Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Slums of Mumbai

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai UndercityBehind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book as a first reads book. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story is a work of narrative non-fiction, but it honestly reads like a novel, which I found more enjoyable and interesting. I actually didn't even look at the back until I was finished, so I was very surprised (but happily so) to see that it was based on Katherine Boo's real observations there--almost like an ethnography.

For some readers it might seem gritty and harsh, the language simplified, or the flow disjointed. But i think the way it was written did a very good job of capturing the mindset and living conditions of the people Boo interacted with. To me it made sense, their focus on self-preservation and getting by day-to-day, despite all the corruption around them.

The ending was a little bit abrupt to me, but it still worked. Four stars for the thought-provoking material and the narrative description-- the lack of the fifth star was mainly because sometimes the book did jump around abruptly or would lose my attention with certain slower scenes where there was more telling than showing.

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