Sonia Faleiro
Social Issues
I struggled with what category to put this book in. It’s about Bombay dance bars, so I suppose it could go in Travel. But besides being about Bombay, it’s also about the people, the women, who live in such horrible conditions.
Underneath Beautiful Thing on the cover are the words Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars. The writer, Sonia Faleiro, is a reporter and she spent quite a bit of time traveling around Bombay and other cities close by interviewing a few chosen girls about their lives, dancing in these seedy clubs and having sex for money. Sounds interesting, right? Unfortunately, this is one of those books that sounds more interesting than it actually is.
I’m not sure why I didn’t like Beautiful Thing more. One thing that had me down was all the incredibly depressing backstories most of the women had: raped by family members, raped by strangers, almost killed multiple times. Good lord. At least main girl Ms. Faleiro followed, Leela, had some spunk. But I wanted to hear about other women, too. Obviously, a lot of them probably didn’t want to talk to a reporter, so Ms. Faleiro had to use what she could get.
This is a quick read, but should’ve, could’ve, been a lot more fascinating. If you’re interested in India, Bombay in particular, you might like this book. But be prepared for a whole lot of depressing stories and not-so-happy endings.
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