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| Young girl sifts through trash with her little brother |
Monday, 29 February 2016
Trash - Andy Mulligan (Review)
The book, Trash, tells the story of three young boys living in the Behala dumpsite in the Philippines. It describes the monstrosity of the conditions that these boys and their families lived in. One of these boys, Jun-Jun (or Rat), is exposed to the worst conditions out of the three, with no relations nor close friends to share a home with. Jun-Jun earns the nickname, Rat, because his "home" is shared with a family of rats, and his malnourishment and dirty appearance makes him look like a rat.
This moving tale spreads awareness of dumpsite children, forced to sift through rubbish starting from the day that they are capable of telling the difference between the value of a piece of plastic and an old banana skin. These children and their families (most likely born on the dumpsite) make a living out of other people's trash, and are somehow able to survive on the equivalent of one US dollar a day per family, or around 47 pesos.
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Great writing! Very detailed and I can't imagine the situations these boys live through every day. This also is one of the HKBOB books and I too have started to read it. In the blurb, it mentions that the dumpsite that they live in is unmentioned, which when I read the book also doesn't explain where in the world it is. SO how do you know that it is Behala? Maybe its in a part of a book I haven't reached yet.
ReplyDeleteAndy Mulligan is a very well known author and most probably you've come across his books once or twice. How do you find him?
I love how you've made the reader feel bad already for these children, keep the lovely writing up. Could I suggest you take a break from writing and do a couple of visual posts as well? Your feed seems to lack that. Thanks!
The book actually mentions the name of the dumpsite towards the beginning of the book 😅I haven't read any other of Andy Mulligan's books, but I love his style of writing so I'm looking forward to reading any of his other books, which are hopefully just as good as "Trash".
ReplyDeleteI'll be sure to do a visual post this weekend! :)