PRIVATE DANCER
Stephen Leather, Monsoon Books, US$11.96
A long-haul journey always needs an absorbing read, and Private Dancer may well fit the bill.
Set in 1996 in Nana Plaza, one of Bangkok’s red light districts, Pete, a travel writer is on a mission to complete a travel guide on Thailand when he regrettably wanders into a Bangkok go-go bar and meets – who he believes – is the love of his life. This is the beginning of the rollercoaster ride of sex, drugs and treachery, a prelude to a nightmare Pete will never awaken from and death, the inevitable culmination of his ruin.
Joy, whom Pete deems to be his own “private dancer”, is not at all what she claims. Predictably, money becomes the sole reason for “loving” him. Extorting money – thousands of baht worth – through very conniving and unscrupulous mastery is a skill she practises consummately.
To break the monotony of conventional story telling, Leather allows his characters the chance to narrate events from their perspective.
For example, we hear from “Big Ron”, a resident farang bar owner, who comments: “Joy’s a hooker, a hard-bitten professional who’s only interested in one thing, his money… to treat them (the sex-trade workers) as anything else is just asking for trouble.”
Moving at a reasonable pace, Leather also manages to tackle social issues, interspersing chapters with research by Dr Bruno Mayer, an expert on cross-cultural relationships. Interestingly, Dr Mayer has noted an increasing success rate in relationships between sex workers and their customers.
Sadly, it is a very different story for Pete and Joy.
Anisah Ahmad