due for 2.28

The most important thing I learned personally, was a deeper understanding of social interaction within slum life in India. Boo did a very effective job of describing and communicating the discussions, arguments and overall interaction of the different characters within this book. She weaved together the different families she centered on through their social interactions and made their status and individual demeanors tastefully present. The style of her book was very back and forth, she would move from family to family but always made connections. Sometimes the connections were so subtle that you wouldn't even notice that she was now centering on another character. This was especially apparent with Asha's storyline. Asha's character was a central part of the Annawadi community and her appearance in many of the slum's ongoings was an effective glue that held all of the different characters together. The main criticism that I am temped to make may come from my own personal preferences as it applies to novels. I deeply appreciate and admire the great feat Boo accomplished by weaving all of these true stories together and her obvious extensive interviewing that made this book so detailed and personal. However, it was emotionally confusing at its close because it read so much like a novel, but it wasn't. It was all based on very real people and very real situations and real people's lives do not have novelistic endings. So while it read as a fiction novel for the most part, it was not able to have a storybook ending which is what made the book feel as if it did not have a true close. Personally, it was hard for me to cope with the way things ended, but that is what makes it all the more emotionally cutting. These are real people and the events in this book really did happen and thats a realization that we all need to come to. So I suppose that this criticism is also in part, praise. The part of me that loves novels with surprising or ironic or happy endings, felt rather empty at the end. However, the part of me that values elegant and raw presentation of life across the world deeply valued Boo's work.