The Blue Notebook

Book No: 29
Title: The Blue Notebook
Author: James A. Levine
Genre: Fiction
Completed: 6/15/09
No. of Pages: 210
Rating: 5/5*****

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 gives her life meaning.

I believe this is the author’s debut; I will certainly be looking for another book by him. 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.