Review Of Behind The Beautiful Forevers By Katherine Boo

In the non-fiction book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo chronicles the life in the Mumbai Slum of Annawadi in India and focuses on the character Abdul Husain. She describes the harsh living conditions of the slum, how the citizens of these areas live and try to survive and the actions of the corrupted government. The book tells the readers that the author traveled to these areas and conducted research and interviews with certain individuals and studied the history of the place in order to obtain knowledge and insight on how people in the slums in poverty go through. The book also contains messages of “survival of the fittest”, corrupted government and law systems, family life in a place with limited resources and help, and facing

The book says that after Kalu’s death, five of the boys, including Abdul were taken to Sahar Police Station, where they were beaten in the name of the investigation (Boo 169). The book also said that if they did not stay away from the airport, they could be charged with Kalu’s death (Boo 169). Abdul was in jail because of a crime he did not commit and he happens to be in the area of suspicion. The police were not open to a proper investigation of the case and in the end they let it go. This is an example of why the law system in Annawadi is flawed and does not care for the people, which is a result of government

Throughout the book the main character Abdul has a garbage collecting business to support has family even though he has no employer and scavengers like Sunil had struggling ways of living. The book also describes the harsh monsoon season in June where families like Fatima’s have to deal with floods and trash piling up and the book says in 2005 many families lost their properly due to floods (Boo 73). Construction projects would also stop due to heavy rainfall and people would usually die from drowning (Boo 73). The author describes that the houses and structures cannot sustain harsh rainfall during the monsoon season, which means the citizens must prepare each year for this event. Boo then describes how people would get sick and hungry because of the wet environment and Sunil tries to make a living while trash and waste piles up in the slums (117-118). People in the slums have limited ways of survival even in the harsh environments due to the lack of help from the