Boo Prologue-25

Out of the small bit of ethnographic experience I have had this far, this account is the furthest on the immersive side of the scale. It reads like a novel much of the time, and that format has its pros and cons for Behind the Beautiful Forevers. At first I needed to remind myself, hey, I'm reading non-fiction here. Keeping in mind that these stories are covering real events described by the author, an audience such as myself can really absorb a lot of information about these people the way it is written. It is so dense with character development and rituals that we sometimes might feel that we're being told by Abdul himself. The author could have changed the writing style to first-person, using 'I' instead of Abdul's name, and strictly storywise it would read very believably. But the author did remain as an impact in the story, in suit with ethnographers in general. However minute, her presence does shape how we see the events taking place, but I think the absence of her direct thoughts and inputs allows us as readers to focus on what really matters, the people there and their situation.