Interview with author Sonia Faleiro

We interview writer and journalist Sonia Faleiro about her fascinating new book Beautiful Thing: Portrait of a Bombay Bar Dancer.

Can you tell us a little about your book Beautiful Thing?

Beautiful Thing is a work of non-fiction. It’s the story of a young girl called Leela who runs away from home after being prostituted by her father and reaches Bombay determined to build a new life for herself. She’s only thirteen when she gets a job as a bar dancer but because of her beauty and vivacity very quickly becomes popular, earning plenty of money and living the lifestyle of her dreams. When I met Leela in 2005, she was nineteen and hopeful that her affair with her boss, a man who was already married and had children, would turn into something more permanent. But very soon after, the government cracked down on dance bars, banning them on the grounds that they encouraged immorality, corrupted the youth and encouraged crime, essentially forcing Leela and about 75,000 young women like her out of work and onto the streets.

Kate Jennings on writing Snake

Kate Jennings

I wrote my novel Snake through two long winters at the beginning of the nineties out on Long Island. Low grey skies, the angry Atlantic. No distractions from re-imagining life on an Australian farm in the fifties.

When I began, I remember thinking “The world doesn’t need another dysfunctional family or coming-of age novel.” But most of those books were from the perspective of one person: the self-justifying writer-as-child. It was important for me to be even-handed, to present this family from the point of view of all the protagonists. It was also important to me not to write a feminist tract – this was a time when feminists were presenting mothers as nurturing and women in general as somehow innately morally superior. Arrant nonsense, of course. Some mothers are good, some middling, some appalling.

Girls in publishing review The Girls In Publishing

With a cover like that, we knew we needed to read it. Our industrious editor hunted down a copy of the book and it has been passed from desk to desk ever since.

What can we say? It lives up to the hype.

Things we learnt from reading The Girls in Publishing:

Cigarettes and whisky are acceptable during editorial meetings. Cover designers prefer hashish.

Every girl in publishing should own at least one pair of "mint-green lounging pyjamas".

If only we had husbands who were so supportive of our careers: "There was nothing about her, he thought with a deep flush of pride, that indicated she'd been working."

If you're a boy - sorry, man - in publishing, don't be afraid to turn on the charm. Say your associate editor appears at your cubicle. Why not ask her: "What can I do for you, Diana? Lunch, dinner, a moonlight picnic by the East River when your husband is conveniently not around?"

Age-appropriate dating is important: "Forty-six was hardly an age even the most liberated woman's handbook would consider ideal to attract a virile thirty-five-year-old man, much less be his wife."

It's the little things that keep the romance alive: "He noticed that she was wearing a gold pin he'd given her when they first started screwing."

In 1974, "cutting and pasting" involved real scissors and actual glue.

Agents ain't what they used to be: "Foster was a slimy, cigar-smelling, toupee-wearing man who would demand payment in bed for anything he did ... He was the best agent in the business."

Contracts were a lot messier back then too: “… the usual ten percent commission - plus one evening a week screwing until he got bored.”

Beware the notorious PUBLISHING BLACKLIST. Disgrace yourself too badly, girlie, and you'll never wield a blue pencil in this town again.

If you sleep with your boss and he dumps you, wearing a “tight lace bodysuit” to work is a sure way to regain his professional respect: “She wasn’t wearing a bra either, he noticed.”

Sure her publishing-executive husband sleeps around - but really, some women are so cold they have it coming: "'Why do kids love the zoo so much?' she complained. 'Nothing to see but animals.' She shuddered slightly."

If your colleague turns up to a party with a pretty blonde as his date, don’t be afraid to speak your mind - “‘I hear that Scandinavians are pretty sophisticated sexually,’ Kate said, in what she hoped was a cutting voice.”

The girls in publishing have a LOT of sex. But only with colleagues, agents, authors, failed authors and, at a stretch, copyright lawyers. No one outside the industry, ladies: publishing is a closed shop.

Black Inc.’s Gift Guide

Give the gift of great reading this year. We’ve got something for everyone.

The Best Australian Stories 
Edited by Cate Kennedy
RRP $29.95


The Best Australian Essays 2010
Edited by Robert Drewe
RRP $29.95

The Best Australian Poems 2010
Edited by Robert Adamson
RRP $27.95

The Best Australian Stories, Essays and Poems bring together the best Australian writing of 2010. On their own or as a set, they make a gorgeous gift.

Reading Madame Bovary
Amanda Lohrey
RRP $32.95

A brilliant collection of short stories from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. A book sure to please any literary lover.

“Full of riches.” – The Age.

Australian Encounters
Written by Shane Maloney, Illustrated by Chris Grosz
RRP $24.95

Written by Shane Maloney and illustrated by Chris Grosz, Australian Encounters tells of 50 true encounters - public or private, ill-fated or fortuitous - between a renowned Australian and an international mover and shaker. Beautifully presented and highly entertaining, this is a perfect gift for the hard-to-buy-for friend, family or colleague.

The Family Law
Benjamin Law
RRP $27.95

A hilarious and moving collection of essays on life, love, family and growing up by one of Australia’s brightest new talents. If you know someone who likes David Sedaris, they’ll love Benjamin Law. 

“A writer of great wit and warmth.” – The Sydney Morning Herald 

 

The Sound of Pictures
Listening to the Movies, from Hitchcock to High Fidelity
Andrew Ford
RRP $32.95

An illuminating journey through the soundtracks of more than 400 films, including A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Cinema Paradiso, High Noon and many more. Perfect for music lovers and film buffs alike.

“A hugely enjoyable and revelatory read." —Margaret Pomeranz

Monsoon
The Indian Ocean and the Battle for Supremacy in the 21st Century
Robert D. Kaplan
RRP $34.95

In Monsoon Robert Kaplan shows how the rise of China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia represents a crucial shift in the global balance of power. A great gift for that friend or family member who is looking for thought provoking reading this summer.

Frugavore
How to Grow Your Own, Buy Local, Waste Nothing & Eat Well
Arabella Forge
RRP $29.95

An invaluable guide to eating and living well. This is a book destined to become a dog-eared kitchen staple, with fantastic recipes, tips and information on food that proves useful year-round.

“Frugavore is that welcome rarity – a food book designed to be used.” – The Big Issue

Into the Woods
The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests
Anna Krien
RRP $29.95

Smart, powerful reporting on Tasmania’s forest wars from a brilliant debut writer. Into the Woods will capture you from the first sentence and sweep you along for the ride. For lovers of insightful non-fiction. 

“Anna Krien's intimate, urgent book pulsates with life and truth.” — Chloe Hooper

Love Poems
Dorothy Porter
$27.95

Love Poems collects Dorothy Porter’s most powerful love poetry: portraits of longing and infatuation, of bliss, passion, uncertainty and devotion. A must for poetry lovers and anyone looking for that special gift for a loved one.

Quarterly Essay 40
Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era
George Megalogenis
$19.95

In the aftermath of the 2010 election and an era of power without purpose, George Megalogenis considers what has happened to politics in Australia. This smart and engaging essay is the perfect gift for any political junkie.

The Well at the World's End
AJ Mackinnon 
$32.95

The Well at the World’s End is an astonishing true story of a remarkable voyage, an old-fashioned quest by a modern-day adventurer. This is a great gift for an armchair traveler or anyone with a taste for adventure and whimsy.

 “One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read...a marvellous read by a travel writer with a unique style.” – The Canberra Times



For more great Black Inc. books, please visit our website.

Andrew Ford's Top 5 Sound or Music Moments in Film

Andrew Ford is the author of The Sound of Pictures: Listening to the Movies, from Hitchcock to High Fidelity. We asked him to share five of his favourite uses of sound or music in film.

1. The Big Country (William Wyler, 1958) has one of those instantly recognisable cowboy themes by Jerome Moross, a popular hit in its day. It speaks to us of wide open prairies, mountains, canyons, tumbleweed – clichés, in other words, and fifty years on we might think of the music as clichéd too. But Wyler's most impressive use of the landscape has no music, indeed no sound. The dawn fist-fight between Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston is shown from a great height and a great distance, physically and theatrically. We see little and hear nothing. Wyler refuses to allow us to get involved in this futile punch-up. A Cold War parable? You bet!

2.  There are dozens of examples from Hitchcock in the book, but here's one I didn't include. If the music Bernard Herrmann wrote (against Hitchcock's wishes) for the shower scene in Psycho (1960) is too well known to require comment, what happens next is very interesting indeed. As Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) lies on the bathroom floor, we hear the distant voice of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) – 'Oh God, mother! Blood!' – and then, for the next ten minutes, there is only music as we watch Norman mop up the bathroom, tidy the bedroom, wrap the body in the shower curtain, drag it out of the motel room, put it in the boot of the car, drive it to the swamp, push it in and watch it sink. During those ten minutes, something very interesting occurs. We change our allegiance. Having been hoping that Marion would get away with her theft, and been horrified at her murder, it takes only ten minutes for us to hope Norman will succeed in disposing of her body and to share his feelings of panic when the car roof pokes out of the swamp.

3.  The Fall of the Roman Empire (Anthony Mann, 1964) has a strikingly bizarre score by Dimitri Tiomkin, but the sound that never fails to raise what remains of the hair on my head, is the voices of the Roman legions standing in a snow storm, moaning in chorus. They are bewailing the death of Marcus Aurelius, their mouths hidden behind their long shields. It is a chilling noise.

4.  The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez, 1999) is based on the simple conceit that we are watching documentary footage shot on two cameras by three film students. They have disappeared, their cameras have been found, the film and video have been edited and this is the result. As they meet their sticky ends in the final minutes of the picture, we are shown images from one camera but hear sound from the other. The images are shot by Heather running downstairs into the cellar where Mike has been killed or at least knocked out. From the audio on his camera we hear Heather's screams coming closer.

5.  There are dozens of sonic masterstrokes in Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton, 2009), some of them musical, some not. Beneath the freeway where Samson and Delilah camp out with Gonzo, the distant thumps of car tires hitting a join in the road form a continuous counterpoint to their fragmented conversations. My favourite moment, though, is when the film's sound design takes us inside Samson's head. As Samson (Rowan McNamara) lies on his mat, he has country music playing on the radio next to his left ear. Outside on the deck, his brother's band is going over and over its reggae riffs, an accompaniment in search of a tune. Samson covers his ears and the sounds become very distant. He uncovers first one ear, then the other, and we hear – in extreme stereo – the band, then the radio.

The Sound of Pictures is available now in all good bookstores.