Boo is a journalist who spent several years researching and following the lives of several residents of a Mumbai slum sandwiched between Mumbai's international airport and luxury hotel district. The appeal of the story is evident; some of the poorest people in the world literally living next door to an international hub used by some of the wealthiest. I was, unfortunately, rather disappointed in the book. It's written in a very novelistic style, which I didn't really care for. I would have preferred a style more like Laura Hillenbrand's; this style actually kind of weirdly distanced me from the stories in the book - it would have had more emotional resonance, I think, had it been more overtly and constantly clear that everything in the book was true. But I always harbor a certain amount of doubt about the accuracy of a non-fiction book and having it written in this style only exacerbated and increased that. As well, I had difficulty keeping characters straight even though the book is actually quite short. I almost never have that problem, even in thousand page books by Russians, if you get my drift, but it really plagued me here. In short, I was really hoping for a masterpiece (the book has won many awards), but it just didn't really do it for me at all. I found this one distinctly average. Not recommended. ** stars.
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Je n'aime pas dans les vieux films américains quand les conducteurs ne regardent pas la route. Et de ratage en ratage, on s'habitue à ne jamais dépasser le stade du brouillon. La vie n'est que l'interminable répétition d'une représentation qui n'aura jamais lieu.