Snake Hips

Cover

Title Snake Hips

Author Anne Thomas Soffee

ISBN 1556524587

Publisher Chicago Review Press

Category Humor

Shira's Rating (on a scale of 0 to 5)

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What It's About

Snake Hips tells the tale of how a woman who was dumped by the man in her life turned to belly dancing to help distract her from her broken heart. At the beginning of the book, she describes how she came to be involved with the man, and what led up to the decade-early midlife crisis that resulted in their split.

Following the break-up, she explores a catalog of adult education classes in search of a new hobby to take her mind off her woes and discovers belly dancing. The plot of the book stays close to two themes: 1) Soffee's love life, and 2) her entry into the belly dancing sub-culture. On the belly dancing side, Soffee takes classes from a couple of different teachers, joins a troupe, pulls herself through annoying performance situations, attends workshops, gets to know her classmates, and has a wonderful time throughout the process. On the love life side, her dating woes are just as funny as her belly dancing adventures.

You could categorize this book as being memoirs or autobiography, because it does tell of someone's actual life. But for me, the category of "humor" seemed more apt. The words "memoirs" and "autobiography" evoke images in my brain of boring recitations of some famous person's life. Snake Hips made me laugh much too often to even think of calling it boring, and it doesn't try to tell Soffee's entire life story, just an entertaining chapter of it. Reading this book made me feel as though I were sipping a cup of tea with Soffee while she gave me a spirited update on her latest misadventure.

If you know anything about the U.S. East Coast belly dancing community, you'll recognize names of people you know. It was fun to see friends and acquaintances identified by name.

Its Good Points

I had many good laughs while reading this book. Soffee tells the outside world what the belly dancing sub-culture is like, with both humor and accuracy. For example, she describes being invited to join a belly dancing troupe as being something like sorority rush. I had never previously thought of troupe membership invitations in those terms, but after reading the analogy I stopped to think, and agreed it was apt.

As a long-time belly dancer, I found myself thinking, "Too true, too true!" on many occasions. The gigs gone wrong, the cliquish classmates, the workshop & show experience, it's all there, told from a comedienne's point of view. More than once, it made me step back and think (while I smiled), "So that's how newcomers to our belly dance community see us!"

It was refreshing to see the mainstream media portraying belly dancing in a realistic, but still entertaining way. After reading far too many "belly dancer as exotic creature" and "belly dancer as fallen angel" books, it was nice to see one that broke away from the stereotype and presented this dance as it really is for the vast majority of belly dancers in the U.S. today: "ordinary woman who enjoys it as a hobby".

On The Negative Side....

I really don't have anything negative to say about this one! It was lots of fun.

In Conclusion

This book is fun to read. Whether you're drawn by Soffee's misadventures in her quest for true love or her perilous journey into the world of belly dancing, it will give you plenty to smile and laugh about.