Beautiful Thing

October 17, 2011
In Bombay, street urchins hawk pirated goods just steps away from white-pillared mansions, and the sex trade has infiltrated all corners of life—from the rickety, tin-roofed brothels that line the red-light district of Kamatipura to the spare rooms middle-class women rent to pimps for pocket money. Faleiro (The Girl) mines the gritty underworld of Bombay’s dance bars, where dancers perform for male patrons in exchange for showers of 100-rupee notes and the hope of escape from poverty. She spent five years shadowing Leela, a teenage dancer with a bubbly personality and a love for Western-style clothes, Bollywood glamour, and all things “bootiful.” Leela and the breathtaking Priya, her confidante and fellow dancer, consider themselves a cut above women who sell their services on the streets and in brothels. But when a self-seeking politician takes up a moral crusade, shutting down Bombay’s dance bars, the two are left with few options. Faleiro paints a grim picture of rape, physical abuse, and sexual slavery, often perpetrated on women like Leela by their own families. But Leela’s fearlessness keeps her afloat in the mire of madams, pimps, and hit men, where the cops are as corrupt as the gangsters and HIV an unspoken but constant threat. Through a kaleidoscope of deftly captured voices, Faleiro recreates the harsh world beyond the bar lights’ glow.

Starred review from February 1, 2012
A harsh, cinematic look at the international sex trade. In 2005, Vogue contributing editor Faleiro (The Girl, 2008) met the beautiful, charismatic Leela, "the highest-paid bar dancer" in her Bombay suburb. Leela brought Faleiro into her world, an environment filled with sleazy Johns, frightening pimps and, of course, other exploited young women who were trapped in a life of stripping and/or prostitution. When Bombay's strip-club scene crashed and almost burned, Faleiro followed Leela's quest to rebuild her life. Leela was happy to let the author report on her adventures, and the result is a glimpse into a frightening subculture unlike anything that a typical American has ever experienced. Originally published in India in 2010, the book has become an international sensation; after only a few pages, it's easy to understand why. With crackling prose, Faleiro provides an intense, disconcertingly entertaining glimpse into the shadowy corners of a foreign culture; the fast-paced narrative, while undeniably journalistic, reads like a thriller. But what ultimately gives the book its resonance is Faleiro's empathy and love for her fully developed subjects. In lesser hands, these young people could have come off as cliches, but the author makes sure we care for them and root for them to survive a life that most will never understand. Gritty, gripping, and often heartbreaking--an impressive piece of narrative nonfiction.

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February 1, 2012
India is a country of contradictions, and nowhere is this more evident than Bombay, home to India's largest number of millionaires, while at the same time, one-third of its citizens lack access to clean drinking water. Indian journalist Faleiro, a CNN Young Journalist Award winner, wisely focuses on the personal rather than the societal, illustrating the damaging effects of wholesale poverty through the lens of a single individual. Leela is a beautiful, young bar dancer, which is a sort of ambiguous class of sex worker. By turns willful, proud, naive, and selfish, Leela is a compelling personality who manages to both amuse and appall. Her story is typical of other bar dancers: born into poverty, pimped out by her own father, little prospect of improving her lot. This desperate cycle often repeats from one generation to the next. Though she has clearly earned Leela's trust and is privy to intimate confidences, Faleiro is careful to refrain from editorializing. Instead, she lets her subject's own words speak volumes: Leela may want something else. But who will permit Leela what she wants? (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)