The Holmes Evening Book Group met last night to talk about Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. The book is a nonfiction account of people living in abject poverty in Annawadi -- one of the slums beside the airport in Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra (formerly known as Bombay). The title is a reference to one of the many billboards advertising luxury home goods and other products that the Annawadi residents living in shanties made of scavenged materials will never come into contact with and that partially block tourists' views of the sprawling slum.
The author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, immersed herself in Annawadi to research and write this book, which is composed entirely of the thoughts and actions of Annawadi residents whose lives the author focused on. (The author doesn't write about herself and her experiences at all, except for her author's note at the very end.) The hopeless lives of the Annawadians were so foreign and depressing to many in the group that it seemed difficult to feel a connection to them. Foreign aid was described as going to line the pockets of corrupt politicians and officials and never reaching the people who need it, which was another discouraging fact contributing to a sense of hopelessness.
The group discussed the rampant corruption described in the book and compared it to recent incidents of political, judicial, and law enforcement corruption in the U.S. Talk also turned to the idea of a global economy and whether a turn towards buying goods that were made in America may be taking place.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers received many excellent reviews, but will not be making the list of this book club's favorites! Recommended as a better choice for a book about Third World poverty: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.
Have you read this book? Please share your thoughts!
The discussion of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo got off to a slow start, most members finding the book too depressing to read or talk about. One member commenting that "just when you can't stand it anymore, it gets worse". As the evening progressed though discussion began to flow freely, covering a wide array of topics from corruption,nepotism, women roles in India and comparing the problems in India with those of the United States. While the group had empathy for the situation in India most also agreed that a focus on the problems here at home would be a good thing. One member commenting that political correctness was the USA's own worst enemy.
ReplyDelete"It seemed to him that in Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from 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." This quote from the book sums up the story of the people living in the slum.
DeleteMembers of the group asked the question whether the author could accurately write about the culture of Annawadi without the bias of her western life even if she had the best of intentions. The group remarked about the rampart prejudices of the people; race, class, religion,politics, economic status, gender, disabilities and more. Could these beliefs ever be changed or even modified in their lifetime? I prefer to read fiction that is more like non fiction than non fiction that is so unrelenting that it would be better served up as fiction.
There probably is unconscious bias in every work of nonfiction, however objective it tries to be, but there has been some progress in Indian society, as demonstrated by the fact that people can even hope to become educated, do something as a career, or have a lifestyle other than what the caste they've been born into would dictate!
Delete