Behind the Beautiful Forevers: 1-50

What can you learn about writing about culture from these pages?
From the style and technique used throughout Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the key to writing about culture is to keep in mind and include all aspects of that culture. Whether it be history, background knowledge, statistics, personal stories, legislature, economics, politics, or anything else, the reader should be well-informed of all aspects in order to grasp the sense of the culture. Without select information, it would be a difficult task for the reader to create a sense of connectivity to emotions or personal stories without knowing the statistics and history behind the ensuing culture. On page 48, Sunil receives 127 rupees for his assistance to Kalu in retrieving   iron. Sunil this was described as, "the first disposable income of his life." If it wasn't for Boo's thorough descriptions of this boy's daily living condition and his history of family and work, then I, as the reader, would find it more difficult to establish this event as the success that it was. 

What can you learn about writing in a more general sense from Katherine Boo's writing?  
Katherine Boo has written in such a way that her stories effortlessly intertwine with legislature, history, and statistics. She accomplished this so well that it reads almost as a piece of fiction rather than interviews and recounts of real-life events. From what I've read, I have realized that the flow between explanation and story has to be carefully thought out and expertly executed in order to keep a constant flow that is both informing and entertaining. She executes this technique very nicely on pages five and six. She begins this section by describing Annawadi and the location: setting the scene. She then delves into the history of the settlement followed by the current state of the slum as well as statistics of its inhabitants. She finishes this section up by bringing in a current event: the Beijing Olympics.  "...the summer's Beijing Olympics had inflated the price of scrap metal worldwide. It was a fine time to be a Mumbai garbage trader, not that that was the term passersby used for Abdul. Some called him garbage, and left it at that." What Boo does here is she uses the current event to connect readers right back into Abdul's story. She went on this big tangent to give key background and statistics, but she flawlessly returns the focus to the story afterwards. 

Haley Laurelle Martin