They were open to modern technology and education and tended to be successful in business and industry. They also engaged in a rite in which the bodies of their newly deceased were brought to a mountaintop to be devoured by vultures. Mistry's ethnic background would profoundly shape his writing, which generally focuses on the Parsi experience.
Mistry’s youthful interests were in music, mainly the protest songs of Bob Dylan, and he performed in small nightclubs while earning a Bachelor of the Arts (BA) degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Bombay. In 1975, Mistry and his wife, Freny, moved to Canada, where career opportunities were more promising. The Indian economy favored engineers, doctors, and lawyers, specialties with little interest to Mistry. The young couple settled in a suburb of Toronto, and Mistry became a bank clerk. Even after earning a promotion, he found that the job lacked the stimulation he needed, so he began taking night classes at the University of Toronto in subjects that interested him, earning a second BA in English and philosophy in 1984.
Mistry found that the most exciting and challenging aspect of his coursework was the written assignments. At his wife’s urging, he submitted a short story to a literary competition in 1983 and won the Hart House Prize that year and the next. In 1985, he won the contributor's prize from Canadian Fiction Magazine, which marked him as an up-and-coming literary talent. His first three stories were collected in the book Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987), which captivated critics and readers with its depiction of apartment life in Mumbai and Canada, and his writing career escalated from there. A Canadian government grant allowed him the time and money to hone his craft and quit his job.
Though Mistry was born into a moderately affluent family, his writing most often focuses on the lives of ordinary people who battle impoverishment in the teeming streets of Mumbai. Some critics have questioned the absolute authenticity of the portrait he paints of the city he left and subsequently only visited on occasion, but Mistry himself felt that all memory is interwoven with the creative and that the impressions gained in youth gave him unique insight into everyday life.
Work after work by Mistry met with favorable reception. His first novel, Such a Long Journey (1991), is set in the 1970s and deals with the suffering of those living in poverty under a repressive government. It won the Canada Governor-General’s Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. His second novel, A Fine Balance (1995), is set in 1975 during a period of political upheaval in India when Indira Gandhi’s government imposed the Maintenance of Security Act, resulting in such atrocities as detentions without trials, media censorship, the imprisonment of academics opposed to governmental policies, forced sterilizations, and a questionable public welfare policy offering free radios for vasectomies. The book won the Giller Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s Winfried Holtby Prize, the 1996 Los Angeles Times award. It was also selected for talk-show host Oprah Winfrey’s book club—the first Canadian novel to be so honored—in December 2001. It was touted as a masterpiece, with a Time critic concluding that no one "will look at the poor—in any street—in quite the same way again." His third novel, Family Matters (2002), explores the problems inherent in caring for older people. It won the Kiriyama Prize for fiction and other awards. He published the novella The Scream in 2008.
Mistry's first three novels were all short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize. Such a Long Journey was also adapted into a successful film in 1998. In 2011, Mistry was nominated and named a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize in recognition of his entire literary output. He also received the 2012 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2016, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada for his international success as a critically acclaimed author.
Mistry has been compared with Charles Dickens, Salman Rushdie, and James Joyce. Hope Cooke, The New York Times book reviewer, wrote that his "ability through antic humor and compassion to make the repellent [or sad] story material . . . life affirming, even ebullient, is astonishing given the horrifyingly stunted lives he depicts." When an interviewer from Artsworld suggested that his work was fueled by rage, Mistry bristled, saying, "Fueled by rage? It paints a negative picture of the politics of India but I think [my books are ones] of humanity and optimism. The fact that the characters endure and survive and are able to laugh at the end is for me evidence of clear optimism." Charges that he was unrelentingly grim, pessimistic, and despairing puzzled the author, who noted his belief that prevailing, surviving, and looking to a new day should be enough of a happy ending for anyone. His characters undergo unspeakable misery—botched vasectomies, loss of limbs, torture—but they maintain their humor. That they can still rise above, catch nuances of irony, spot the absurd, and enjoy the moment is what makes his prose so readable and pleasurable. Mistry writes of the humanity that everyone is capable of and the depravity into which all people can fall. He writes of the daily, the vile thoughts, the bodily functions, sometimes with grim detail, that spell actual existence. Though perhaps separated by culture or circumstance, the reader can identify the impulses that drive his people.
Bibliography
Dodiya, Jaydipsinh, editor. The Fiction of Rohinton Mistry: Critical Studies. London: Sangam, 1998.
Grandy, Karen, and David Staines. “Rohinton Mistry.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 July 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rohinton-mistry. Accessed 9 July 2024.
Morey, Peter. Fictions of India: Narrative and Power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2000.
Ravindran, Manori. “HBO Adapting Rohinton Mistry Novel 'A Fine Balance' Into a TV Series.” Variety, 21 Mar. 2022, variety.com/2022/tv/global/a-fine-balance-hbo-rohinton-mistry-1235210376. Accessed 9 July 2024.
“Rohinton Mistry – Asian Heritage in Canada.” Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries, library.torontomu.ca/asianheritage/authors/mistry. Accessed 9 July 2024.