I have two small children. Needless to say it has been a very long time since I have sat down with a book and obsessively read it until I was finished. The Blue Notebook is the book that ended a seven year streak. I started reading at 6:30 and did not (as much as possible) put it down until I was done somewhat after midnight.
The Blue Notebook is the fictional diary of the precocious and imaginative 15 year old Batuk Rasmadeen who was sold into sexual slavery by her father at the age of nine. Although Dr. Levine is a middle aged British doctor living in Minnesota, he is able to convincingly portray the interior mind of a young female prostitute living and working at Mumbai's notorious “street of cages”.
His portrayal is of a young girl who is secretly horrified by the circumstances she finds herself in, yet learns to internalize this, because she quickly learns that working is the only way to survive in the life in which she finds herself. Literate in a society where many are not, she knows that she is capable of much more than her narrow circumstances allow, but she is she is treated as a pariah by her “betters” in Mumbais's constrained society. Due to her imagination and ability to write she is able to have an escape of sorts but there are to be no happy endings for Batuk.
I would recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is beautifully written and shines much needed light on a persistent global crisis.
