In 2003, Katherine Boo published a long-form narrative journalism article in The New Yorker titled, "The Marriage Cure." The article follows a period of time in the lives of Kim Henderson and Corean Brothers, neighbors in the Oklahoma City housing project, Sooner Haven. Kim is twenty-two, Corean forty-nine, but despite their age difference, the two are friends. Corean convinces Kim to join her at a local church's seminar on the economic benefits of marriage. In addition to extolling the benefits of married life, the seminar, run by Pastor Young, also focuses on the question of how to maintain a stable marriage without spousal abuse. The seminar is part of a federal government initiative to reform welfare and Oklahoma, as one of the poorest states in the United States, is a prime candidate for experimentation.
Reading Boo's award-winning article, "The Marriage Cure," alongside Behind the Beautiful Forevers helps to put her style and spin on the methods of so-called New Journalism into perspective. Unlike some of the early literary journalists like Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and Hunter Thompson, Boo truly allows her subjects to do all of the talking, and makes herself, as an influence and presence in the narrative, all but invisible. "The Marriage Cure," like Behind the Beautiful Forevers, also deals with insular communities where poverty is the norm, and escape from poverty is a favorite topic of discussion. The difference is, instead of a slum in Mumbai, most of Boo's reporting at this point in her career focused on communities in the United States.
In "The Marriage Cure," Boo documents the daily lives of Kim and Corean. Kim wants to have a family of her own, but she is determined to raise her children in a two-parent household; she is skeptical that a church seminar will help her towards this goal, but she nonetheless agrees to accompany Corean, hoping at least there will be free lunch. Corean already has kids. Most of them are grown and out of the house. Her youngest, an eighteen-year-old named Fella, is a senior at a magnet school. He hopes to attend college and later medical school. The article follows Kim as she navigates finding work and then later, as she evades collectors and warrants from bounced checks. Corean's journey focuses on her desire for male companionship and her greater desire to be able to provide for her children. She wants to help Fella pay for college but knows that her income isn't enough to support him, so she, suspecting that her father has some Cherokee ancestors, attempts to find proof that her family is Native American. If such proof were obtained, Fella would be eligible for scholarships and grants that would help him pay for school in full.
Unfortunately, there are so few records of Corean's father, who left when she was only six, that she's unable to confirm any Cherokee background. In the end, Kim finds work as a telemarketer. She's in what seems to be a healthy relationship with a long-term goal of cohabitation and then marriage. Corean continues to attend her church's singles meetings, and Fella graduates from high school with honors, planning to attend college in Oklahoma City.
"The Marriage Cure" demonstrates, on a smaller, less longitudinal scale, Boo's approach to writing about underserved communities. Her writing exposes problematic elements of policy and communicates the real needs of the people those policies are meant to serve.
