Friday, March 1, 2013

Exotic Music of the Belly Dancer by Brian Sweany

Exotic Music of the Belly Dancer by Brian Sweany

Thank you to Netgalley and The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House for my advanced reading copy.  Publication date April 25, 2013.

I have to admit I selected this book because of the title.  I was looking for something foreign and exotic.  Often titles and their covers speak to a mood I am in at the moment.  It was time to read something out of the ordinary.

Exotic Music of the Belly Dancer is certainly out of the ordinary but hardly the tale of a distant land I longed for.  This is Hank's story, a teenage boy in rural Indiana.  His journey toward adulthood is filled with all those boy-like adventures of sex, drugs and alcohol.  All while carrying a picture of a belly dancer in his wallet. 

The story starts out with an interesting hook.  His parents are openly discussing the reversal of his father's vasectomy so that they can try for another baby.  Hank, who starts each morning masturbating to the picture of the belly dancer, finds this news distasteful.  The story from there on out is one alcoholic stupor, followed by teenage sex and drug induced fog, after another.  Even though I lived that teenage life myself at one time, I'd long ago moved on.

 Frankly, I got pretty bored.  Oh, there were some hysterically funny moments alongside a few sad and poignant  scenes.  But Hank never suffered a consequence of any of his actions.  Just when I thought some deep and cleansing event was about to happen, the author dragged us away with another case of beer.  Maybe that was the point but I kept me from fully understanding the depth of emotion inside what could have been some really fascinating characters. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong

Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong First off I have to say I happened on this book by chance.  My sister's name is Susan Leigh Furl...