Batuk is a fifteen-year-old Indian prostitute. She was sold into prostitution by her father at only nine years old, after a less than idyllic, but still relatively happy childhood. Batuk’s path to prostitution is devastating, more so what she has to endure each and every day at the hands of strange men, but writing is her salvation. She writes about her life, makes up stories, and in general endures far beyond what any child should ever have to.

It’s incredibly hard to write about this book. Child prostitution is a difficult and horrible subject. Obviously, it should never happen and it is completely wrong. But it does happen, and James Levine has tried to imagine what that life would be like for a little girl. Batuk has been betrayed by everyone and endures the worst kind of humiliation each day of her life, yet she is portrayed as a hopeful child, still vivacious, making the best of a bad situation whenever she can. The story is even more moving because the reader knows that there are girls like this out there, and Batuk feels real.

It is Batuk herself that is the novel’s greatest triumph. It’s difficult to believe that this girl was written by a man because she does feel genuine in every way. She tries not to think about what is happening to her even as her words give it devastating clarity. She puts up a facade and retains hope even though the reader can sense her unhappiness in nearly every line. She does what she must to make the experience bearable while using the rest of her scarce free time to write stories and remember her past. It would be impossible not to feel for her and wish she could escape this life and go back to the countryside where she was at least an innocent.

It’s difficult to say that I liked this book, because it’s so difficult to read. It’s short, but it’s so moving and heartrending. I think it’s important to read, however, if only so we’re forced to confront ourselves with the horrid reality of what might be for real young girls. The author interviewed child prostitutes and based his book on their stories. It’s fiction like this that inspires us to make a difference, and for that reason I do recommend The Blue Notebook. ( )

This is the relentlessly grim, sexually violent story of a child prostitute's miserable existence in Mumbai. The author interviewed homeless children in Mumbai and was inspired to write this story when he saw a young prostitute sitting outside her cage writing. Although well written, the story is horrific and will only be compelling for those with a sturdy constitution. The best bit: all U.S. proceeds are donated to help exploited children. ( )

Batuk is a fifteen-year-old girl living in a brothel on Common Street in Mumbai, India. The bright points in her life are her best friend, Puneet, a male prostitute living a few “nests” down from her in the same brothel, and a notebook which she keeps hidden away in a slit in her thin mattress. Her vivid imagination and knack for storytelling lead her to paint a world of cheerful descriptions of the ragged and decrepit room that she describes as an elaborately painted and decorated nest or cage and the sexual acts that she is forced to endure is misleadingly called making sweet cakes. Over the course of the novel Batuk tells the story of how she was sold by her father into prostitution as a nine-year-old to pay off unspecified family debts.

The proprietor of the brothel, Mamaki Briilla, drops a pencil and instead of returning it Batuk steals and hides it so that she can recount her early life, and the last day that she saw the family and the father she still misses after six years. Batuk is an emerging beauty and after one of her “customers” noticing this suggest her for a position outside the brothel walls, but is she better off facing a new situation or staying with the horror that she already knows?

James Levine does an amazing job getting us into the head of Batuk. Though she has grown up with a family and has had to face the betrayal of those closest to her she tries to make the best of it and always see the beauty in the life despite her horrific circumstances. Batuk weaves a world of beauty and exquisite stories out of the every day tragedy that is her life. She creates a world that you want to believe in for her sake though it makes the crushing reality that she faces that much more difficult and painful to witness. The subject matter is dark and movingly in contrast to the light and engaging way that Batuk presents her narrative. It’s short at a mere 200 pages but stunningly rendered. There’s really not much to be said other than, “Read this book.” ( )

Levine's first novel is told from the perspective of Batuk, a fifteen-year-old prostitute in Mumbai. Unlike most girls in her position, Batuk has learned to read and write, and finds solace and enjoyment in keeping a diary. Throughout the novel, she chronicles memories of the family who gave her away, the brutality she faces from her employers and clients, as well some of the happier moments she shares with her friends, namely Puneet. Puneet is a young male prostitute who receives more clients than his female counterparts, and possibly even crueler treatment.

The story can become graphic as Batuk offers details about her job and the violence she faces from those who exercise their power over her through beatings and rape. The author, James A. Levine, is a medical doctor who was inspired to write the novel after interviewing homeless children in Mumbai, including a prostitute he saw writing in a notebook, as part of his work for the Mayo Clinic. Nevertheless, Batuk seems believable, at least in so far as Levine captures the voice of a young, imaginative and intelligent girl who is suddenly forced into a harsh, adult world. When one of Batuk's clients asks why she writes, she responds, "I like to see my thoughts because otherwise they are invisible." It's a powerful statement, knowing that Batuk's thoughts are irrelevant to most people in her life, and that her journal is her only refuge. There is the sense, however, that Levine hopes to give a voice to the many real children who share Batuk's fate. (And all of his US royalties from the book are donated to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.) ( )

A profound book which was so difficult to read. India at its worst. Having visited the country and seen the beggars on the street, I feel sick at the numbers I ignored. Amazing a man can create the voice of a young girl and a prostitute.

The Blue Notebook by James Levine is told in the point of view of Batuk, a young girl who has been sold into prostitution by her father. From then on, she works through several places, including the streets of Mumbai, then being bought from place to place where her final place ends up being in some sort of hotel.

It's a hard read. Although being only two hundred pages, it is an account in extreme graphic detail of Batuk's life after being sold by her father. She does not skimp away the grisly details that happens to her and how she is meant to please her clients. The only light hearted moments I get are when she shares a laugh with her friend Puneet and how they make fun of the "Hippopotamus". I thought they were so cute together but, even that little bit of happiness fades as Batuk is passed on to another place to do her work.

My heart went out for Batuk. You see her innocence shatter and how she narrates the entire story you don't hear much emotion, it's almost as you can hear a flat voice through the diary entries. It's a bleak and depressing read but it probably is a very realistic account of what happens out there to child prostitutes anywhere in the world.

There are only a few things I didn't agree with in this book. I'm not for flowery poetry writing and mini stories and there's a few parts of that in this story. I mostly skipped it by as I didn't have much patience for that. I don't really understand how you can be that literate when you've only learned to read and write at a missionary hospital but that's just my opinion. Second, the ending was very vague. However, if you really think about it, no one in this world really cares where a prostitute ends up, therefore the ending shouldn't matter. It's very shocking, but it's sadly true however, I would have liked to know where Batuk ended up. Also note, due to the graphic nature and content this is not for the squeamish. It didn't bother me much, but there were parts where I cringed.

Overall a very sad and in depth look into the life of a child slave. It'll make you feel for the millions of child slaves and helpless women out there suffering where they have no control over their lives and sadly, no where to turn to. ( )

Story of a girl sold into prostitution in India by her father - I liked the story told from her point of view and especially the way it made her literacy relevant to her station in life and how she survived. However, the prostitution details were too repetitive by the end of the book. The ending was predictible but still I felt it incomplete. Still it was a good read! ( )

I received this book as an ARC through Early Reviewers, and as I began reding it, I wondered why I had put it on my list as it's not something I would normally choose to read. However, I am glad I did. It's not one of those books I think you can say that you *love*, as it's just incredibly realistic, including details that made my stomach churn, and it's quite heartbreaking to know that thousands of young women and girls live this kind of reality every day. The things that Batuk experiences no girl should have to go through, especially by force, and especially repeatedly over many years. What makes a family sell a girl into prostitution/slavery? Surely money alone can't be the only answer here. How do people live with themselves, doing this to children, whether as the "John" or the pimp, or any of the other numerous people involved in the prostitution of young girls and boys? It's a tough read, but ultimately an important one. ( )

“The Blue Notebook” is a beautiful, haunting, disturbing story of a young girl sold into sexual slavery in India. Batuk, now 15, was taken to Mumbai at 9 years old by her seemingly-loving father and sold into a brothel. Batuk goes back and forth between telling her story in the present and speaking of parts of her past: her time spent with the vicious Mumbai street gang as an older man’s ‘wife,’ her first days as a sexual slave and prostitute, and the happier times back in her village.

I would have liked to know what exactly prompted her family, who seemed to care about her, to sell Batuk into these horrors, but she did not know (or really even seem to question), and as the story is comprised of what she is writing in her diary, it would probably have been fairly unbelieveable for Levine to introduce some sort of plot point detailing how exactly she found out why her family had been forced to do this. It is interesting, though, that she never seems to wonder about why she has been reduced to this fate. I also would have liked to know how exactly she came by the notebook, since the first chapter of the book is focused on detailing exactly how she came by her pencil. Still, these questions did not detract for me from the overall power of Batuk’s story.

You would never guess that the author is a middle-aged British man. James Levine based this book on an interview he conducted with a young prostitute who drew his attention sitting outside of her cage writing in a notebook in Mumbai. He completely nails the voice of a 15 year old girl who is now focused only on survival and who has clear trauma that has made her disassociate. The writing was gorgeous, even though the story was disturbing.

I think that this is the sort of book that should be read widely. It is true that the subject matter keeps this book from being enjoyable in the truest sense of the word, but it is a very good book. More importantly, it is crucial for people to be aware of the conditions that face children like Batuk around the world, because these horrors cannot be stopped if we allow ourselves to ignore them.

This is one you really should go out and buy. Don’t wait for it on a book trading site, don’t get it from your local library. Buy it at the vendor of your choice, because 100% of the proceeds in the U.S. are going to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. ( )

I just didn't love this book. I should have... I have read several of this sort and been very interested and drawn in by the characters... but this book just didn't grab me. I appreciated the child's point of view... it added an interesting angle, but I just couldn't connect to Batuk. It took me a while to get through this book,l as I was not very motivated to pick it up due to a lack of interest in the characters. ( )

Reason for Reading: Honestly, I simply felt compelled to read this, even though it's not my usual type of reading. I do however enjoy books written in diary format, books with an Indian viewpoint and books written from a child's point of view.

Comments: This is a heart wrenching book to read. Set in modern India, the story of a nine-year-old girl who is sold by her loving father into prostitution (to pay off his debts) and her presented to us in the first person through her diaries. We are given her story from her present timeline at the age of fifteen as well as from her past as she tells how she came to be in her present circumstances, until past meets present and we only can go forward with her.

This book is going to be a hard read for some people. A child prostitute leads a brutal life and the author leaves no stone unturned nor holds back on any details. Yet, Batuk, the main character, is many things. She is a victim, she is a part of her world, she is a survivor, she is an innocent child, she can be devious, she can experience pure child-like joy and she experiences terror no child should ever have. She is a character that the reader feels both great outrage and compassion for and also admires for her own strength and spirit.

One thing that really struck me as I read was how amazingly real the voice of the fifteen-year-old girl is, while realizing that the book is written by a man. For a man to project this teen's feminine multi-layered personality so beautifully is a sign of a brilliant author. I look forward to his next novel.

The only thing that disappoints me some is the ambiguous ending. The only thing that stops me from giving a 5* rating. We are left to sort things out for ourselves and decide what happened. It ends in such a way that one can assume that it ended a certain way but if your not happy with that there is plenty of ambiguity to perceive your own ending. I prefer my books to tell me how it ends.

There is a lot of graphic s*xual detail, though none of it is gratuitous. It is necessary for such a story to show what really goes on in this world. This is a book that will open your eyes to something that you may not wish to have opened to you but how can you *not* go on without knowing these truths about your world. ( )

There are some books that I just can’t wait to read. I’m excited about them and I know I’m going to love them just for their pure entertainment value. The Blue Notebook is not one of those books, though since it was hugely enlightening I am very glad I read it.

The story follows a 15 year-old prostitute in Mumbai who finds a pencil and begins writing the story of her life. Batuk manages to find a level of comfort through writing her thoughts and experiences as she goes about her work. Her life changes when the emissary for a wealthy businessman negotiates for her services. She records everything she goes through.

This book is beautifully written and heart-piercingly difficult to read. I found myself reading a few pages ahead looking for assurance that the protagonist would come out of the latest incident without too much trauma. This practice is perhaps a form of denial – bad things only happen to bad people and in the end only good happens to the innocent.

Child prostitution is a way of life for many children around the world. I know that. But reading about one child’s story brings the issue to the fore of my consciousness and that makes the problem all the more real and vivid for me. I’m glad I read this book but don’t know what I can contribute to the problem other than being aware that it exists. On the back of the book it says:

All of the U.S proceeds from this novel will be donated to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children (http://www.icmec.org).

So, I suppose buying the book contributes a very small amount to a very worthwhile cause. Still it is definitely worth it. I highly recommend this book. ( )

There is much about India in the news lately, mostly focusing on its emerging economy and growing presence in world affairs. But we often get insights into Indian culture as well, most recently with the success of “Slumdog Millionaire”. Many of us vacillated between horror and laughter as the two slum children overcame terrible odds to finally find themselves dancing on the railroad platform in the final scene.

Unfortunately the underside of life in India is all too real and it is happening in present-day India. Batuk is a nine year old girl, living in poverty in rural Bihar, when her father tells her she is going on a bus trip with him to Mumbai. Batuk feels favored by her father, says good-bye to her family and excitedly takes in the sights and sounds of the trip and the big city upon her arrival. But, the purpose of the trip is all business. Batuk is sold into prostitution by her father and he leaves her behind and returns to his family with the price of her sale.

Thus begins the novel “The Blue Notebook” by James A. Levine. Relying upon basic survival instincts Batuk begins to adapt to her new life, held captive in a small room where she take care of her customers. She finds a way to obtain a pencil and some scraps of paper and writes her story in fragments. She tells of her “madam” Mamaki, her friend Puneet, the transvestite and the various men who come to see her. This is a story of survival, set upon a very small stage and it is compelling.

It is difficult to believe tthis story of a young girl who must live in this fashion, to have to acknowledge that this could happen. But in Mr. Levine’s capable hands, Batuk is a credible teller of her own story. And, while this is a fictionalized account, the reader knows that there are countless similar stories being played out in real life. As a recent visitor to India I often speculated about the lives of the people I observed. “The Blue Notebook” gives us a remarkable window into one such life. ( )

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. ( )

My Early Reviewer copy of this book burned in a house fire---but now that it is in bookstores I'll get a new copy--quickly as I notice the cover art is evolving to less appealing works.

What more can I add to all of the raving reviews given to this book??I agree with all of the review here and elsewhere. It is about the awful crime of child prostitution and child sexual abuse. The author has done great service in writing Batuk's story. He is even donating all of the US royalties to help combat this problem.

SPOILER AHEAD

However, the author should have stopped at the half-way point. Just about half way thru the book there is a line "here ends the blue notebook". That should have been the end. He had made his point. But he then proceeds with what can only be characterized as lurid, gratuitous violence that results in the brutal death of 4 characters who, though greedy and evil to varying degrees, have little to do with Batuk, our protagonist. The "Perp" does not seem to be her, but one of two other characters who only appear at the end of the book. ( )

This was pretty good. I don't usually enjoy this kind of book. I recommend it.

This book is both beautiful and excruciatingly painful to read. Batuk sold into child prostitution at the age of 9 finds solace by writing her thoughts and memories in a blue notebook. From the age of 9 to 15 she describes in vivid detail the physical horrors she has faced and the internal struggle to keep her spirit alive. After her virginity is taken she writes, "He may have taken my light and extinguished it, but now within me can hide an army of whispering syllables, rhythms, and sounds."
You do not read this fictional book for enjoyment, you read it to become informed of the real atrocities the children of the world are facing. Many thanks to Dr. Levine for writing such a powerful story. ( )

The Short of It:

An unsettling story about a nine-year-old girl that is sold into prostitution by her own family. Deeply disturbing at times and extremely graphic. This one is hard to stomach.

My Thoughts:

What struck me about this novel was not the shocking content (surprisingly). What struck me, is that the story was so beautifully written. The content is dark and gritty yet the prose is so alluring that it pulled me through the story even when I didn't want to read anymore. For this, I would recommend the book.

However, I did have some issues with where the story went. I won't give anything away, but I felt that the story took an unrealistic turn. I believed the street scenes and her time in "the nest." This felt genuine to me and I wanted to know more about the other boys and girls who lived with her, especially Puneet. I was also intrigued with the Orphanage and the characters within it, but I felt that her time there was short and then the novel seemed to shift abruptly for me.

I know that there is a hardening that takes place when a child is forced into prostitution. They either grow a tough shell, or they cave and fall apart. Batuk does not cave. She learns to play the game but towards the end of the novel I tired of her. I think I was sickened by her playing the game. Her manipulation at times was necessary for survival but it presented a different side to her, one that I didn't care for.

A good example of what I am trying to convey is that Puneet had the same life. He had the same horrible things happen to him, yet he never lost his child-like demeanor. I suppose in a real life situation, a child would do whatever they needed to do in order to adapt, but it bothered me.

One important item to mention is that Levine is donating the U.S. proceeds of this novel to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children.

This book was kindly sent to me by Alyce over at At Home With Books. ( )

I read The Blue Notebook in one evening. And I didn’t like it. I wanted to look away. But like any rubbernecking scene, my eyes focused on The Blue Notebook and never turned, never stopped staring at the disaster unfolding across the page.

Oh, The Blue Notebook was compelling, had a well-voiced narrator and moved swiftly. The writer did a fine job with his pen and even donated his U.S royalties to The International Center For Missing and Exploited Children, but even this fact created a wearing sadness.

The Blue Notebook is told in flashback through the first person voice of Batuk, a fifteen-year-old prostitute living in Mumbai. Batuk’s day consists of living in a nest, making sweet cakes with the various men who pay for her services and writing in a blue notebook she has managed to hide from her pimp. Batuk learned to write while hospitalized as a young girl. This was before the party her family threw for her, the one right before they sold her, before the highest bidder violently stole her nine-year-old virginity. Though based on a real prostitute the author encountered while traveling in Mumbai, The Blue Notebook is fiction.

Still, it exists. The very thought that Mumbai’s sex slave trade is real gives depth to the matter-of-fact voice of Batuk. Mumbai is a metropolis, India’s financial powerhouse, a city with vast resources and educational opportunities. How does this savage slavery still exist? How can a young girl be completely thrown away like a piece of meat?

And though I read it on vacation - when breezy summer reads are expected, Batuk’s story is so devastatingly heartbreaking, it would be a crime to look away.

*Recommended for increased awareness and readers interested in modern tragedy. Not for the weak stomached.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume
© Tasses 2007-2009 ( )

“You can never fully straighten bent metal; you can only make it less bent.”

Sometimes when I read a book that is particularly affecting, I refer to it as “life altering.” But when I refer to The Blue Notebook as life altering, it isn’t to remark of its genius rendition, sumptuous prose, or eerily strong characterization. Simply put; The Blue Notebook by James Levine so thoroughly disturbed me, it left me haunted. I think we all know that the sickening practice of child sex slavery occurs, and we are justifiably disgusted. But only when confronted with the voice of a fifteen year old prostitute as she describes her tragic and hopeless world does one realize this is a global problem that we shouldn’t ignore.

Levine’s purpose is to raise awareness and funds to stop child exploitation. And his method is the tortuous bombardment of atrocities that are committed against his narrator and other children. Batuk was sold into slavery by her impoverished family at nine. She is quickly “taken” after which she ends up in a cage no larger than a toilet servicing around ten men a day. Her life is colored by sadism, rape, violence, starvation, and disease. She is betrayed in some form by everyone who can use her to some purpose to further their greed or perversion. Abused in everyway imaginable, Batuk considers herself blessed because she can read and write. And so Batuk journals, and uses every opportunity to scratch out her story and observations. “I am not sure why I write but in my mind I shudder that it may be so that one day I can look back and read how I have melted into my ink and become nothing.” These are her hopes to die, disappear, service only one man, or become deranged. It will suffice to say this is not an uplifting tale.

Levine is relentless with horrific details, and increasingly terrible situations in which he places Batuk. His only gift to the reader is that his story is relatively brief. The ending is ambiguous, after reading it several times; I’m still not sure what happened. Such a bizarre ending and menacing tone recalls Burnside’s The Glister. The Blue Notebook is an ugly story, but even if the writing was poor (instead it is excellent), I’d recommend this book. If you can manage to read it, do so, and if you can’t, buy it regardless. Levine’s passion is exceedingly obvious, so much so that he’s donating his proceeds to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children—the only bright spot his novel offers. ( )

The Blue Notebook is 15-year-old Batuk’s writing journal -- her place to record the story of her father’s sale of her into sexual slavery at age nine, her immediate and brutal initiation into prostitution, and her daily life in one of the sex cages in the red-light district of Mumbai, India.

The novel effectively mixes current time with flashbacks/backstory and is very well written. I hesitate to call it beautiful though, or heartbreaking, or even something I’m glad to have read. Rather, its sequence of explicitly detailed human atrocities (with little countermeasure) is profoundly disturbing. And that is, I think, exactly the author’s intention. The horror of child sexual abuse is of such extreme importance that I understood the violence -- even as it began to feel gratuitously sickening -- to be a means to an end of increased social awareness. This novel is a call to action. ( )

This is a deeply sad book, and an engrossing book too. The story of a child prostitute in Mumbai, Bartuk was sold into slavery by her father, and taken from her family's countryside home to Mumbai's red light district. On the 'Common Street' that becomes Bartuk's home, the children are kept in cages barely large enough for movement. They are given barely enough food to sustain life. Most horrifically, they are expected to have sex with a dozen or so men every night. It is difficult to overstate the horrors of the Common Street, and Bartuk escapes the horrors of her life by writing in her diary, a blue notebook she must keep hidden. It would be easy to become engrossed in this book merely because of the shock value. Certainly the conditions are horrific, moreso because Bartuk and her friends are composite characters based on children Levine met during travels in Mumbai. But there is more literary merit to this novel than just shock, and Levine has produced a compelling protagonist and engaging plot. Bartuk's writing and quick mind sometimes disguise her youth, but the reader is constantly reminded of her age by the series of euphamisms she has developed to refer to anatomy and sexual activity. The reader is intimately aware of the precariousness of Bartuk's situation, and one in which the reader is given no definitive ending. This seems appropriate, as Bartuk's life is so precarious, so too is her fate. This novel is not just a work of literature, it is also a call to action. Bartuk is only one of many, and the author makes clear his intention to donate proceeds to children's charities. Levine has crafted a moving and unforgettable character; her story is one that will not easily be forgotten. ( )

The Blue Notebook is the story of Batuk, an Indian girl who is sold into slavery at the age of nine. I found the graphic nature of this book so disturbing that I had difficulty reading it. I made myself finish it. The writing itself was done well, so I have to be fair in rating this book. It was the content that I didn't care for. I'm also taking into account that the author's intentions is to raise awareness of actual atrocities being inflicted on young girls in India and that message does need to be shared so that this kind of thing will be stopped. So I rated this book three and 1/2 stars. ( )

This is the life story of a young Indian girl who was sold into prostitution at the age of 9, told in her own words. This girl's reality is slowly unfurled to the reader since initially she uses euphemisms overlaid with fantasies and dreams to describe both her daily life and the loss and betrayal of her family. However the soft-focus doesn't last for long and it soon becomes readily apparent just how desperate this girl's situation really is. The Blue Notebook is a thoroughly compelling read. ( )