Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo's award-winning book about slum life in Mumbai, is a stunningly heart-breaking report about people who are determined to get ahead even though their chances are nearly zero. We meet, for example, Abdul, a Muslim living in a Hindu area, who has worked his way from trash collector to a trash buyer and seller; Asha, who hopes to become the first female "slumlord" of her area; and Sunil, a Dalit (Untouchable), who knows that he is undersized for his age and is desperate to eat more so that he can grow and become successful. Boo, a long-time magazine reporter, has made it her mission in life to tell the stories of those who never get an opportunity to speak for themselves, and in this book, her first, she has written a masterpiece.

The book's arresting title comes from an advertising slogan for floor tiles—Beautiful Forever, Beautiful Forever, Beautiful Forever—on a wall by the Mumbai airport that prevents tourists from seeing the abject poverty in the slums adjacent to the airport. Boo emphasizes the contrast between bustling Mumbai, with its increasingly wealthy citizens, and the "undercity" of Annawadi, with its malnourished children who scour garbage heaps to find anything they can sell to a salvage company. In contrast to the tourists who zip past Annawadi, Boo refuses to avert her eyes and reports what day to day life is like for those living on the very margins of Indian society.

The book is divided into five parts, including a prologue that introduces the theme and sets the stage, and each part vividly describes daily life for the residents of Annawadi. Boos' approach is narrative, so she spends little time speculating about the sociological or political causes for the extremely inequitable society but, instead, simply focuses on telling the stories and letting her readers get to know the residents of Annawadi. In short, she treats these people like human beings, who deserve to be treated with the respect and dignity that all human beings deserve.

The central story that she tells is that of two neighboring Muslim families in conflict with each other. Matters come to a head one evening when the matriarch of one family catches fire, and members of the other family are accused of assaulting her, which then throws them into Mumbai's Kafkaesque legal system of incompetent jurists and corrupt police officers.

I can't say that Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a joy to read, for the overwhelming litany of daily tragedies is very depressing to read, but I can say that Behind the Beautiful Forevers is an important book that everyone should read.