After returning home from my research trip to Bangalore and
Mumbai last month, I read Catherine Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai
Undercity. I recommend this book to
anyone interested in obtaining a picture of how real life—work, living, eating,
sleeping, everything from the best and worst of human activities that we all are
familiar with on some level—exists for Mumbai’s poor.
The book follows several families whose lives are wound up
together. While a major drama plays out,
lots of subplots reveal fascinating details about Indian society, including its
legal and political systems, policing, schooling, nonprofit organizations, and
so on. In this way it reminded me of one
of the best TV series of all times, The
Wire. (Watch the most classic economics scene from that show on price elasticity is here).
However unlike The
Wire, and although this book reads like a novel, it is not a fictional
account.
I don’t usually read books like this one (by this I mean narratives, I almost never read fiction) but it was very timely
for me to read given the just-completed research trip. However I’m going to make a point to remember
that non-economists sometimes write books from which I can learn something
interesting!
In addition to being an interesting read, I’m sure most
people will find reading it a saddening experience at times. After all it is a story about some of the
poorest people on earth. The book may
inspire generosity in some people. If I could find a good orphanage, it would be very easy for them to convince me to make a donation! Of course as the
book highlights, it is hard to know who to trust.
All in all, a great book that many different types of readers
will find worthwhile.