It's National Book Lovers Day! In spite of their loss of dreams and position, I was impressed by the resilience of most. Yes, I am glad I listened to it. Welcome back. Sadly, the rich vs poor scenario has existed for thousands of years and can be found everywhere in the world. I found it disjointed and strangely unaffecting for most of its length, and even boring some of the time. I've not read a ton of narrative nonfiction, but Katherine Boo's account of the Annawadi slum in Mumbai and the people who inhabit it makes for a thrilling and moving audiobook. I am an Indian National and a lot of this is already heard of, and still the insight is profoundly beautiful along with a courageous display of hopes. :), Very good question. Shall I strip naked and dance for you now?'" The milkman won’t be delivering the daily liter of milk; his house was razed by the local municipality. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum by Katherine Boo – review This American view of a Mumbai slum is impressive Amit Chaudhuri. Young Abdul is an expert sifter of garbage, selling discarded recyclable items with a degree of success that briefly transform his family's – his parents' and two siblings' – fortunes, while earning them the envy of their neighbour, Fatima. The shadow of a mighty passenger jet flies low over the Olivier stalls, the nearness of its deafening roar making the scalp tighten. So much of the book echoed with what I know about the slums of Port au Prince, for example. According to Lonely Planet, there was a company that did it right, a "sensitive" tour. The well-considered thoughts with which she leaves us at the end of the story will haunt you: "Every country has its myths, and one that successful Indians liked to indulge was a romance of instability and adaptation--the idea that their country's rapid rise derived in part from the chaotic unpredictability of daily life. What disturbed Me most about this book is that it didn't disturb Me more. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a magnificent achievement, one that could not happen in the Commercial Theatre sector. February 10, 2012. But I wanted a more detailed look into a world I knew existed from films and other books so although the audio version wasn't a 5 star, my interest was kindled. She learned to report at the alternative weekly, Washington City Paper, after which she worked as a writer and co-editor of The Washington Monthly magazine. Just couldn't get into it. It's too easy to criticize this book. What is also striking is seeing how the people Boo writes about have hope in circumstances, that from the outside, seem so wholly hopel. As others have said, it reads like a novel, the characterizations are so finely-drawn. The milkman won’t be delivering the daily liter of milk; his house was razed by the local municipality. So instead of me telling you what the book is about (there's a synopsis) or acting like an expert on poverty (which I am n, I've not read a ton of narrative nonfiction, but Katherine Boo's account of the Annawadi slum in Mumbai and the people who inhabit it makes for a thrilling and moving audiobook. Yes, we have gross inequalities in our own society, but I doubt anything can touch what you will read in these pages. Based on the best-selling book by Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a dynamic, vibrant depiction of the dark side of India's rapid economic success. She learned to report at the alternative weekly, Washington City Paper, after which she worked as a writer and co-editor of The Washington Monthly magazine. For a long time and four months Boo chronicled the ordinary battles of a few people unlawfully squatting inside the cramped quarters possessed by the Mumbai Airport Authority. Boo, in letting go of her story, in dwelling with it relatively briefly in her book's 250 pages (in contrast to the years she spent with the slum-dwellers), allows it to resonate with us as a small classic of contemporary writing. Book review: ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers,’ by Katherine Boo. For all those vicious thrashings and numerous marital abuses she stomached for a decade, she truly deserved the so-called posthumous alimony; although a pitiful sum. This is her first book, in which she chronicles several years (from late 2007 to early 2011) in the lives of select families living in a slum near the Mumbai International Airport. But it's also because over the course of three years in India she got extraordinary access to the lives and minds of the Annawadi slum, a settlement nestled jarringly close to a shiny international airport and a row of luxury hotels. Among the works on this subject is the book entitled Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, which focuses on the life of the residents of Mumbai, namely the poorest of them, who are forced to live in the slums. I even called the company. The third family is Asha's. Mercifully, my chauffeur seems to have escaped from any such problematic liabilities. In America and Europe, it was said, people know what is going to happen when they turn on the water tap or flick the light switch. A day to bask in the amazing power of books to inform, amuse, educate, and alter our views and viewpoints. The substance also left me dissatisfied. You simply cannot walk away untouched. So much of the book echoed with what I know about the slums of Port au Prince, for example. “Much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said.”, “What you don't want is always going to be with you, http://www.behindthebeautifulforevers.com/, Pulitzer Prize Nominee for General Nonfiction (2013), National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction (2013), Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism (2013), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest (2012), Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (2013), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (2012), NAIBA Book of the Year for Nonfiction (2012), Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2012), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Nonfiction (2013), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2012). The author describes a wide array of hardships these people have to deal … So instead of me telling you what the book is about (there's a synopsis) or acting like an expert on poverty (which I am not), I'll offer a list. ", See all 11 questions about Behind the Beautiful Forevers…, New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2012 (fiction and nonfiction), Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License, Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. This is how Asha, an ambitious woman who has set her sights on being slumlord in Annawadi, a large slum close to Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, replies to men who'd take advantage of her for her "large breasts and her small, drunken husband". I wish I had a happy answer. Favorite quote from the author: Mumbai is one of the world’s biggest and most complicated cities. Culture Books Reviews. But I had to ask myself who had what to gain by it. I can't hear my radio!"' I found myself brokenhearted by the recurrent police and governmental corruption they must wade through in order to just exist. People whose prospects improve are clearly those whose prospects are already good. Reviewed Nov. 18, 2014. Fiction. Extreme poverty usually strips "civilized" behavior from individuals and groups. For most of us, an image or a vignette would be enough to. What does she suggest be done to improve the situation? Yes, I am glad I listened to it. When resources are scarce to non-existent, humans generally resort to whatever means necessary to ensure their survival. Stare straight. November 10, 2020. of examples of governments that dissolve under the weight of their own corruption - severe inequality being a big part of that. Very good question. Another voyeuristic tour of Slumbai, another rap … It's all right for Spark's schoolgirl Sandy, a native of Edinburgh, to feel estranged when she's in a little-visited part of the city; but Boo, an American, must give the impression of complete familiarity in a Mumbai slum. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is the story of Abdul (and about a hundred other residents -- try keeping all of them straight) and his life in Annawadi, an illegal settlement of trash, sewage and corruption outside the Mumbai airport. How is it that a book about the poorest, most exploited, ignored, trodden upon people didn't evoke more feeling or sustain more engagement? 10,915 reviews. Here's four things I liked, and one thing I didn't like about the audiobook of. After the crisis, the lives of her subjects begin to unravel and the writing becomes more essayistic. The slum they don't want anyone to see. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo Katherine Boo should be an honorary Peace Corps Volunteer. For Katherine Boo, working on this intimate account of life in Annawadi was slow, uncertain and painful in a variety of ways. It’s been a distressful morning. Dear Lord! For most of us, an image or a vignette would be enough to make us feel a bit of pity and turn away. Despair of this sprawling epic. Am I the only victim of such suffering? Zehrunisa is impatient to put the money her family saved to use: a new window in the hut to "let out the cooking smoke", new tiles on the floor. That’s the first thing I did after finishing reading it, and for quite a long time. by Katherine Boo (Random House, 2012) It’s a great adaptation of a true story, pulsing with theatricality and human spirit. In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of … I had read that this book was well-written and would probably win some awards, which is why I picked it up. Reading this part twice is what I advise. This American view of a Mumbai slum is impressive, Slum life … 'Boo's intelligence keeps her tale from losing its grounding in reality.' And I couldn't go through with it because it was a question I couldn't answer. Reviews. Good Minds Suggest—Katherine Boo's Favorite Books About Inequality. Sadly, the rich vs poor scenario has existed for thousands of years and can be found everywhere in th. His tardiness has got me a bit worried on missing my blow-dry appointment. This work, winner of the 2012’s National Book Award and written by Pulitzer winner Katherine Boo, is the result of three years she spent in Annawadi, a slum in Mumbai, India. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity is a non-fiction book written by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo in 2012. One sensed the goings-on and exchanges inside them as one would a foreign world, without completely understanding what was being said, in spite of (unlike Boo) knowing the language. Selfishness (for oneself or one's family) is often the only thing standing between survival and death. I know it's a Pulitzer Prize winner, and I really tried. Well, here’s a nice irony, to be reading this in the week that the results of a UNICEF survey reveal that one in seven German children and young people are unhappy, dissatisfied with their life or situation. That's partly because Boo writes so damn well. This is one compelling read, and the truly stunning thing about it is that it is all true. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Katherine (Kate) J. Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. I'd seen the slums from the air, as we d. It's too easy to criticize this book. For middle-class people like me who grew up in Bombay, forays into slums were infrequent. I had three days to spend in Mumbai this February, and, reading my Lonely Planet guidebook, I considered undertaking a "slum tour." Troublesome as it is for a detour to the supermarket for packaged milk, my domestic help decided to call it a day as it is the last day to confirm her receipt for a governmental pension of her deceased alcoholic husband. When resources are scarce to non-existent, humans generally resort to whatever means necessary to ensure their survival. She's a worker for the Shiv Sena, the extreme rightwing Marathi chauvinist party, and nurses small-scale political ambitions that she believes will lead to her becoming, one day, slumlord. By Shashi Tharoor. --Yet--I waited long enough! Oh! If you liked Slumdog Millionaire you will probably like this book. I get it - life in a Mumbai sluim is brutish but the writing style tries too hard to shock and quickly left me jaded. And I couldn't go through with it because it was a question I couldn't answer. Boo took home the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2012 for this novel about the injustice and cyclical nature of poverty in India, so I imagine it is rather well read by my fellow Goodreadians. Behind The Beautiful Forevers tickets are not currently available. The first time allows you to listen to the details of the individuals and judge their validity. February 7th 2012 Somehow, seeing pictures of it doesn't lessen the shock of seeing it in real life, the row on row of monochromatic dun-coloured ragged shacks ringing Mumbai's glitziest highrise hotels. He … Boo took home the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2012 for this novel about the injustice and cyclical nature of poverty in India, so I imagine it is rather well read by my fellow Goodreadians. This book is quite an achievement. Poverty without hope destroys humanity. I didn’t know what I was looking at, or more aptly, looking for – of course, there was this wall ahead, 3 feet ahead – but I wasn’t looking at it; I was looking for ‘faces’; faces that I’ve imagined floating between my eyes and the pages of the book while I was reading it; faces that don’t resemble anyone I know, but faces that might resemble closely with the people living right now, even a. Stare. An Indian man I met had also recommended it. I live in Brazil, a country of great social inequality, but even so the misery and cruelty shown in Behind the Beautiful Forevers is impressive. As Katherine Boo states in her Author's Note, This book leaves you feeling devastated. Asha's daughter, Manju, is probably the most idealistic person in Annawadi, an undergraduate who helps run her mother's school (a side-business), and for whom a university degree in English and teacher training comprise the chosen route out of the slum into the realm of "first-class people". Read in: 4 minutes. The corruption Boo details, corruption so deeply embedded at all levels of Indian society, is almost unbearable to read about but this information is shared without judgment and revealed, particularly for the residents of the Mumbai slum where Boo was embedded, as the only potential way out, however dim that potential might be. I spent the entire reading reminding myself that these were real people so that I would endeavor to feel something toward their story. For three years and four months goo chronicled the everyday struggles of indiuiduals illegally squatting within the cramped quarters owned by the Mumbai Airport Authority. Personally, I suspect ALL unequal society eventually impload - they are just replaced with another slightly less unequal society until that replacement imploads...and so on. While it started on a promising note and held my attention until about the halfway mark, I could sense a growing disappointment with both style and substance. Her own absence from the encounters with her biographees, the complete and unflagging access to their thoughts and speech, the decision to adopt the novelistic approach – perhaps these, and not the depressing nature of writing about a microcosm of abject poverty within a booming India, are the greatest risks Boo takes. It's certainly refreshing to see so … I was excited about reading this book after reading the reviews; however, it did not live up to the kudos. It’s been a distressful morning. A former professor of mine once related to me a story of the time he escorted Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire, author of, Stare. I KEPT ON ASKING HOW THIS COULD NOT BE FICTION. Review: Behind The Beautiful Forevers. I wanted concrete suggestions from the author. The latter, a cripple, is also known as One Leg, and is famous in the slum for a sexual appetite her ageing husband can't satisfy. I found it disjointed and strangely unaffecting for most of its length, and even boring some of the time. Wow! The second time, having completed the book, you can better judge the author's conclusions. I was raised in great poverty, and have a first-hand understanding of its effects. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. I hated Slumdog Millionaire and I didn't like this book. I was reminded that, though Boo was a foreigner in Annawadi, she is no foreigner to the poor, and has written much about the American poor as a journalist; the echoes of O'Connor confirm what Boo points out later, that there are revealing overlaps between the world's deprived areas. • Amit Chaudhuri's Calcutta: Two Years in the City will be published next year. I am absolutely amazed at the way she was able to get into the hearts and minds of those she studied. BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS LIFE, DEATH, AND HOPE IN A MUMBAI UNDERCITY. by Katherine Boo ... Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2011. In a Flaubertian irony, Manju studies Congreve's The Way of the World, a sleazy tale about "first-class people", without fully comprehending the text. The book describes a present-day slum of Mumbai, India, named … To get the latest news, reviews, interviews, new show alerts and ticket offers, sign up to our weekly newsletter Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. I read through practically in one gulp, hardly coming up for air. The reason why I say so is the way author has put across the irony of our existences is quite shatterr, This book is not easy to read, let me be clear. Surely the rising global economy of India will eventually float all boats, so why dwell on a few failed lives? Behind a wall emblazoned with an ad for tiles that will be “beautiful forever”, about 3,000 people live in 335 huts out of site from users of the modern airport and its luxury hotels. However, I reckon shifting the spa-medic detoxification an hour later could comfortably ease the tea-garden brunch. Friends recommended that I listen to that first, which I did, but I listened to it again after completing the book. She gradually renounces the novelistic mode partly because she realises that, unlike the novelist, she can't possess her characters, not least because many of them – in particular, a constellation of children – end up dead; as a narrator, she must share with the residents of Annawadi the loss of control, of mastery, this entails. Her plausible rebuttal had me wondering what its Hindi or Marathi original might have been. 'We try so many things', as one Annawadi girl put it, 'but the world doesn't move in our favor.' National Theatre. I get it - life in a Mumbai sluim is brutish but the writing style tries too hard to shock and quickly left. Flannery O' Connor's constricted universes, full of grotesques and buoyant improvisers, come to mind; Boo has the same concentrated vision, but more empathy. I started this book yesterday -- finished it this morning. Faces that I’ll see as I go to bed this morning, for time just passed as I immersed myself in this book. The author herself narrates the afterword which explains the author's methodology. Just from $10/Page. Not only do I have to check the availability of another maid, but go and pick my dry cleaning as the delivery boy was arrested for trying to sell vegetables on the street corner disregarding any philanthropic duties to the patrolling authorities. Trying to write a book about the slums of New Delhi is a daunting task, to say the least (and please bear in mind, I say that as a white lady whose only knowledge of India comes from a few Bollywood movies and, I had read that this book was well-written and would probably win some awards, which is why I picked it up. Futile visits to the local political corporator and pleading to a rigid money-lender for a loan is what his weekly schedule looks like. All those poor little rich kids. For this, her first book, Boo, a Pulitzer prize-winning staff writer on the New Yorker, spent much of her life between November 2007 and March 2011 in Annawadi, documenting events with "written notes, video recordings, audiotapes and photographs". A much hyped book - I had heard and read a lot about it including high praise from some usually trusty sources. Opened Nov. 18, 2014. But I had to ask myself who had what to gain by it. Review. Stare straight. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. That’s the first thing I did after finishing reading it, and for quite a long time. The shrill women voices are really spot on! To see what your friends thought of this book, This book is not easy to read, let me be clear. While it is not the author's intent to offer solutions, I did not find her offering compelling explanations for what transpires in Annawadi. She worries that, as a foreigner, she lacks the "immersion" a native would have in their milieu; but maybe natives become disengaged, while outsiders inhabit their chosen spaces more fully. I wish I had a happy answer. This is her first book, in which she chronicles several years (from late 2007 to early 2011). Behind the Beautiful Forevers (with Katherine Boo and Meera Syal) Hare has adapted decisively, skilfully cutting a swath of narrative from a myriad competing tales. In India, a land of few safe assumptions, chronic uncertainty was said to have helped produce a nation of quick-witted, creative problem-solvers. Rambling: A scene from Behind the Beautiful Forevers . Over the years, her reporting from disadvantaged communities has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur “Genius” grant, and a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. Futile visits to the local political corporator and pleading to a rigid money-lender for a loan is what his weekly schedule looks like. Only her intelligence – a novelist's intelligence, with a shrewd eye for vanity, and an understanding that everything is informed by compromise – keeps her tale from losing its grounding in reality. It's a fascinating look at how the underclass tries to survive and get ahead in a 21st-century economy. Behind The Beautiful Forevers is a commendable attempt to dramatize a topical non-fiction story on a grand, Dickensian scale. I struggled a lot with how to review this because it's hard to separate the quality of the book from how it made me feel. It has also been adapted into a play by David Hare in 2014, shown on National Theatre Live in 2015. 1-Sentence-Summary:Behind The Beautiful Foreverswill make you more grateful for what you have, look for ways to tear down corruption in the world, and help the poor by sharing the experiences of people living in the Annawadi slum in India. I listened to the audiobook narrated perfectly by Sunil Malhorta. Order Essay. The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered social inequalities in the past. I was left hanging and this was extremely unsatisfying. London Theater Review: ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ National Theatre, London; 1,160 seats; £35, $110 top. What is also striking is seeing how the people Boo writes about have hope in circumstances, that from the outside, seem so wholly hopeless, so impossible to overcome. The writing, here, comes sharply alive; the madness of these scenes (a drunk man with TB helping Abdul with the work, falling from the weight of a stone he has to lift) shows Boo at her most economical – horror and comedy become inextricable. Apparently, it isn't enough that most are ill from their habitats and scorned by society. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Katherine Boo. Words are exchanged, then insults, in public; this relatively minor occurrence of fractiousness leads to life-changing decisions. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published [Behind the Beautiful Forevers] plays out like a swift, richly plotted novel. In … The shrill women voices are really spot on! 2 stars for the abridged version. Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011. The contrast between the economic “haves” and “have nots” is so blatant here. I even called the company. 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