In Beautiful Disguises

by Rajeev Balasubramanyam

In Beautiful Disguises tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl living in a small town in South India. Life is not easy, especially when she's been blessed with a family that includes a brother who watches TV as an occupation; a father who drinks and regularly bullies his family in alcoholic rage; and a silent, all-suffering mother. Insulated by her dreams of becoming Audrey Hepburn (and daily trips to the local cinema), she observes her family with critical detachment. But her inner world begins to crumble when the inevitable marriage is arranged for her and she runs away to Delhi to work as a maid. There, she falls in with the misfit members of her new household; Raju, the servant with the heart of a revolutionary, Maneka the maid who mysteriously disappears every night, and the seductive but arrogant Armand. But even as she embraces this brave new world she realizes that she can't run forever.

Balasubramanyam writes with an effortless air and a strong sense of mischief, but this lightness is shot through with intelligence and a compassion for human frailty. He has created an unforgettable heroine--childlike but determined, naïve yet shrewd--whose delightful voice resonates through the book.

Genres: Fiction, India, Asian Literature, Asia

246 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Rajeev Balasubramanyam is the author of In Beautiful Disguises and PROFESSOR CHANDRA FOLLOWS HIS BLISS. His work has been awarded the Betty Trask Prize and the Clarissa Luard Award, and has been longlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the BBC Asia Award. His writing has appeared in Vice, The Washington Post, The Economist, London Review of Books, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and other publications. He also writes a blog on spirituality and race called American Pilgrimage. He is a currently a fellow of the Hemera Foundation and has been writer in residence at Crestone Zen Mountain Center and the Zen Center of New York City. He currently lives in Berlin.

Reviews

[Vishnu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, especially the beginning. I didn't follow the whole character/plot arch, but I enjoyed the journey throughout. I especially like the author's voice, and I'll be sure to read more from him in the future! A light, almost YA book that is a lot of fun and has some deep meaning to go along with it.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with all things Indian. This is a re-reader: quick, engaging, not terribly thought-provoking. I come back to it every year or so.

[Kavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem is that we'd all been dumped inside the wrong realities. Maybe that had something to do with our past lives. I couldn't be certain. But there was one thing I was sure of - disguises always slips off. It's just a matter of time.

This are one of those rare books you see in a bookstore. I was at a clearance sale when I came across this book. As I was scrolling through I came across this artistic cover. I was intrigued I turned at back to read the synopsis it gave me a certain level of expectation of the story. Well the story is rather okay, though its not what I expected (especially the ending).

It's a story about a sixteen year old girl making her escape to The City in hopes to be an actress. In fact she was running away from a Hitler father, a marriage with a nasty man and I would say reality. She has this dreamy version of herself as Holly Golightly and Sabrina. She had a very unlikely friend her brother in law's grandfather, who advised her to live her life and arranged for her to leave with his friend in The City. She went to the city an worked as a maid. She made a few friends and was crazily attracted to the House owner's son and referred him as David Laraby. Towards the end things happened and she was sent back to her village. When she returned to the village she had to face the consequence. She got married at last being those dutiful daughter listening to her parents.

Character wise every character was portrayed well except for the main character and Ravi. There was a lot of question mark as to her shift. At first it portrayed her as a naive village girl with huge dream to become an actress. Towards the end out of a sudden her character became matured and dutiful. I was like am I missing something was there suppose to be a part to explain this shift?I was kinda confused of Ravi towards the end. Just read the book and you will know what I am referring to.

Overall its an entertaining story. A little added comedy. Also I was surprised when the author made reference to the Mahabaratha where the Pandavas had to disguise themselves. I enjoyed it though I expected the story to be artistic as the cover but it's okay.

[Ali Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book In beautiful Disguises by Rajeev Balasubramanyam is about a sixteen-year old girl who lives in south India. She lives in a small town with her family that consists of her mother, father, older brother, and older sister. Her family is not the “ideal family.” she Her dad is a drunk and her mother doesn’t say much. she gets caught up in her dreams until she finds out a marriage has been arranged so she runs away to become a maid. What I like about this book is the fight the teenage girl is willing to put up so she can avoid the marriage she does not want and to be brave for willingly living on her own without her family. There is not anything to dislike about this book because she begins a journey that all started because she didn’t want to follow the expectations of her southern India society. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy fiction that seems very realistic with very serious and emotional parts

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose was incredibly evocative, and the narrator had a very unique voice. That being said, the prose was the only thing that kept me reading. There were a lot of internal character inconsistencies. Most of the cast was rather insufferable, and while I don’t mind unlikable characters, it was difficult to really latch onto anyone or anything. There is a major change within the narrator in the last part of the story that does not really make sense and, to me, was flimsily explained. Certain aspects of the story were given too much page time while others not nearly enough.
I know it sounds like I really disliked it, but it wasn’t awful. The prose was truly good, though the author’s use of italics and selective caps was a bit overdone. And it was a very unique concept - perhaps it would have worked better as a short story.

[Kattermerrang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite alright. This book is quite an easy read and there is plenty of drama. I wasn't a big fan of the protagonist - her naiveté and immaturity got on my nerves a bit. I think she was supposed to be portrayed like this to show her transforming into an adult, but her sudden emotional growth came out of pretty much nowhere and it is never really clear why she made the decisions she did at the end and what she was hoping to achieve. I'm not sure which message I'm supposed to come away with. I couldn't really follow the mythological stories that were interjected here and there. It was entertaining enough though, and a good distraction.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening line of this book grabbed me "I was born a girl and remained so until I became a woman." Set in India this book details everything from small village life to avoiding an arranged marriage to working as a maid in a large house. The 16 year old protagonist experiences life in a naive yet perceptive way. The warts and all descriptions of family members, and everyone in the big house are simple but shrewd and often downright comical. The writing is refreshing and convincing and the characters are easy to visualise. I liked this story a lot.

[Zozoka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ενώ θα μπορούσε η πλοκή αυτή να ήταν η βάση για ένα πιο δυνατο μυθιστόρημα, κάτι δεν μου άρεσε, δεν ξέρω τι... Ήταν πολύ φλύαρο; Δεν κατάφερε να διεισδύσω στην ψυχολογία των χαρακτήρων; Πολύ μεγάλες διάφορες κουλτούρας μας με τους Ινδούς; Κάπου δεν το καταλάβαινα που το πήγαινε και δεν είχα βαθιά επαφή μαζί του.

[Arpita Panta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a 16-year-old girl with a not very good family. By this, I mean her family is pretty dysfunctional. She escapes her problems by going to Delhi (or "The City") where more problems arise. I liked the character development throughout the book. However, I think the main character suddenly got mature out of nowhere. Still, the book wasn't bad!

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed, although finished abruptly.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of a 16 year-old South Indian girl whose reality is less than pleasing so she chooses to live her life in a sort of dream-like fantasy state. With an arranged marriage on the cards, a father who beats his family and a mother as quiet as a mouse, she runs away north to the city with the dream of becoming an actress. In the city she works as a maid to a family where the poor, kind but weak Mr Aziz is bullied into submission by his French wife, the wicked witch-like Mrs. Marceau. She seems to amble her way through this new life, meeting some unusual characters along the way which don’t really seem to have any impact on the actual story or her character. This part of the story feels like it has some exciting potential, I liked some of the misfit characters but they never really come to anything, just drifting in and out of the plot. From my own experiences of travels to India and from a bit of reading on the net, I don’t think Balasubramanyam has portrayed Indian life accurately in the novel. This could be due to the fact he is infact English born and bred himself, or perhaps he never meant to, but instead wanted to create a larger than life, fatasty-esque world for his equally unlikely charactes to operate in. In the end, not because of any particular epiphany on the part of the narrator she decides to return to her home, down south - perhaps through moral duty to her bullied family of mother, sister and down-trodden brother. But on return, though her father is still wallowing in his misery and being bitter for it, she finds her brother happy as he has taken up in an Ashram. Her sister is happily married in a passionate relationship (‘time moved slowly for them, peacefully, in tune with their own desires’) and her mother, well, she seems assigned to accept her fate. They have got on with their lives and forged the best out of them and I think she feels like the one on the outside. (‘I used to be a captive within those walls. Now I was a captive outside them. I wondered if prisoners felt that way when they were freed. That sort of freedom wasn’t an act of kindness. Freedom was only meaningful if you had somewhere to go’.) She has previously judged all her family, yet ultimately they have all managed on their own and are relatively happy. In her short time back she ambles into a marriage of convenience to a closet gay and ultimately the ending is left open with her mother telling her to go and find her own life ‘there is nothing for you to do here’.
I’m not too sure what to make of the moral of the story. Perhaps there isn’t really one. It reads as an entertaining quick novel but there is definitely some wit in there. The writing feels more intelligent than the actual plot which makes me feel like I am missing something.

[Kannan Varadhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rajeev Balasubramanyam weaves a tale, told in the first person, of the third child of a dysfunctional family. The father is a drunkard, who we find towards the very end also beats his wife, has beaten their first daughter and middle son. The narrator herself lives in a delusional world, as it appears, does everyone else in the story. Each of them wears a disguise, such as it is. Our narrator wonders why her mother is exceptionally quiet, her eldest sister unassuming, but never questions her middle brother's self-doubt and loathing. She escapes to the city when her marriage is finalized, only to move in as a servant to a similarly dysfunctional family, where even the servants live in their own reality. It is when she goes back home, seemingly out of a sense of (unstated, and unclear) duty, that she begins to see things more clearly: of her elder sister having settled into a comfortable, loving marriage, her mother knowingly accepting of her fate, her father being a domineering weakling, but is still unable to see through her brothers deficiencies. She has, along the way, given up on loving, or finding love, her obsession with sex is subsumed by her acceptance of duty, and she ends up marrying a homosexual dilettante.

The book itself is very unsatisfying. The writing is very staccato, and hard to follow; The ending is rather abrupt. Rajeev Balasubramanyam, not of Indian origin, has set a story in rural and urban India, but it is unlike any family I have come across in India. It is therefore hard to relate to any aspect of the story. My opinion: pass.

[Ed]

Quite a surprising little book. It was written by a man, but features a 16-year old heroine who comes from a dysfunctional (?) family. Escaping a tyrannical, abusive drunk father and an arranged marriage, our heroine sets off (with a little help from an unexpected friend) to The City where she has some low-key adventures, meets a host of characters, and comes to a decision. I was unprepared for the way the story decided to wind down. And then the end...boom. Food for thought regarding families, nobody's perfect, doing what we consider our duty, roads not taken. But also there are many lines in this book that make on chuckle. The main character is a charm.

[Audreyanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts out with a lonely girl who has an arranged marriage but runs away. She works as a maid at a rich French woman's house and quickly becomes friends with all the inhabitants. I don't want to give any spoilers... but this book is very well written, a bit boring at first and definatly exciting to those that can sit and wait. And there's romance of course!

[Boxhuman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book and the main character. It entertained me and kept me guessing which I liked. The things that I did not like was the vague time frames, the abruptness of each chapter, and the ending (the message). The ending wasn't terrible and maybe I don't understand fully since it's not my culture, but I didn't like it.

[Ileana · Rating 2 out of 5]

O carte despre o fata care nu vrea sa urmeze drumul obisnuit al femeii in India. Daca nu as fi avut ceva cunostinte despre felul lor de a fi, si despre Ramayana, nici n-as fi inteles care este subiectul cartii. Nu mi-a placut subiectul si nici cum a fost scrisa, cu atat mai putin cum s-a terminat, asa cum a vrut ea, dar viata ei urma sa fie searbada.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started with an interesting tone, but soon I was confused and a little bored, at time I re-read a section a few times before it made sense. The main character who dubs herself Holly Golightly is a typical 16 year old half of her is frightened and confused, then she is suddenly mature and thinking logically.

[Dhali · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story is told from the point of view of an teenager and the first part of the book had a kind of evocative tone of what is to be one and not sure which way to go. It went downhill from there because without any reason whatsoever her personality becomes suddenly mature overnight.

[Shivali Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book with light humor. Teaches one and all a lesson that "running from circumstances is not a solution". Ending will leave you awestruck. And for some reason I love those endings which leave me numb for some minutes. And this book actually left me numb!

[Sephie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, well told. About aspiration and reality.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing ending. Also, some of the dream sequences were confusing.

[Tripmastermonkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book has some good characters and some interesting things to say about gender. maybe it's not hella deep, but it did touch me somehow. =)

[Ms. Pierce]

Melanie says: This book was good and interesting. I recommend it to girls who are trying to pursue a dream they can't reach because of their parents. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

[Kieran Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, I loved this book. It was probably my first 'Indian' book I ever read. Tragic/comic but universal in dealing with love and family life. The end was just perfect!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easiest read in weeks. The main character was one that I eagerly wanted more from. Thank you Rajeev Balasubramanyam. More, please and thank you.

[Nitish Krishna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amateurishly written. Partly incoherent with weird dream sequences. Some flashes of good humor.

[Jean H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a very well written story of a young woman who runs away from an arranged marriage. It is not at all the cliche you would think. I absolutely recommend it.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really get into this; skim read the last 60% and came to the conclusion that the book didn't really know what it wanted to say.