Behind the Beautiful Forevers Book Review
By: Katherine Boo

In our world, development and modernization have taken over, the cities continue to grow, and gadgets make advances daily. For first world countries, life seems to become easier and easier. But most first worlders forget that while few live in the lap of luxury, many humans suffer the daily hardships allotted with life in a third whole country. In the heart wrenching, eye opening, inspiring nonfiction book written by Katherine Boo, many different stories are shared from people living in an Indian slum, Annawadi. The book begins by following a teenage garbage collector, Abdul, and his family. Different chapters tell different people’s stories, which offer a unique perspective every few pages and make this book an interesting read. Another prominent character in this book is Asha. While she may struggle between doing right and wrong in order to climb the ladder of power in the slum, her daughter Manju is a kind college student and teacher in her free time. Many new people are introduced throughout the book as well. Experiencing what some less fortunate people suffer through daily humbles one immensely.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers takes me through a journey with families I have never met, yet I feel like I know them personally. Realizing 200 pages into the book that it was nonfiction, I felt so many emotions all at once, mainly sadness and anger and frustration at how unfair the world really is. This is what I absolutely loved about Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It took me on an emotional roller coaster, and made me want to inspire change, and do something to help these people. No other book has done that for me, ever. As much as I would love to give some constructive criticism at this point, I do not think I can. Every fifty pages something new happens and more connections can be made. This book raises awareness for the issues going on in our world and opens the reader’s eyes.
When I first heard about a multicultural book assignment for the quarter, I will admit, it was not something I was looking forward to simply because it was so different from my usual romance, dystopian, fiction novels. Even after reading the first few pages I still was not thrilled about this project. Then I continued to read, and continued to read, and soon I was attached to these Annawadians and their struggles. My heart ached at the thought that humans could be treated so poorly. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to open their eyes and see the world from a different view. You may not think that this book is for you, but keep in mind that I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I did. This book is a must read. It is no wonder Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a National Book Award Winner and one of the ten best books from the New York Times Book Review in 2012.