Snake Hips
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- €5.99
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
SNAKE HIPS follows an Arab-American woman's life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. Her heart broken, Soffee moves back home to wallow in self-pity. There she comes across a flier advertising the usual classes in yoga, vegetarian cookery, ballet and...belly dancing. Against the wishes of her extended family and friends, she enrols, hoping to heal her heart and reconnect with her Lebanese roots.
Soffee soon discovers that her life will never be the same after she enters the riotous world of belly dancing, a warm and welcoming subculture where younger and thinner are not necessarily better. Soffee's ethnic high leads to Princess Jasmine fantasies - for example, being 'third-favourite wife' to a sheik she is cyber-dating, a perfect relationship until she realizes that being obedient is easier online. Then she falls for a beautiful Lebanese boy-next-door. Among the zils (finger cymbals) and thrills of performing in moose lodges and county fairs, Soffee is surprised to find happiness and true love along the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After being dumped by her loser boyfriend, Soffee, a "sober, nerdy, rock 'n' rolling, coffee-drinking, school-teaching, erotica-reading, kitsch-loving Lebanese American" moves back home to Richmond, Va., to wallow in self-pity. There, she comes across a flier advertising the usual classes in yoga, vegetarian cooking, ballroom dancing and... belly dancing. Her girlfriends think she's lost her mind, but Soffee knows she's found the perfect distraction. Not only does belly dancing have nothing to do with her ex, it's a fine way to reconnect with her Lebanese roots. Plus, "it is a relief to be part of a subculture where younger and thinner do not automatically equal better." Soffee learns to roll her hips, shimmy and make her stomach poof out; spends wild amounts of money on the tackiest costumes imaginable; and most satisfying discovers the ultimate cool of "belly dancer bonding." Her ethnic high leads to marital fantasies, e.g., being "third-favorite wife" to a young sheik she's cyber-dating, although she admits "being obedient is easy on-line." She also has flings with an insufferable Iraqi yuppie and a born-again Lebanese boy-next-door all hilarious disasters. Soffee's women friends keep her from feeling too lousy ("he good thing about girlfriends is they usually hate your exes before you do") until Mr. Right catches her by surprise. While there is a lot of information on the belly dancing culture, this is not a how-to book, although an appendix lists resources for the interested. What Soffee's really offering is a guide to mending a broken heart: embrace a totally distracting activity, bond with your girlfriends and don't forget to laugh.
