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    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity
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    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity
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    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity
    Ebook299 pages5 hours

    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity

    By Katherine Boo

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    WINNER OF THE 2012 LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE

    WINNER OF THE 2012 US NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 PULITZER PRIZE

    From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo comes a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the world’s most lively but treacherous cities.

    Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport and, as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees ‘a fortune beyond counting’ in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter — Annawadi’s ‘most-everything girl’ — will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a 15-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call ‘the full enjoy’.

    But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

    With intelligence, humour, and deep insight into what connects human beings in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the 21st century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

    PRAISE FOR KATHERINE BOO

    ‘Boo's meticulous work is a must for India watchers, of course, but it is also a great example of the power of what used to be known as immersion journalism. And a cracking read.’ The Age

    ‘[An] exquisitely accomplished first book.’ The New York Times

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribe Publications
    Release dateFeb 22, 2012
    ISBN9781921942440
    Unavailable
    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity
    Author

    Katherine Boo

    Katherine Boo, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has spent the last 20 years reporting from within poor communities, considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty. She learned to report at The Washington City Paper. She was also an editor of the Washington Monthly and, for nearly a decade, a reporter and editor at The Washington Post. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, her first book, received the United States' National Book Award. Her magazine and newspaper work has been recognised with a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

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    Reviews for Behind the Beautiful Forevers

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    • 3/5
      Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" is a close look at the struggle that is the daily life of so many of India's poor. The author, who is married to an Indian man, spent time on the ground with the people she profiles in her study, and it shows in the way that she was able to make each of them stand out as the unique human being they are. But (and I don't know that this is what Boo is aiming for) if the author wants her readers to come away from "Beautiful Forevers" with hope that life will eventually get better for India's poor, that did not happen for me. Rather, I find the book to be the most depressing one that I've read in years because I do not see much hope for a better life for any of the people profiled - or for any of their slum neighbors. The way that these poor treat each other is appalling, but in a dog-eat-dog world like the one they live in, it is understandable. They keep others down by lying about each other, filing false charges/claims with the police or with lawyers, stealing from each other, and abusing each other in every way imaginable. "Beautiful Flowers" is a multi-award winner, including the National Book Award and The Pen Award, and I can understand why it did so well. But what the book revealed about human nature, left me feeling sadder and more hopeless about the future than I can recall ever having been. Maybe it's time my eyes were opened.
    • 4/5
      The author doesn’t appear anywhere in the book; Behind the Beautiful Forevers is an attempt to immerse readers in the lives of an impoverished fringe population, one of many whose residents are missing out on India’s economic rise. I thought the author did this very well, but with Behind the Beautiful Forevers, my method of coming to a book without knowing much about it in advance backfired on me. I kept wondering distractedly how the author could possibly know what this or that person was thinking or the detailed conversations that were relayed. An author’s note at the end explains how she knew what everyone thought and felt and said from hundreds of interviews and recorded video statements that she had interpreted and translated; this information would have been better had it come at the beginning.There are no points of view other than those of the residents of Annawadi in the book. The author is presenting a snapshot of a single, small segment of society; she doesn’t attempt to balance the facts as Annawadians see them with statements or objections from others who live outside of the "undercity". The appalling, chronic corruption in Mumbai daily life detailed in Behind the Beautiful Forevers seemed incredible to me, but is apparently inextricably woven into the fabric of society there. The graft and injustice at this level of society as described in this book is sickening, and the problems of Annawadi residents seemed insurmountable.For fuller review, please visit
    • 5/5
      Over 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Here we have an intimate portrait of a dozen or so mostly children and mothers in a Mumbai slum living on about 33 cents. Of course we've seen it before, in other books and movies, but the verisimilitude and depth of the reporting takes it to a new level. The combination of factual reporting and novelistic technique is as if being there in person. It's one of the more difficult and challenging books I have read. It will stay with me for a long time and has changed my perspective on India and the world's poor in the context of globalization.
    • 5/5
      Relentless. The narrative reads as fiction, at a breathtaking pace, every observation drilling in the dead ends, often literally, met in a Mumbai slum. The slum is surrounded by plush hotels and an airport signifying the globalisation of this bustling city, yet none of this filters down to the "down to earn-and-eat" poor. Divisions between the slum-dwellers, real and imagined, for all purposes dwarf the overarching division between rich and poor. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is about how they survive day-to-day. How their lives become insignificant, to themselves as well as others, not because of any religious or brutish factors but because of their dire circumstances and worldly corruption which keeps them there.Think Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, twice the pace, yet unbelievably true. The Author's Note at the end is a must-read. I have had the pleasure of reading her close friend Ramachandra Guha (India After Gandhi, Gandhi Before India); and also her husband Sunil Khilnani, whose Incarnations: India in 50 Lives I recommend for an overview of key historical figures and breadth of Indian culture.
    • 5/5
      Incredible, moving, painful, haunting, amazing, inspiring, sickening, heartbreaking...This book is a rollercoaster ride from one emotion to the next, from one reaction to the next, and it doesn't let up until the very last page. I'm lying -- it doesn't let go after that either, because these are real people, many of whom are undoubtedly still living (Boo's research was only several years ago now). It forces you to confront the reality of poverty in India (and elsewhere in the world), and take a hard look at yourself and what you consider your everyday sense of normality.It's a difficult book to get through because of the content... but an incredible, amazingly well-crafted narrative from a very, very skilled writer. The book reads like a novel, easily catching you up in the stories of several Annawandi families, and I found myself only occasionally remembering that this was not fiction, and feeling my heart break each time.But it's a story that needs to be told, because we need to understand. And then act, however we can -- though even our actions here may be subverted in ways that we have no control over, which only adds to the sadness. At the end of this book, Boo included notes on how she went about researching for the story, and how she was able to put together such a thorough, cohesive narrative. After reading that, I appreciated her work all the more. The woman must be made of steel (though she admits she's far from it), and I am very grateful that she took the time to tell these peoples' stories. We need to know the truth of life for many beyond the comfort of our own homes, no matter how much it hurts or, admittedly sometimes, shames us.
    • 3/5
      Behind the Beautiful Forevers tells the stories of residents of Annawadi, a slum just outside the Mumbai international airport and in close proximity of a number of luxury hotels. Outside the airport is a billboard advertising Italian floor tiles with the tagline, "beautiful forever, beautiful forever, beautiful forever." Just beyond this billboard lies the Annawadi slum, where residents fight for survival in a corrupt political and economic climate, many making their livings through trash collection, prostitution, and manipulation of the corrupt system.

      I'm not sure I would include the word "hope" in the title of this book. The book paints a very bleak picture of life in the slums of India, and I felt sad and hopeless when I finished reading it. Organizations supposedly working to alleviate poverty and provide opportunities for the poor are often just as corrupt as the political systems that are causing the poverty. They work towards their missions only when they are being monitored, otherwise funneling money and resources elsewhere.

      I think the author painted a very honest picture of life in Annawadi. She researched for years, conducted hundreds of interview and did a lot of fact-checking. She did not romanticize the residents of the slum. They act both selflessly to support their families, and also selfishly, doing whatever it takes to get ahead. I appreciate this honest depiction.

      This book addresses important issues, is well written, and well researched. I think it is better than three stars, but due to my recent inability to concentrate on anything for more than fifteen minutes, I had a hard time really getting into it.
    • 4/5
      This is a very difficult book to read because of the realities of poverty in India. The slum called Annawadi lies close to the Mumbai airport. The author, Katherine Boo, observed the people in the book and watched their stories unfold. I felt hopeless about the condition of the people in the slum early on in the book. Their living conditions and signs of any hope for improvement were so dismal that I had to put the book down and start reading what I now call my “relief book”. Then I came back to this book and alternated between them. That is why I say that if you decide to read ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ you must be prepared to be depressed, really depressed!This slum is in same city as new skyscrapers and Bollywood movies. India is undergoing a transformation but how much of this change reaches those in the slums? It started in 1991 when laborers from Tamil were brought in to repair a runway at the airport. The land was unclaimed so they decided to settle there. Seventeen years later, there were three thousand people living there. In the book, we follow the lives of Abdul, Asha, Manju, Asha’s daughter and Fatima, a one legged prostitute to name a few. But their lives get squashed in the overwhelming corruption, filth and disease. There are more individuals followed in this book but I think this is enough for this review.Abdul is one of the Muslims in a mostly Hindu population of Annawadi. He wants to get out of the slum by working long hours in the dirty job of sorting garbage for recycling and selling by weight the discards and trash from the airport. The trash collectors are one rung below him. He and they don’t see the value of bathing because they will end up dirty and smelling the next day anyway. Asha sorted 6o different kinds of trash and had been doing this since he was only six years old.The book says that there are 1,000 trash pickers and 8,000 tons of garbage every day in that slum. So that is one third of the people do, pick through the trash. The smells must be sickening; the sights atrocious, the rats live there too. Asha is trying to get her family out of the slum too. She thinks she can do this by her quick thinking and by breaking gender barriers in politics. But will she succeed?Her daughter, Manju teaches English to some of the children of the slum. She wants out too and is trying by getting more education. Will she win despite all the odds against her?Fatima is a prostitute who has a deformed leg. What will become of her?Everything is corrupt, everything. The government provides cheap healthcare but the doctors cannot raise their families on what they get so they ask for large sums of under the table money. How do you get a job that is not trash picking? That is corrupt too. The water is unfit to drink; the leaves on the trees are gray from the ash from a nearby concrete plant. When reading this book, I could not find any system that was not corrupt. There is religious discrimination, of course class discrimination, but seems that the slum itself is a monster that cannot be tamed. Suicide is way to get out that is considered and carried out by many.My feeling while reading this book and after were of depression, hopelessness and disgust with the systems there. I disagree with this author, about writing it in third person; I felt that the book could have been more powerful if written through the eyes of the main characters. Also, because the book is so depressing, I think it would have been appropriate to have a list of agencies that are trying to do something to improve the conditions of the poor in India. These agencies exist. I recommend this book to all who are concerned about what is happening in India and warn them that the harsh realities of the slum are extremely depressing.
    • 4/5
      No one is more surprised than me that I liked this book. I have such a hard time reading non-fiction, and in fact, would not have requested this from the Early Reviewer's group had I realized it was non-fiction. But -- it doesn't read like non-fiction. Apparently, living in the slums of Mumbai provides lives that are gritty enough to read like fiction. This author writes like a dream - and I can't imagine how cool of a person she must be to have infiltrated herself into the slums enough to write this story. I will read anything she writes in the future also!
    • 4/5
      Behind the Beautiful Forevers tells the stories and the realities of life in an Indian slum. As they see the luxury highrise hotels, offices, and international airport thrive and grow before their very eyes, the people of the slum literally live off of the trash that is generated by global progress. The people of Annawadi deserve to have their story told, and Boo does a remarkable job; not only of reporting their situation, but also of helping the reader understand what they think and how they cope with their lives, their families, and their futures.
    • 4/5
      Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a look into slum life of Mumbai India. The poverty that exits in this area is so hard to grasp that even reading this story I had to remind myself that this was a non-fiction book. This level of poverty really exists.The book follows 2 families - Abdul a young boy trying to support his parents & siblings through a garbage/recycling scavenger business. And Asha a mother who is trying to navigate her family out of poverty through the corrupt politics.It is a powerful narrative that is sure to break your heart.
    • 5/5
      An incredible book. It is a microcosim of the world. The issues of wealth and poverty in the world, charity, children are so prevalent. After reading this book another trip to India seems crazy and giving to any charity not a good idea. Politcs and corruption seem to govern our world. Is any country safe.
    • 5/5
      compelling, intricate writing full of life. an important book to bring light to an unfortunate. and rarely understood, reality
    • 4/5
      When I get books from the library, it's often several weeks after I put them on a hold list, so I don't always remember what impelled me to ask for one in the first place. Last week I started listening to this one (audiobook) and was enjoying it very much. About half way through I thought, this sounds so real, the author must have done some amazing research before writing this novel. Then I looked it up and saw it's not a novel, but is, in fact, non-fiction. That's how close Boo got to the people she wrote about.This is eye-opening. The difference between my white, middle-class, American expectations and the reality of life in an Indian slum just slams me. Private and public funds, meant to help, are completely absorbed into the corruption of the systems - politics, education, the courts, the police, municipal infrastructure. None of it works, at least in my understanding of "works," because everyone at every step of the way expects corruption and bribery.From a more universal viewpoint, this book is about the disparity in opportunity, and that's something that is not foreign to us even here in the U.S. The author, in her afterword, carefully points out that you can't extrapolate this particular community to anywhere else, but that there are global economic forces that act on all of us in a changing world.The reason this book is rated so highly is that these messages are given through the lives and words and hopes of real people. We get to hear their dialogue, share their thoughts, be part of their days. And it works. Boo has been able to focus on few enough people that we can get to know and care about them. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      From November 2007 through March 2011, Katherine Boo immersed herself in life in Annawadi, a slum in Mumbai in the shadow of an international airport and luxurious hotels. It is this contrast between an India that is an integral part of the global economy and an India in which a single room provides shelter for large families that helps us understand what Annawadi is like. By focusing on a few representative residents of Annawadi - Abdul, a teenager who is trying to earn a better life for his family by recycling garbage; Asha, a woman who is trying to make the political system work to her advantage; Kalu, a scrap-metal thief - Boo brings the settlement to life. There are no stereotypes here - just the details that come from over three years of in-depth reporting. Boo brings light to a story that might otherwise have remained hidden behind an advertisement for Italian floor tiles that promised a beautiful forever, something that the residents of Annawadi hope and strive for as well.
    • 4/5
      Very chilling and sobering look at life in a Mumbai slum, focusing on one Muslim family as they deal with the every day ordeal of living and trying to get ahead at the turn of the 21st century. The level or corruption that this family encounters in their everyday life is harrowing, not to mention the dirt, sewage, disease, rats, garbage, hunger, and thirst. If the movie Slumdog Millionaire was oddly fascinating to you, you'll enjoy this book.
    • 5/5
      Katherine Boo has written an unforgettable portrayal of life in a squatters village near the airport in Mumbai, India. We meet several families as they struggle against long odds living in a world of gut wrenching poverty, pollution and corruption. But still their spirits shines through. This is a non fiction book and all the people and events in the book are real. This truly is for American readers how the other half lives. These are people that you will not soon forget. The book truly captures the human spirit to thrive in terrible conditions. I can certainly see why Ms. Boo got all the acclaim that she did. Get out of you comfort zone and read this book.
    • 3/5


      It’s been a distressful morning. The milkman won’t be delivering the daily liter of milk; his house was razed by the local municipality. The family of six has to do with a makeshift shanty to prevent them from drowning in the dense showers of late night rains. Futile visits to the local political corporator and pleading to a rigid money-lender for a loan is what his weekly schedule looks like. 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. 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. Oh! What a wretched day it is!! 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. Dear Lord! Am I the only victim of such suffrage? Mercifully, my chauffeur seems to have escaped from any such problematic liabilities. His tardiness has got me a bit worried on missing my blow-dry appointment. However, I reckon shifting the spa-medic detoxification an hour later could comfortably ease the tea-garden brunch.
      It’s still 9am and I’m half way through my anti-bacterial wipes. I need to make quick stop at the local pharmacy for more supplies; but the snail speed of this wretched sedan is making me perspire through the cool air of the designed interiors, dreading the inevitable. A knock on the window and I’m in no mood of indulging an urchin while fretting over the scarcity of the anti-germ armament. Few more taps and he moves on to the next door amongst the sea of vehicles. Bombay traffic; oh so nauseating! Couple red lights and I’m ready for a literary dialogue over freshly brewed oolong. As I alight from the car, a pair of white retinas stares at me with a half-broken smile. The offering of green pistachios macaroons seemed supplementary to the actual fancy; a few more arguments over the importance of food and then the ultimate dispensing of monetary funds. The cool sea breeze brushing my cheeks sarcastically mocks the cup of warm tea. I’m finally at peace. Argh! This unnerving stench rising from a nearby engulfment of reclaimed land festering with juxtaposed shoddy shanties ruins the temporary nirvana. Such a disgrace for a posh high-rise! I must take up this issue at the upcoming Housing meeting.

      While meticulously placing their cups avoiding the untimely melody of their exquisite china, the urban snobs critique twirling their freshly sprayed coifs; applauded the heroic effort of a certain Katherine Boo for having the balls to submit herself to the putrid cocktail of sewage stench and decaying garbage for nearly four years. It is indeed a medal of honor; elsewhere the opinionated lecturer making a run out of the narrow congested lanes before the eau de cologne evaporates from their handkerchiefs. Katherine, in a news interview said that after her research on the inner-city housing in Oklahoma city, she was curious about the institution of poverty. What ways do the ‘poor’ people execute to get out their impoverish survival? How did they thrive in the existing circumstances? What would you want me to say? To pronounce, that poverty has become the selling point of Indian literary panorama? Does romanticizing poverty give a feel of diving into some kind of exotic uncharted waters? Or does it give one’s heart a philanthropic illusion? On an eventful itinerary to India pick out a slum and pen the daily events of a close knitted neighborhood huddled together in congested housing. If, appreciated by the designated literary elites, spare a thought towards the unfortunate over overtly publicized Literary fest and if Boyle &Co. decides to take another shot at the Oscars; Hallelujah!!! Stories are not only born in slums, allow the tales to pass through through many corners of the vast Indian landscapes. The residents of Annawadi are audacious, unafraid and above all optimistic dreamers. Poverty is the biggest crime. It is better to be a cold-blooded murderer, but it is a sin to be poor. To be poor is to be guilty of one or another thing. Commiserating Raja Kamble- the toilet cleaner; rag picker Sunil, one-legged Sita and the vulnerable Asha who dreams to be the first ever slumlord demeans their very existence. Applaud these residents of Annawadi through the lines of this text as they struggle through the dodgy circumstances with true grit; for if it was one of us we would sooner or later walk the path of death.


      In a land where the supermarket does not boast ten different brands of toothpastes, give an Ayn Rand to a youth standing in the ration line and see a potent explosive rise. Crony capitalism, corruption, poverty and economic disparity are necessary evils in a country that is racing at an hare’s speed to meet the global finishing line. The sinister underbelly of Mumbai proliferates with every rise and fall in oil trade stocks. Does that give a leeway to the privileged to dig deep in the trenches and frolic in the slush? Stop romanticizing poverty!! Recognize the white elephant in the room and pen an epic of crony capitalism and its hoarders. Wouldn't it then be fun to see a panel of illustrious erudite critique the printed words. Would they find it rewarding as the scriptures of impecunious nether world or dismiss it as an unpatriotic insanity like they do with most of Arundhati Roy’s books. There my dearies lay the valid underbelly of a blossoming India and not through impoverished assiduous lives.

      I reckon the raspberry macaroons go very well with oolong and I might skip the Housing meeting . As for my concerned nirvana I’ll just spray some Comme des Garçons,







    • 4/5
      I read this as part of my MA degree. Didn’t think it’s be to my tastes, but happy to say I was proved wrong. The author writes this nonfiction account as though it were a novel. The third person narrative is related as though all is true without the author interjecting with, “I found this out by interviewing …” or anything of that nature. At no point does the author “appear” in the action or events. The absence of footnotes or any type of referencing add to the novel flavour. This is a good way to approach a work of nonfiction. Only when reading the author’s note at the end does the reader learn of Ms Boo’s extensive research.
    • 3/5
      Well-reported but relentlessly cultivates one's cynicism about India: corrupt police, corrupt neighbours, corrupt nuns… It does give us a new put-down for petulant children: “At least kids don't laugh at you because sorting garbage all day in a Mumbai slum gave you boils.” I was a bit flummoxed by a reference in to "rats and bandicoots". Bandicoots are from Australia, not India! But it turns out Australian bandicoots are named after giant Indian "bandicoot rats" (bandicoot translates as "pig rat"). That this biological snippet was the most memorable thing in the book for me (apart from the boils) is probably not the author's intention.
    • 2/5
      This read like a novel. As a novel I would give it high marks. As non fiction I just don't quite believe Boo. The details are to subjective for her characters. She was not a member. She interviewed people. The details of life in the Mumbai slum are very well researched. But the thoughts and actions don't have the same impact when the reader is asked to see them as if Boo herself was a second person narrator. I agree with another reader. 4 + stars as a novel. 2 as non fiction.
    • 5/5
      An exceptional examination of a slum in Mumbai, India. Boo profiles the people of the slum over a four year period - the trials and tribulations of individuals and the group as a whole. As with any group there are good people and bad. I think the saddest part is the slightly better off people in the slum who take advantage of their neighbors.
    • 4/5
      This book delves into the lives of the poorest of the poor in an emerging India. Squatters in a slum alongside the Mumbai airport, they live mainly by collecting and recycling trash produced by the airport and the hotels. This is also illegal, and the residents must fight for access to the trash from those who have the official right to recycle it. Boo concentrates on 2 families: one of skilled, and somewhat successful Muslims, one of a Hindu woman who is determined to get ahead through political connections. What is really eye-opening about this book is not the poverty, but the incredible level of corruption that dominates everyday life. One comes away with the impression that literally nothing in India functions without graft, and those who are unable to pay it are trapped forever on the bottom. Boo notes often that efforts to improve life in the slums through education and aid from the developing world are futile because middlemen and fixers end up lining their pockets with the money. Just one example of the graft she cites: the authorities plan to raze the slum in order to expand the airport. They announce that slum residents will be moved to new apartment blocks. Immediately non-slum residents throughout Mumbai start buying up the slum housing and falsifying papers stating that they live there so they can get placed in the new apartments and sell them for a profit.Boo does a a good job with the characters and lives she writes about. It's hard not to be outraged, sympathetic and fascinated. Because Boo removes herself from the story, putting you in the characters' heads without writing her impressions, the book seemed a little strange to me at times. (Boo explains in the afterword why she does this.) I thought of both Dickens and Zola while reading this book -- Boo does for the 21st century underclass what those writers did for their times, and like them she's a great storyteller.
    • 4/5
      I have always enjoyed reading what I call appreciation literature, meaning it makes you appreciate what your life is like. Reading the Grapes of Wrath or practically any of the wonderful novels of Toni Morrison have always enabled me to give pause about the current , mostly economical complaints I have. Well, in Katherine Boo's work of non-fiction, I would have to say that this Pulitzer Prize winning book takes the cake. Ms. Boo spent three years in the world of Annawadi, a slum on the outskirts of the Mumbai airport where the luxury hotels and shops are separated from the slum by a concrete advertisement about floor tiles called The Beautiful Forevers. Behind this wall we are introduced to the lives and livelihoods of Abdul, the garbage sorter, Kalu, the 15 year okd scrap metal thief and Asha, who may , through her politically corrupt connections, might just get her daughter to be the first college educated person in the settlement. As if the daily trials of existence aren't enough, Abdul and his family are falsely accused of causing the death of their neighbor. The police investigation and eventual trial are something out of Kafka. Everything is about who is paid off and who can profit from the event. I remain curious about how a journalist remains objective and stays uninvolved while recording the unfolding tragedy of Abdul's family, but I certainly admire her dedication to the project and the intertwined story she creates. I will certainly not soon forget the lives of these people.
    • 3/5
      This book is a beautiful, yet extremely sad look into the plight of the poverty stricken slums in Mumbai. The chapters are rich with painfully blunt descriptives and eye opening detail of just how bad it is, and how hard the struggle to survive is. The fine line between politics and religion is shown in grand detail and I personally had no idea about the underworkings of it until I read this book. The characters are wonderfully written, I found myself getting attached to them early on in the book. Kate Boo writes about them with such love in her heart. from Abdul, to the One legged woman, I really was taken with their stories and the utter devastation they lived in, in Annawadi. My heart ached for the children, the innocents, and the ones who really wanted to make it and get out, but just never could. It really made me appreciate the freedom and opportunities we have in Western civilization. The only negative, if any that I would mention is how the author jumps back and forth between characters and statistics. Sometimes it was a little hard to follow, mostly in the beginning, and I would find myself trying hard to remember who was related to whom. Overall though, it is a truly good book.
    • 5/5
      Since her character-driven stories for the Washington Post about group homes for intellectually disabled people, I've been in awe of Katherine Boo's journalistic commitment and her ability to weave a compelling story from her subjects' daily lives. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is well worth the time. After reading this, I felt as though I had journeyed to Mumbai and had moved in to the slums for a visit that was long enough to impart understanding. What a gift Boo has given the world beyond the poor neighborhoods of Mumbai.
    • 4/5
      The view of extreme poverty meshed with Dickens description of extreme poverty in France in the 1780s. The juxtaposition of poverty and excess was explored in both books. This book is nonfiction but it reads like fiction, in a good way. I plan to read more from this author. The stories of individual lives and struggles really touched me. I can't say that I didn't know this kind of neglect and poverty existed, I do know it does, in my country as well as India. The problem seems so overwhelming I normally tended to just not see it. Its hard to not see it after this book.
    • 4/5
      I always have a little problem with narrative non-fiction but this book should be mandatory reading. It was really a great book and very well written. I thought there were maybe too many characters but that also contributed to the the overall story that was being told. Reading about this unrelenting poverty helps put your own life in a proper perspective.
    • 5/5
      Riveting, fascinating, compelling and profound. I can't say enough good things about this book. It took me into the minds of its characters - and I had to keep reminding myself that the inhabitants of the book are real people, not a literary invention of the journalist author. At times I doubted how a mere observer, and a cultural outsider at that, could have achieved such penetrating insight into the lives the slum residents. I suppose if I were an anthropologist I might question the validity of this book, but as a inquisitive reader still trying to come to terms with whether the global marketplace is a good thing, and what (if anything) rich westerners can do to alleviate poverty in the developing world, I found it extremely worthwhile. I'll never look at a discarded gum wrapper the same way again!
    • 3/5
      Well that was a depressing book. This tells the story of a handful of people living in a modern day slum in Mumbai, India. There is nothing positive in the lives of these people, and while that is certainly not the author's fault, it made for some difficult reading. It is very sad to think that there are still places in the world where this level of poverty exists. It makes me think hard about the complaints I have in my life.
    • 5/5
      Sixteen year old Abdul is a collector of garbage, an astute teenager who makes a success of his trade. He deals and competes for small economic gains in the Annadawi slum. Located just beyond the financial capital of Mumbai, it is owned by the Airports Authority of India, yet travelers heading toward the international terminal are greeted by a concrete wall of sunny yellow. A corporate slogan weaves along the wall, “Beautiful Forever Beautiful Forever Beautiful Forever, yet the irony is what is just on the other side. Abdul’s younger brother Mirchi says it best: “Everything around us is roses, and we’re the shit in between.”Katherine Boo reports the uncomfortable truth that several families must endure in the Undercity. The three thousand residents belong to all castes and sub-castes, Muslims, Hindus and the untouchables. They live in 335 huts that sit atop a landscape of slushy waste, toxic debris, unimaginable combinations of obnoxious odors, offal and filth laden with disease. Despite the pervasive dangers and keen competition, Abdul has acquired more than most, and his family’s future appears to be on the rise, but will this trend continue?Survival is key with the hope that one day life will be better. Abdul has a theory for prosperity that speaks more to the randomness of his fate. “It seemed to him fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.”Katherine Boo details everyday life, the repulsiveness, squirmy truth and the desperation of those who live in the Mumbai Undercity. She shares what she has witnessed in her book as she follows the lives of several families. Imagine living in this environment, let alone having to pay rent to a slumlord who oversees the residents small space carved out amid the detritus. The author manages to show the sorrowful sadness that divides the squalor of slum against the economic gains India has acquired as part of our borderless global community. She is sensitive and frank with objectivity, although I imagine her subjectivity was hard to curtail. Without hiding behind the airport wall of shining yellow, Katherine Boo reveals the inhumanity and suffering that the people endure and despite the odds, somehow survive. Katherine Boo has received meritorious praise and notable awards, which as readers will discover, are well deserved Thanks to the author for writing an unforgettable book. BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS, is a reflective book with global appeal, heartfelt and insightful with a promise to linger long after the end. DISCLOSURE: I PURCHASED THE KINDLE EDITION OF THIS BOOK.© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2013].