Notes from June 2015 group

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo  - Discussed on Wed June 3, 2015 at Geneseo Public Library                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                           



Katherine Boo’s book “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” is a non-fiction, journalistic account of the lives of several people who live in the Annawadi slum.
Among the lives that Boo chronicles are those of the Muslim Husain family, particularly the teenage Abdul, and the life of Asha, a local school teacher who desires a career as a politician.  Abdul is a scavenger, who steals and combs through trash to find materials that can be sold for recycling.  His mother handles prices and haggling.  They slowly begin saving money, with the intent to purchase land outside the slum and move away.  But a disagreement with a one-legged neighbor in pursuit of respect and affection spells disaster for Abdul and his family.  Accusing them of beating her, the one-legged neighbor sets herself on fire, seeking attention, and ends up dying in the hospital of an infection.  The Husains are blamed, and several members of the family are arrested.  Ultimately, they are found not guilty, but at the book’s end, Abdul’s case is still pending.

Asha has dreams of wealth and power, and she has a beautiful daughter whom she hopes she can arrange in a beneficial marriage.  Asha’s daughter, Manju, is in college, teaching classes for her mother in the afternoons, and she takes care of her family in the evenings.  She dreams of freedom, and of graduating from college.  Asha, who sleeps around, funnels money where needed, and engages in corrupt practices, seeks to become the Corporator of the state of Ward in which they live.  Eventually she gives up the pursuit of politics in favor of fraud in a Department of Education scheme.

This was a difficult book to read due to the depressing subject of poverty, corruption, paybacks.  We as Americans are so spoiled and can not imagine people today living in such conditions.  My group had mixed feelings about this book.  It generated good discussions on the poor living conditions in many countries worldwide – lack of good sanitation, housing, food, medical, education systems.  Also we talked about the low status of women (they are property of men, beatings are OK, arranged marriages are normal/accepted custom, little education if you are lucky, lots of children, few job opportunities).  It was interesting but we would not recommend it.