The Quietly Curious Katherine Boo
by magazinemorgan
About the Paper (Intro)
Not many writers would voluntarily choose go into a poor neighborhood, to interview someone who lives there, and be cast as an outsider. Even fewer would choose to live in the neighborhood of the underdeveloped area in order to get a better feel for the lives of the people they’re writing about. Among these few writers, Katherine Boo stands out among the rest for her immersion reporting. Boo has reported a countless number of times on poor neighborhoods of the world, in order to bring light to a social issue through the lives of people who are living through the social situation. Having written for a newspaper, and then a feature magazine, Boo knows how to capture an audience through her words and does so by telling the stories of those who would typically be overlooked.
About The Author
Katherine Boo is a writer who immerses herself in the environment she is writing about in order to get a better feel of the people and of the place. Focusing mainly on poor, underdeveloped areas of the United States, Boo spends months on end with the people whom she writes about in order to get a true depiction of them and their lives.
Growing up in and around the Washington, DC area, Boo attended nearby university, College of William and Mary, and went on to attend Barnard College, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Boo began writing for the Columbia Daily Spectator, a paper at her university, in the late 80’s, until the editor of The Washington Post, Jack Shafer, hired her. She wrote and edited articles for The Washington City Paper, until he promoted to write for The Washington Monthly, and finally The Washington Post.[i]
Boo started as a writer for the Washington Post in 1993 and was with the paper until 2003.
In 2000, Boo received a Pulitzer Prize for her piece on group homes for people who were mentally retarded.[ii] During her time writing for the Washington Post, beginning in 2001, she began as a contributing author at The New Yorker, where she came on as a full-time writer in 2003, because she was “tired of obsessing about characters”.[iii] [iv]
In 2002, Boo was “awarded a MacArthur fellowship [“Genius” Grant], in recognition of her body of work on the disadvantaged.[v]” Boo then received a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing for her piece, “The Marriage Cure,” written in 2003 for the New Yorker, which discussed marriage seminars that were being held in the poor area of Oklahoma City.[vi]
After marrying her husband, Sunil Khilnani, who is an Indian citizen, Boo often traveled back and forth from India and became interested in the lives of the low-income people.[vii] Her interest not only sparked her New Yorker piece, “Opening Night,” but it gave way to the idea for her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which she said is “exactly like Slumdog Millionaire, but no song and dance at the end.[viii]” During her research process for this book, beginning in 2007, Boo spent three years living in an apartment in the central city of Annawadi, the key location of the book.[ix] All of Boo’s pieces share the commonality of giving a glimpse into the lives of people whose stories aren’t typically heard. Because of this, her pieces have many similarities.
About the Writing
After reading just the very first paragraph of a Katherine Boo piece, the reader knows it will not be a typical magazine feature article. Boo reels in her readers, starting by giving some perspective of the location she is in. Whether it’s Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana or Guatum Nagar, Mumbai, Boo will begin every piece by explain what the surrounding area is like.
For example, in her 2006 New Yorker piece, “Swamp Nurse,” which discussed the Nurse-Family Partnership model that was being implemented in Louisiana for infants born into poor families, Boo began her article by describing the area she is in. Boo begins by writing, “In the swamps of Louisiana, late autumn marks the end of the hurricane and the sugarcane seasons – a time for removing plywood from windows and burning residues of harvest in the fields. Then begins the season of crayfish and, nine months having passed since the revelry of Mardi Gras, a season of newborn Cajuns.[x]”
Boo will then introduce the main character of her article. In this case it is baby Daigan James Plaisance Theriot, who was born to mother, nineteen-year-old, Alexis. After giving the name of the main character, Boo does a substantial job of giving a vision-inducing description of the character, based on physical characteristics.
In “The Marriage Cure,” Boo’s 2003 prize winning piece, she introduces one of the main characters, twenty-two-year-old, Kim Henderson and then gives a short description of what she looks like. Boo writes, “Henderson pulled a pair of low-rider jeans over a high raising gold lame thong and declared herself ready for church.[xi]” By that short description, the reader can visualize what Henderson looks and what kind of fashion choices she makes to express herself. Henderson is not the only person that Boo follows in this article, and this is another commonality in all of her pieces.
When Boo decides her location, she usually hones in on the lives of two or three people, as opposed to following many people and only being able to give small clips of their lives. She will spend months following her characters and, in doing so, she also brings light to a larger issue. In an interview with Guernica Magazine, Boo said, “when I pick a story, I’m very much aware of the larger issue it’s illuminating.[xii]” Boo will not write about an underprivileged place and not have a specific cause that she wants to attention to light through the stories of her main characters.
One example of Boo bringing a larger social issue to illuminate is in her 2007 New Yorker piece, “Expectations.” This piece is based in Denver, Colorado and follows the lives of disadvantaged students who are forced to relocate high schools during the school year due to the poor academic performance of the students. Boo incorporates the topic of the intervention by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which turned every floor of Manuel High School, the main school in the article, into a mini-school of its own. This intervention was put in place to create an environment within the school where the students felt “their teachers knew and cared for them.[xiii]”
In bringing a large social issue to the forefront in her articles, Boo inevitably includes a great deal of fact and statistics. In the same interview with Guernica Magazine, Boo spoke on her use of factual evidence to support, or negate, the issues she is covering. Boo said, “One of the reasons I pore over official documents and reportage is because I’m fascinated by the way chasm between the lives that people have and the way they’re officially reported.[xiv]”
Boo incorporates the necessary facts in a casual way, by adding smaller bits of information into a sentence, but will also add larger pieces of news further in her article. An example is in her New Yorker piece, “Letters from Louisiana: Shelter and the Storm,” where she follows the lives of two displaced hurricane Katrina victims, who are forced to take shelter in an upscale neighborhood of Bayou Black.
Boo first adds a smaller fact within her story by incorporating it at the end of her sentence. She writes, “What they often lacked were passable educations, regular medical care, jobs with benefits, or firsthand knowledge of how other Americans live – New Orleans’s low-income population being one of the lease mobile and most isolated in the country.[xv]” Boo then includes a larger piece of factual information when she sites a study performed by the Associated Press on New Orleans’ violence. She writes, “‘Last year, university researchers conducted an experiment in which police fired seven hundred blank rounds in a New Orleans neighborhood in a single afternoon. No ones called to report the gunfire.’[xvi]” Boo continues by discussing the ranges of poverty, then sites a speech from the, then president, George W. Bush.[xvii]
The main component of Boo’s writing, that becomes apparent once a reader has made it through the first few ages of her pieces, is that she does not include herself in her stories. Unlike the typical journalists, who tend to include their experience and how they see the things around them, Boo lets her characters speak for themselves and answer her questions through their actions, and interactions, with other people.
In the interview with Guernica Magazine, Boo explained that the reason why she immerses herself in the lives of the people she writes about is because, “Listening and observing often work much better [and] reveal much more about the complexity of someone than the answers that they give to questions about themselves.[xviii]”
In the same interview, Boo referenced her New Yorker article, “Opening Night,” which was a small example of her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In the interview, Boo gave the example of how the main character of the piece, thirteen-year-old, Sunil, did not tell anyone about purple lotuses that were growing behind the airport in Annawadi that he worked at, so that no one would cut and sell them.[xix] She continued, saying, “These aspects of his character emerged over time from observation. I wasn’t going to get them through conversation. It’s one thing to have somebody talk about what they value in whatever language they have; its another thing to really see what they value.[xx]” This is the main component in the reason why I believe Katherine Boo is unlike any other feature writer.
About My Reflections
When I initially began writing feature articles, I immediately thought that I should model mine after those I spend hours reading in fashion magazines, such as Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. Begin with the first encounter with, typically, the celebrity you’re interviewing, writing something like, “I sat in the corner table at the Chateau Marmot before the celebrity sat don with tousled hair and ordered a small nicoise salad.” It’s the same song and dance in every magazine interview and after a while, they all sound the same.
When I first read Katherine Boo’s, The Marriage Cure, I was immediately drawn in for reasons that did not emanate the typical magazine feature that I was used to reading. Not once did she ask a question of the characters whose lives she followed, nor did she explain their first meeting. She lets her characters speak for themselves in the important journalistic technique of show, don’t tell, by giving the most detailed and clever descriptions of the characters. Boo follows her subjects, quietly curious, wanting to know everything about their lives and who they are, without saying a word.
I also love the Boo doesn’t go into an area without knowing that she wants to bring a larger social issue to the forefront through the characters she follows. She takes her power as a writer, for a very prominent magazine, The New Yorker, and puts it to good use by shining light on areas of the world that people would normally tend to pass over. By doing this, although she cannot pay her subjects, she is able to tell their stories in a way that not many other writer’s would, by showing their struggles and daily challenges in a non-invasive way. I am not the only person who thinks Boo’s creative way of telling the stories of others is effective.
About Other’s Critical Responses
It doesn’t take much research to find the thoughts of Boo’s works from other prominent writers. Among the reviews and feedback that she gets, on her book and the articles she writes, it is hard to find many negative responses. The publication that Boo once wrote for, The Washington Post, reviewed her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and positively said, “Her research is meticulous and worthy of the most demanding sociologist.[xxi]”
This is not the only positive post about Boo’s work, The Dallas News website wrote that Boo, “is a restrained and fine writer who has honed her reporting skills to a level that it is easy to forget you are reading nonfiction. When she delves into the unthinkable, she pulls her prose back and allows the story to unfold. One can only imagine the language and cultural difficulties she overcame to earn the trust of her subjects.[xxii]”
The website, Slate, was also involved in the lauding of Boo’s work. In a review of her, the website said that Boo, “has many ways of illuminating the people she writes about. The most important and obvious is that she listens closely and intelligently… You can feel the richness of her affection in her ironic appreciation of their oddities.[xxiii]” Although the majority of Boo’s reviews are positive, that does not mean that everyone who reads her work enjoys her writing style.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek Magazine’s reviewed Boo’s book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and wrote, “Boo’s attention to detail occasionally blinds her to India’s bigger picture. The reader yearns for context in a study of this size, yet Boo does not provide this in a coherent way. On the rare occasion when she does expand her scope, her approach is inconsistent.[xxiv]” BusinessWeek was not the only publication with undesirable feedback.
The Wall Street Journal also reviewed Boo’s book and thought that her choice of details to include was unimportant. The publication examined her book and gave the example of an unnecessary detail, saying, “the minutiae of many jobs, including sorting garbage, is something that even when closely observed and thoughtfully written about, doesn’t at all times make for riveting or insightful reading.[xxv]” This review was followed by yet another that also spoke unfavorably of Boo’s book.
The Economist gave their feedback on Behind the Beautiful Forevers and pointed out that the issues that Boo was bringing to life were nothing unknown. The publication said, “Mumbai’s poverty is not new. Slums sprouted skyscrapers long before prosperity came to India. Nor are the government’s priorities anti-poor; it is corruption that renders them ineffectual.[xxvi]” Although these three publications did not fully enjoy Boo’s book, overall, when reading feedback on the pieces that Boo writes, the reviews are almost always praising her, and her reporting and writing tactics.
About Her Impact
When it comes to how effective Boo’s writing is in affecting people who read her work, it does the job of enlightening readers. She opens their eyes to the lives of those whose stories would not normally be heard. That being said, Boo’s pieces are not known for the changes they make in the lives of those people that she writes about. In the same review of Boo’s book by Slate Magazine, the publication discussed that Boo’s work does not induce change in the lives of the people who she follows nor has she made suggestions for change. The magazine wrote, “Boo has never put forward policy suggestions or articulated political ideas, but in her American reporting she has considered the effects of specific policy initiatives on the lives of the people she writes about.[xxvii]” It is true that Boo does not go about trying to make positive changes in the lives of the people she reports on, but that is not the mission she has going in to write a piece. Her goal is to bring a social issue to the attention of her readers, one that may not be currently discussed in the media. She is not going in to figure out ways to change the lives of people who cannot make change for themselves. In her interview with Guernica Magazine, she said, “My work, I hope, helps people understand how much gets lost between the intellection of how to get people out of poverty and how it’s actually experienced. [xxviii]” Since her goal is to inform and not change, she is successful in accomplishing her objective.
About the End (Conclusion)
Immersion journalism is not for everyone. Some people will be overcome by their surroundings and take their first chance to get out, and some will try their hardest to be removed from their subjects, in order to set themselves apart from the people they are following. For Katherine Boo, the months on end that she spends with people she writes about are ones she uses to get to know her characters better then they know themselves.
Her watchful eyes inspect every detail of how her characters act, as she records everything they say, in order to pick the best quotes for her piece. By keeping herself removed from being included in her writing, she lets the characters to speak for themselves. She imparts opportunity for characters to describe who they are and the lives they live, without any direct questions being asked of them. Everyone may not like the way she writes, but Boo is successful in accomplishing the goal of her articles, which is to shine light on social issues through the telling of stories of disadvantaged people. As her first book continues to get positive feedback among other people in her field, Boo continues to submerge herself into the lives of the world’s poor and tell their stories through her vigilant eyes and running tape recorder.
[i] McGrath, Charles. “Katherine Boo on Her Book âBehind the Beautiful Foreversâ – NYTimes.com.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/books/katherine-boo-on-her-book-behind-the-beautiful-forevers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
[ii] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[iii] Search : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/katherine_boo/search?contributorName=katherine%20boo>.
[iv] Rustin, Susanna. “Barnard College – Profile of Katherine Boo ’88.” Barnard College – Alumnae Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://alum.barnard.edu/s/1133/index2.aspx?sid=1133&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=3431&ecid
[v] Search : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/katherine_boo/search?contributorName=katherine%20boo>.
[vi] Search : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/katherine_boo/search?contributorName=katherine%20boo>.
[vii] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[viii] Katherine Boo – The Colbert Report – 2012-12-03 – Video Clip | Comedy Central.” Colbert Nation | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/410489/march-12-2012/katherine-boo>.
[ix] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[x] “Swamp Nurse | NewAmerica.net.” NewAmerica.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newamerica.net/publications/
[xi] Boo, Katherine. “The Marriage Cure | NewAmerica.net.” NewAmerica.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newamerica.net/publications/a
[xii] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[xiii] Boo, Katherine. “A Reporter At Large: Expectations : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20
[xiv] Boo, Katherine. “A Reporter At Large: Expectations : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20
[xv] Boo, Katherine. “Letter from Louisiana: Shelter and the Storm : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013.
[xvi] Boo, Katherine. “Letter from Louisiana: Shelter and the Storm : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013.
[xvii] Boo, Katherine. “Letter from Louisiana: Shelter and the Storm : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013.
[xviii] Boo, Katherine. “The scene from the airport slums of Mumbai : The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/23/090223fa_fact_boo?currentPage=all>.
[xix] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[xx] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
[xxi] “Book review: ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers,’ by Katherine Boo – The Washington Post.” Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-behind-the-beautiful-forevers-by-katherine-boo/2012/01/26/gIQA848t4Q_story_1.html>
[xxii] Thomas, Karen M. . “Book review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo | Dallasnews.com – News for Dallas, Texas – The Dallas Morning News.” Dallas-Fort Worth News, Sports, Entertainment, Weather and Traffic – The Dallas Morning News. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/books/20120229-book-review-behind-the-beautiful-forevers-by-katherine-boo.ece>.
[xxiii] Blair, Elaine. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, reviewed. – Slate Magazine.” Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts – Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/
[xxiv] French, Patrick. “Book Review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo – BusinessWeek.” BusinessWeek – Business News, Stock market & Financial Advice. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/book-review-behind-the-beautiful-forevers-by-katherine-boo-02022012.html>.
[xxv] Lahiri, Tripti. “India Journal: Too Much Detail in Katherine Boo’s ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’? – India Real Time – WSJ.” WSJ Blogs – WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/02/10/india-journal-too-much-detail-in-behind-the-beautiful-forevers/>.
[xxvi] “Poverty in Mumbai: The places in between | The Economist.” The Economist – World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.economist.com/node/2154776.
[xxvii] Blair, Elaine. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, reviewed. – Slate Magazine.” Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts – Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/
[xxviii] Reporting Poverty, Emily Brennan interviews Katherine Boo – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.” Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/>.
magazinemorgan 