Customer Reviews

The Blue Notebook: A Novel

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

What an extraordinary book, one that is unrelentingly graphic in its portrayal of the life of a child prostitute, but beautiful in its depiction of the human spirit and the will to survive.

Batuk Ramasdeen is nine years old when she is sold to a sex trader by her father. Sold to the highest bidder looking for a young virgin she is then brought to an `orphanage' where she becomes trained in her new profession. Batuk lives in a small cage on the Common Street, in Mumbai, India; here she is prostituted on a daily basis in exchange for some food and a place to sleep. Using her imagination and her ability to write, a skill she learned while housed in a missionary hospital, Batuk escapes the horrors of her existence by writing and telling stories. It is here that this book shines, for Batuk's tales are beautifully written and her descriptions of her escape in her mind's eye are lyrical. The author's juxtaposition of such beauty in the midst of unrelenting horror cuts to your heart.

When it seems that Batuk's life may have taken a slight turn for the better, a small flame of hope is ignited in the reader, but our heroine is not so easily fooled. She knows that to most of the people she comes in contact with she is no more than an object to be used; a whore, a bitch, a toy, a dolly, but never a human being. She has no illusions about her existence and knows her only escape will be through her stories, which give her life meaning.

I believe this is the author's debut; I will certainly be looking for another book by him in the future. In many ways the story reminded me of The Kite Runner, a book that opened my eyes to a world that I know so little about. As an added incentive all proceeds for the U.S. sale of this book will be donated to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children, so by reading this phenomenal piece of fiction you will in some small way help these children.

I am always very reluctant to read books written by men, speaking as women. This book, by a white male physician speaking as a tween/teen Indian sex slave, seemed destined for failure as a concept. To the publisher's credit, they got way out in front of that reluctance and implore you to "read it anyway, because it matters." I'm not sure that I ever completely bought the narrator's voice, but it worked well enough that I gobbled through this book in two sittings, even though it will take far longer than that to get it out of my head. The narrator is about the same age as my youngest child, and I think of that 4th grade class, and think of them being subjected, at that age, to the things described in this book....

It's all the more frustrating to read because there is no outrage, no emotion, no self-pity in the book. There is no magical resolution to the ills of the world that brings Batuk to the place she is forced to occupy, and she doesn't wait for or expect one. She suffers, she continues to exist, she survives until she can't. And yet her human value, uniqueness, and undeniable intellect are ever present.

It is a very hard book to let go of, once it is done. After I finished it, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night, turning the last pages over in my head, wanting to write a different ending, wanting to ride in and rescue the character I had grown to like so much. I think that makes it a successful writing endeavor, and I have to applaud the author for taking me there.

Sometimes when I read a book that is particularly affecting, I refer to it as "life altering." But when I refer to The Blue Notebook as life altering, it isn't to remark of its genius rendition, sumptuous prose, or eerily strong characterization. Simply put; The Blue Notebook by James Levine so thoroughly disturbed me, it left me haunted. I think we all know that the sickening practice of child sex slavery occurs, and we are justifiably disgusted. But only when confronted with the voice of a fifteen year old prostitute as she describes her tragic and hopeless world does one realize this is a global problem that we shouldn't ignore.

Levine's purpose is to raise awareness and funds to stop child exploitation. And his method is the tortuous bombardment of atrocities that are committed against his narrator and other children. Batuk was sold into slavery by her impoverished family at nine. She is quickly "taken" after which she ends up in a cage no larger than a toilet servicing around ten men a day. Her life is colored by sadism, rape, violence, starvation, and disease. She is betrayed in some form by everyone who can use her to some purpose to further their greed or perversion. Abused in everyway imaginable, Batuk considers herself blessed because she can read and write. And so Batuk journals, and uses every opportunity to scratch out her story and observations. "I am not sure why I write but in my mind I shudder that it may be so that one day I can look back and read how I have melted into my ink and become nothing." These are her hopes to die, disappear, service only one man, or become deranged. It will suffice to say this is not an uplifting tale.

Levine is relentless with horrific details, and increasingly terrible situations in which he places Batuk. His only gift to the reader is that his story is relatively brief. The ending is ambiguous, after reading it several times; I'm still not sure what happened. Such a bizarre ending and menacing tone recalls Burnside's The Glister. The Blue Notebook is an ugly story, but even if the writing was poor (instead it is excellent), I'd recommend this book. If you can manage to read it, do so, and if you can't, buy it regardless. Levine's passion is exceedingly obvious, so much so that he's donating his proceeds to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children--the only bright spot his novel offers.

The Blue Notebook, as has already been discussed in previous reviews, came about because of interviews by Dr. James Levine, the author, with a young East Indian prostitute. Dr. Levine created the world of Batuk, his fictional character, but in every detail it could be the life of one of the thousands of exploited children to whose benefit the proceeds of this book are going to be donated.

Batuk is a very beautiful fifteen-year-old girl who has been a prostitute since her father sold her at the age of nine. She is part of a group of five other girls and one castrated fourteen-year-old boy who service any and all paying customers from their "nests" in actual barred "cages" for the enrichment of the man to whom Batuk was initially sold six years earlier. The Blue Notebook is at times brutal, graphic, and always heart-rending. It is one thing to know intellectually that there are children, little more than babies, being used in the most base and bestial ways for the sake of financial gain, but to be subsumed in the life of one of these children, as one is while reading this brave book, is a sobering experience.

Levine has used the first person voice in Notebook to bring us inside the personal experience and the mind of Batuk. We are made privy to her deepest thoughts and agonies as we listen to her seeming matter-of-fact reporting of daily atrocities to her body and those of her fellow captives. If the reader doesn't look deeply into the little stories she tells and notice the tone of the bits of back-story she shares intermittently, he/she could miss the fact that Batuk is walking a thin line between resignation and madness.

Although The Blue Notebook reminds me in many ways of other books I have read that explore strong women in foreign cultures, fighting to remain themselves in a world where all the rules and luck are stacked against them - books like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Bonesetter's Daughter and, most of all, The Blood of Flowers - it is ultimately in a different class altogether. It may be fiction, but for all intents and purposes, it could just as well be an unauthorized biography of an entire class of exploited persons. Not from another time period; not some interesting bit of human history that has been all fixed and done away with; not something we can be glad has been legislated out of existence, thank God. It is very much here and now and should be hammering away at our global conscience.

The message of The Blue Notebook would be enough to get five stars, but as well as that, I was extremely impressed with the writing skills of Dr. Levine, especially being a first-time novelist. I recommend the book to everyone, except those to whom the graphic images will be extremely upsetting.

The Blue Notebook by James Levine begins as a beautiful and brutal narrative about a young girl's life when she is sold into life as a prostitute, which is to say she is sold into slavery. Set in India, the narrator, Butak, was inspired by an incident when the author met with a child prostitute who was sitting, writing in a notebook. Through Butak, the reader shares in the harsh reality of what it means to be a child prostitute and, because Levine infuses Butak with a beautiful voice, much of her story is told through metaphor and brilliant imagery. "I lie on a bed of everlasting youth, and those who lie with me taste youth. It is not a bed of eternal life, for my life will only be eternal when I die."

Unfortunately, the novel fails in the end. While the first half of the novel is explicit in the horrors of prostitution, there are times when one wonders if there isn't some implied eroticism not very different from the explicit and exploitative violence of slasher movies. By the end of the novel, whatever doubt there might is has flown out the window and the implied intent of the story becomes lost in a melodramatic climax and denouement worthy of any soap opera but unworthy of this novel's beginning.

I hate that I didn't love this novel, not only because I do love the first part so very much but also because the proceeds of the sale for this novel will be donated to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. I wanted desperately to adore this novel so that my encouragement might stir others to spend money on this novel and support a very worthy cause. I wish I could encourage people to read this novel. At best, I can only encourage people to read the first 106 pages. Better yet, read anything written by Arundhati Roy.

(I want to add that I hope James A Levine will continue writing. I think that, with time, he will produce novels that can live up to their concept and fulfill the promise of their beginning. This, a first novel, may not do it but the potential is absolutely there.)

In `The Blue Notebook,' the reader first meets 15-year-old Batuk who currently resides in a nest [cage] in Mumbai. Her parents sold her into the prostitution/slavery trade at the age of nine [9]. The reason for this transaction is never fully explained. It is left to the imagination. [Sell implies some recompense.] When we first meet Batuk, she appears to have adapted and/or adjusted to her life. She seems friendly and outgoing [especially to Puneet] despite the torture and savagery that she has been subjected to for many years. She is manipulative, as well. Writing in her Blue Notebook, apparently, plays an important part in her survival.

It becomes abundantly clear that Batuk has a creative mind -- a mind ripe with imagination. Her descriptions and/or imaginations of her surroundings are detailed and, occasionally, over-the-top.

When she relates her life as a young child, she begins to become, somewhat, more engaging. Again, she seems to accept her fate. When she becomes quite ill, her father is forced to seek medical treatment for her. He only pretends to do so, and ultimately Batuk winds up in a mission clinic with TB. It is here that she meets nurse Hita, and it is she who starts to teach Batuk how to read and write. Batuk is quite young and, apparently, is a `quick study.'

This book raises many questions. One cannot help but question exactly why her parents decide to sell their daughter into such a sordid life. They know that she is able to read - a rarity in her family. Actually, at one point, her father muses about the kind of future she might enjoy. If they are in dire straights, how could the family afford her `farewell feast?'

Many readers will be reminded of `Memoirs of a Geisha.' Do not be fooled. This is no `Geisha.' Batuk seldom writes about her feelings - her emotions. Therefore, there was a distance between the reader and Batuk's feelings about her life and all its atrocious circumstances. However, one cannot help but feel for her, as well as others suffering such a life. The depth of feeling never reaches the heights [or heart] that this book aspires to for this reader. As Batuk explores her philosophy, one is acutely aware that this philosophy is well beyond the realm of a 15-year-old.

In this reader's opinion, the writing is often awkward. However, as one continues reading, attempts at lyricism appear. While the prose has no rhythm or beat - no music, it does offer a vivid sense of color, as well as some sense of the locale. Some scenes are easy to envision. Hita [another woman] bathes her, and one is able to `see' this. A reader may also visualize Batuk's bruised body. However, the writing is often too clinical, too detached.

The reader becomes increasingly aware of some aspects of India's underbelly - how the most vulnerable live and cope. I was horrified by the events in this book. One cannot ignore the fact that it provides a personal voice to an issue of global importance. It compels us to give pause to something that is sordid and painful - something that some might prefer to disregard.

The author appears passionate about addressing the moral decay and ethical morass he has witnessed. He is donating all proceeds of "The Blue Notebook" to organizations addressing these issues. This is a noble gesture. I trust this book will attract an audience because of this author's gesture.

[3+]

Batuk, the protagonist, was a real child prostitute living in Mumbai, India, and this book is her journal, translated into flawless and engrossing prose by Dr. Levine.

I found it very hard to finish this book, but thankfully, it's only 200 pages. I had to skim most of it for the vivid descriptions of child rape, sexual mutilation and unspeakable torture were just a bit much to visualize. At times, especially towards the end, I had to put the book down to catch my breath!

Reading this story will literally give you physical pain the next time you read or hear about child prostitution, molestation, abuse or human trafficking in India or anywhere in the world for that matter. Batuk's story is the story of all these children we hear about in the news. Reading this book will make their stories real to you, and not just sad, impersonal news items towards which we've become desensitized.

Batuk was enslaved at the tender age of eight (EIGHT!) when her father sold her to Mr. Ghali, who quickly sold her innocence to the highest bidder before sending her off to "The Orphanage" where her heart-wrenching story nosedived into visceral horror.

At "The Orphanage," Batuk is raped by the Yazaks (i.e. guardians; you believe it!) all the while witnessing other children go through harrowing accounts of unbelievable torture and even murder. She writes about a boy who was caught hiding twenty rupees from his Yazak:

"Justice was immediate and occurred in the open. Using his right hand, the Yazak lifted the child, age eleven or twelve, by his hair off the ground and with his left hand cut his throat with a Damascus blade. Before the second spurt of blood had shot from his neck, the Yazak had thrown the boy to the ground just as you might throw away a sweet wrapper."

It was also at "The Orphanage" that Batuk met Puneet--a frail young boy with delicate features and effiminate mannerisms--for the first time. Both were lucky enough to be given to Mamaki (a woman as vile physically as she is morally) to work in her brothel in Mumbai's red-light district. It's there where most of the story's heartbreak takes place.

Batuk and Puneet's relationship is yet another devastating account of lost innocence, damaged souls and shattered dreams. Depressing as it is, I was glad to know that these two had glimpses of happiness along the way.

The last thirty pages of the book were the most painful to read. In the end, I was distraught by the story and by the fact that this horror is still going on today, at this moment, in India and elsewhere. One thing I hope you get out of this book is a renewed zeal to do whatever you can to fight child exploitation and abuse of any form here at home and worldwide.

Batuk is a fifteen-year-old Indian prostitute. She was sold into prostitution by her father at only nine years old, after a less than idyllic, but still relatively happy childhood. Batuk's path to prostitution is devastating, more so what she has to endure each and every day at the hands of strange men, but writing is her salvation. She writes about her life, makes up stories, and in general endures far beyond what any child should ever have to.

It's incredibly hard to write about this book. Child prostitution is a difficult and horrible subject. Obviously, it should never happen and it is completely wrong. But it does happen, and James Levine has tried to imagine what that life would be like for a little girl. Batuk has been betrayed by everyone and endures the worst kind of humiliation each day of her life, yet she is portrayed as a hopeful child, still vivacious, making the best of a bad situation whenever she can. The story is even more moving because the reader knows that there are girls like this out there, and Batuk feels real.

It is Batuk herself that is the novel's greatest triumph. It's difficult to believe that this girl was written by a man because she does feel genuine in every way. She tries not to think about what is happening to her even as her words give it devastating clarity. She puts up a facade and retains hope even though the reader can sense her unhappiness in nearly every line. She does what she must to make the experience bearable while using the rest of her scarce free time to write stories and remember her past. It would be impossible not to feel for her and wish she could escape this life and go back to the countryside where she was at least an innocent.

It's difficult to say that I liked this book, because it's so difficult to read. It's short, but it's so moving and heartrending. I think it's important to read, however, if only so we're forced to confront ourselves with the horrid reality of what might be for real young girls. The author interviewed child prostitutes and based his book on their stories. It's fiction like this that inspires us to make a difference, and for that reason I do recommend The Blue Notebook.

The Blue Notebook is written by a created Indian prostitute amalgamated from terrible true life stories of Mumbai prostitutes that the author interviewed during his time in India. Batuk is sold by her father to his pimp brother in exchange for money the family desperately needs because this same father has squandered what little the family has from farming on his mistress and his gambling. Her short career, from age eight to age fifteen, is a portrait of brutality and tedium. But Batuk's inner life, at times appropriately childlike, is brimming with imagination. Stories with a Scherezade flavor allow her to express feelings she cannot indulge. Her child's imagination is given place when she purloins a pencil and begins writing in her blue notebook.

I listened to this story read by a woman whose diction and dramatics gave color to the child's emotion in a way that the written word sometimes does not. Particularly, she lent in pitch and phrasing what I believe is the correct duplicitousness in the Indian underworld of using pretty words and lyrically soothing tones to speak and persuade, but over and over, when the trap is closed, a harsh and brutal ugliness reveals itself. I strongly recommend obtaining this book on tape.

Batuk's short brave life is horrifying. This story will remind the reader of the academy award winning movie Slumdog MillionaireSlumdog Millionaire: A Novel. It departs from the happy ending routine and I feel it is fair to say so. Being reminded about the state of a culture where life is held so cheap is worth learning, as this culture is rapidly rising in our world.

James Levine's first novel is a study in contrasts, beginning with the author himself. A doctor and professor at the Mayo Clinic with more than a hundred scientific articles to his name, Levine has written a novel that is filled with snippets of poetry, childlike descriptions of life, and philosophical asides. A middle-aged man, Levine's book is written from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old girl: a daunting task for any novelist. And to challenge himself further, that girl is not a British ex-pat or Minnesota resident like himself, but a child prostitute living in a cage on the streets of Mumbai. How, one might ask, did he do it, and why? Part of the answer lies in his work with homeless children, part with his decision to donate all his profits from US sales of the book to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children.

The book itself is also full of contradictions and oppositions: youth and the world's oldest profession; a cage and a moving river of humanity; innocence and violence; beauty and the annihilation of life. Symbolic of these dichotomies is the majestic old tree that is rooted beside a bus stop, waiting for a bus it can never ride. All this was created for you, the tree tells the girl, and yet, in the end, it is she who is the creator. The only one with the power of words, words that transmute her existence, she is powerful, and perhaps, through us, her words have the power to change the reality of child prostitution.