tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post518098347428582768..comments2024-03-27T14:57:37.031+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: Annawadi, "by heart": on Katherine Boo and Behind the Beautiful ForeversJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-18426950062883600152015-05-09T10:18:15.509+05:302015-05-09T10:18:15.509+05:30I read this book just this year and was amazed by ...I read this book just this year and was amazed by Boo's excellent writing. Your post was so eloquently written and hit all the big points right on the head! I hope to one day achieve such excellent reviewing skills. I, too, wrote a post on this book. If anyone could read it and give me feedback, it would be much appreciated! <br />http://www.bkclubofone.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-true-story-unfortunately.html<br />Thank you!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14280583866258006930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-64551031909621410212015-04-19T05:39:56.946+05:302015-04-19T05:39:56.946+05:30Jai, I finally read (rather heard, downloaded the ...Jai, I finally read (rather heard, downloaded the audio book from our local library) BTBF. What a great book, & such a well written piece by you. I fully agree with your review of the book, though listening to it over a few weeks during my drive to & from work the episodic nature of the stories worked well. In fact, it would make a great HBO mini series, something like The Wire transplanting Baltimore to Bombay. I recall the book got good reviews in India & stateside, but in these tense India's Daughter & post-Slumdog Millionaire days did it lead to outrage about poverty porn? The excerpts from your interview with Boo & the afterword to the book (narrated by her in the audio book) make it pretty clear she is thoughtful, experienced & credible, so I hope it got the acclaim it deserves.<br /><br />Btw, did you ever put up the full interview with Boo? I couldn't find it when I searched under her name here.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />TipuTipunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-68613906272764393292012-05-24T13:01:36.689+05:302012-05-24T13:01:36.689+05:30Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers ...Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a remarkably well written, thoroughly researched, insightful and informative ethnography of slum life on the fringe of the Indian city of Mumbai. Behind the Beautiful Forevers reads more like a brilliantly crafted work of the best quality fiction than empirical social science, and that is very much to its credit. As Boo introduces her characters in chapter after chapter and we come to see how their lives intersect, we discern a compelling narrative, a true story, written with economy of language and devoid of social science jargon, that teaches us far more than we commonly learn from one book, and does so in a way that captures and holds our attention throughout.<br />Many of the issues addressed by the author are not new, but the Mumbai slum setting, Annawadi, enables the author to address them in an especially graphic way. The juxtaposition of extremes of wealth and poverty, for example, is a commonplace device used by social critics in the U.S. and elsewhere. In Mumbai, however, the social and economic distance between unimagined opulence and stomach-turning poverty is exaggerated to a degree I've never seen before.Danmarkhttp://raisingselfesteem.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-11808559360670884532012-02-25T00:07:06.596+05:302012-02-25T00:07:06.596+05:30It is so unfortunate that most Mumbaikars did not ...It is so unfortunate that most Mumbaikars did not know where Annawadi is prior to the release of the book. It's really sad that we needed a Katherine Boo to educate us about the condition of Annawadi. Well written post!!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11584939763437145752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-47730210789380747902012-02-22T08:19:04.807+05:302012-02-22T08:19:04.807+05:30Great post Jai! I read and reviewed the book for t...Great post Jai! I read and reviewed the book for the South China Morning Post, HK, and I really think this book should be compulsory reading for all frinagis looking to understand India. And for Desis too if only to understand, as Boo says, "for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remained”. <br /><br />More at http://the-long-walk-home.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-behind-beautiful-forevers-by.htmlManreet Sodhi Someshwarhttp://the-long-walk-home.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-7458022799479927472012-02-15T15:08:18.977+05:302012-02-15T15:08:18.977+05:30Sapera: I have briefly touched on the movie-star d...Sapera: I have briefly touched on the movie-star delusions in a few earlier posts - <a href="http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/2011/07/movie-star-as-platitude-dispenser-and.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/2006/06/shine-on-you-dumbass-copywriters.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>, for example. And have also written many times about religion as a rationalisation for looking the other way.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-81353671643770689702012-02-15T14:25:58.967+05:302012-02-15T14:25:58.967+05:30Thanks for the post, Jabberwock. I can now read th...Thanks for the post, Jabberwock. I can now read this book knowing what to expect and what not to.Shashihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPSD5A3Xliknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-74388272122145021852012-02-15T14:06:17.465+05:302012-02-15T14:06:17.465+05:30@Jabberwock
completely agree. and that will be a ...@Jabberwock<br /><br />completely agree. and that will be a great future post! you should totally write it. i don't know why it reminded me of ranbir kapoor, but it did, speaking of which, this: http://mumbaipaused.blogspot.in/2012/02/pali-hill.htmlsaperahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16553004590976656655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-48415327558678164912012-02-15T08:54:31.874+05:302012-02-15T08:54:31.874+05:30Lakshmi, RG, DFSK: thanks - glad you liked the pos...Lakshmi, RG, DFSK: thanks - glad you liked the post.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-13798238451821173932012-02-15T08:53:08.648+05:302012-02-15T08:53:08.648+05:30Arthi: interesting. Could be that the book needs t...Arthi: interesting. Could be that the book needs to be read from the beginning for its full effect to be felt, because Boo does very gradually draw us into the lives of each of the people. Perhaps it isn't too well-suited to being excerpted for that reason.<br /><br />Also, if I had to really nitpick, I'd say that there are a few passages where the need to write fluid, descriptive prose brushes against the need to be a reporter chronicling many sets of stories as efficiently and clearly as possible - and the results can be tonally confusing. I have a friend who read the first 5-10 pages thinking it was a novel - at that point he thought the prose was a bit uninvolving, but when he learnt it was non-fiction and the character names and incidents were all authentic, he went "Wow! How did she even manage this?" That helped him appreciate the structure of the book better.<br /><br />Haven't written about <i>Death in Mumbai</i> at any length (mentioned it in <a href="http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/2011/12/notes-from-toi-fest.html" rel="nofollow">this</a> post), but it's a solid example of a very different sort of reportage - would definitely recommend it. (Also, of course, the real-life story it tells is much more like a conventional fiction narrative than the accumulated stories of the Annawadians.)Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-67839698808850373982012-02-15T03:59:14.282+05:302012-02-15T03:59:14.282+05:30Great post! Your writing seems to flow so smoothly...Great post! Your writing seems to flow so smoothly. Now I'm eager to read this book...Dancing Fingers Singing Keypadhttp://dfsk.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-25583910260531911282012-02-14T20:36:10.262+05:302012-02-14T20:36:10.262+05:30Open is running an excerpt from this book - the pa...Open is running an excerpt from this book - the part where the woman immolates herself. Frankly, I couldn't get beyond the first three paras. Very descriptive and fluent yet somehow felt it static. Probably its me, because I am not an avid reader at all. But just before this article, I read a little part of Meena Baghel's Death in Mumbai and Whoa! It completely sucked me in and I felt I had to get the book pronto!Have you written @ this book Jai?Arthinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-22804694651026475902012-02-14T16:13:30.780+05:302012-02-14T16:13:30.780+05:30Sapera: who implied that it was a big revelation? ...Sapera: who implied that it was a big revelation? (Having said which, it certainly is worth repeating as often as possible, in a - probably futile - effort to get it into the heads of some of the millions of people who think this way.)<br /><br />I haven't yet had the time to structure the full interview in Q&A form just for the blog, but this part of the conversation was a little more elaborate - we touched on some of the religion-driven rationalisations for poverty, the self-deluding of movie stars and other celebrities who think they have made it purely on their own steam, and a couple of other things. Will try to put that up sometime.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-80360027565257433552012-02-14T15:43:57.944+05:302012-02-14T15:43:57.944+05:30[“We construct such reassuring stories for ourselv...[“We construct such reassuring stories for ourselves,” she sighs, “Even people who were born into lives of privilege, sitting on the wealth of generations, are convinced that they have motored their own successes. And one way of doing this is to think of the poor as a separate species.”]<br /><br />It's pretty amazing that THAT is a revelation (not to denigrate the book, haven't read it, but mostly seen good reviews). Progressives, left wingers have been saying as much for a million years.saperahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16553004590976656655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-58302724214388722082012-02-14T02:16:38.310+05:302012-02-14T02:16:38.310+05:30Great perspective on writing, Jai. I think I am go...Great perspective on writing, Jai. I think I am going to read and reread this post (and the book, if/when I can).Lakshmihttp://locks.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-86552074758205557822012-02-13T18:00:12.791+05:302012-02-13T18:00:12.791+05:30I read a couple of reviews of this book and knew t...I read a couple of reviews of this book and knew that the author had done a fantastic job. Hopped over to read your piece from Nilanjana Roy's tweet.<br /><br />Glad I read this one, too. Very well written, giving a flavour of what you were sceptical about and how you discovered the book's depth. Katherine's humble views are amazing to read.RGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05437123498400649063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-17195059924018367652012-02-13T10:06:24.197+05:302012-02-13T10:06:24.197+05:30excellent post! I hate commenting and i dont norma...excellent post! I hate commenting and i dont normally do it but since i enjoyed this, what the heck! Thanks alot!:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com