behind the beautiful forevers

by Alan Jacobs | May 26, 2025 | Book

behind the beautiful forevers,

Life death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity. by Katherine Boo.

I found this book to be compelling and a bit disturbing. It’s a tragic study of our modern world. Here is an excerpt:

But the slumdwellers rarely got mad together-not even about the airport authority. Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes, like Fatima, they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate, like Asha, they improved their lots by beg- garing the life chances of other poor people.  What was unfolding in Mumbai was unfolding elsewhere, too. In the age of global market capitalism, hopes and grievances were narrowly conceived, which blunted a sense of common predicament. Poor people didn’t unite; they competed ferociously amongst themselves for gains as slender as they were provisional. And this undercity strife created only the faintest ripple in the fabric of the society at large. The gates of the rich. occasionally rattled remained unbreached. The politicians held forth on the middle class. The poor took down one another, and the world’s great, unequal cities soldiered on in relative peace.

“powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked” – that touched me. So true.

This book is worth the read.