Trash - Andy Mulligan

Someone whose opinion I respect told me that this book could be the most important Children's/Young Adult to be released in a number of years. I wondered what he could mean by that and whether I would agree with him. So, I looked to get myself a copy and it jumped the queue that is forever piling up.

It is told from the point of several people who were 'involved' in the events that unfold but primarily from three boys who live on (both physically and economically) the garbage dumps of a large city in an un-named Third World country. These boys, like so many other poor people, make their money by sifting through the garbage that is forever being piled up in the tip and selling bits and pieces of scrap that they find.

One day, one boy finds something that will change the lives of he and his friends in a bigger way than he could have imagined.

The book then unfolds like a classic crime mystery, but from the point of view of the innocent third parties that take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of it, Discovering massive governmental corruption in the process.

I found the whole thing fascinating and could not help but view it in light of John Pilger's film The War on Democracy which I only saw a few weeks ago.

You can watch pretty much the whole thing here if you want: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3739500579629840148#

In this way, I would have to agree, this is the perfect book to open up discussion about the way so many people in Third World countries are forced to live and how greedy individuals withhold the bettering of entire nations.

Brilliantly crafting the perspective that jumps from character as they each give an account of their part in the story, Mulligan establishes the feeling that it is not just one radical revolutionary that is sorry for their lot, but the collective feeling of most that poor are not simply passively inviting their poverty: it is actively thrust upon them as those with power abuse it.

It is hard not to be repulsed by accounts of the filth the poor have to endure simply to stay alive, or not to be moved by the heartbreaking realisation that children must attempt to survive (although quite often do not) in these situations. Sometimes it to too easy to forget what is happening elsewhere in the world when we are constantly surrounded by our own comfort, our own troubles and our own books. Therefore it is fantastic when a novel, particularly one aimed at younger readers, is so successful in reminding us of this.

And it is when we are young that we need to be made aware of these situations. Igniting interest and passion in young people is like setting in motion the snowball effect.

But without getting to deep into political discussion, I will get back to the book. And similarly, if the reader were disinclined to take the discussion further, Trash can be read as an exciting adventure of boys thwarting police. But when it comes down to it, it poses the question: What is trash? or Can people be so easily disregarded as trash?