The city of Mumbai is one of the many exotic, heart-wrenching and
ultimately familiar characters in Katherine Boo's Behind the beautiful
forevers.
Boo's Lyrically-written reportage chronicles a year in the life of Mumbai
airport's local slum.
Two hundred yards away, it sat on a stretch of road, " where new India and old India collided and made new India late."
The sharply-drawn residents squabble over space, the trash they ( illegally) pick from the nearby airport and their fiercely-guarded reputaions.
Power is wielded through political corruption and envy is the fuel that feeds their feuds and spurs their up-ward mobility.
Boo is most interested in how people rise out of poverty and in this sad, beautiful book, "each evening, they returned down the slum road with gunny sacks of garbage on their backs, like a procession of broken-toothed Santas."
Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park is a character-driven YA love story whose pingpong style allows for a fast, satisfying read.
The two main characters' stories are told in short, alternating chapters.
Eleanor's desperation in a severely broken home is the darkness against the highbeam of their physical and emotional attraction to each other.
The interplay of themes of being "other" and the all-consuming thing that is first love balances and grounds the story.
Highschoolers will recognize the shorthand of playlists and the hierarchy of the daily busride.
Humor and a somewhat hopeful ending keeps the reader from the prozac bottle.
Two hundred yards away, it sat on a stretch of road, " where new India and old India collided and made new India late."
The sharply-drawn residents squabble over space, the trash they ( illegally) pick from the nearby airport and their fiercely-guarded reputaions.
Power is wielded through political corruption and envy is the fuel that feeds their feuds and spurs their up-ward mobility.
Boo is most interested in how people rise out of poverty and in this sad, beautiful book, "each evening, they returned down the slum road with gunny sacks of garbage on their backs, like a procession of broken-toothed Santas."
Let me just say, I loved this book. The language was beautiful...
(which many of my customers know since I cannot help saying so every time I hold it).
Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park is a character-driven YA love story whose pingpong style allows for a fast, satisfying read.
The two main characters' stories are told in short, alternating chapters.
Eleanor's desperation in a severely broken home is the darkness against the highbeam of their physical and emotional attraction to each other.
The interplay of themes of being "other" and the all-consuming thing that is first love balances and grounds the story.
Highschoolers will recognize the shorthand of playlists and the hierarchy of the daily busride.
Humor and a somewhat hopeful ending keeps the reader from the prozac bottle.
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you enjoy well-written stories with strong character development. Since you enjoyed Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which is set in India, have you read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy? Since you also enjoyed Eleanor and Park, another book that you might enjoy is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, which also features a marginalized teenage protagonist struggling to find his place in the world. Exceptionally written and emotionally charged, this title was a One Maryland, One Book selection in 2011. Happy reading!
Erin