“Told with honesty, humility, and hilarity.” —USA Today
“[A] hilarious, sometimes embarrassingly revealing memoir.” —The New York Times
“Toss the Prozac and grab a tambourine—I very much like Soffee’s idea that a woman can belly dance her way out of heartache.” —Tom Robbins, author, Skinny Legs and ALL and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
“Full of belly laughs.” —People
“Her prose sparkles and teases.” —The Boston Globe
Snake Hips is a hip, funny, and uplifting memoir...the perfect pick-me-up for the newly single.
Packed with offbeat characters that prove, once again, that life is
funnier than fiction.
Be sure to read this memoir before it gets made into a movie.
Captivating.
Soffee is brilliantly funny.
Soffee's conversational yet daring writing style helps readers identify with tough subjects: her breakup, alcoholism and family relationships.
Full of belly laughs.
Soffee's witty, flowing prose draws readers in.
Her prose sparkles and teases.
It's a hoot.
Lively, wry book.
Fascinating
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 ("[t]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. Agent, Jane Dystel. (Oct.) Forecast: This manuscript was shopped to 20 publishers most dismissed it as too quirky until it found a home at Chicago Review. That quirkiness, coupled with excellent reviews in women's media, should make it a hot sell in indie bookstores. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
A vigorous, funny account of the effects of blighted romance cured, sort of, by a course in belly dancing. Now an English teacher to troubled teens, newcomer Soffee recalls growing up in Richmond in a household dominated by her father's unpredictable but staunch Lebanese family. After a stint in California as a rock-star gofer (with all of the drugs and sex that implies) and alcoholism rehab, she slouched back home, her heart broken by a tattoo artist. After months of self-pity, over the protests of friends and family ("Your daddy ought to smack your face," said great-aunt Frances), she enrolled in a belly-dancing class. Her rationale was to preserve her heritage, her real motive was never entirely clear, but she exulted in it. Part of the pleasure came from her new cohorts, mostly 30- to 40-year-olds with wide hips and convex bellies. (No pressure here to be supermodels.) Once into the world of belly dancing, Soffee describes her adventures in show biz: entertaining at nursing homes, at private parties (delivering "bellygrams"), at county fairs, and, memorably, at redneck bars. She shops for costumes, attends workshops and conventions, and waits breathlessly for the performance of a fabled Egyptian who dances with 12 lighted candles balanced on her head. Caught up in the ethnic wave, Soffee spends hours on the Internet tracking down potential Arab mates, only to discover that belly dancers are regarded not as guardians of an ancient tradition, but akin to strippers and prostitutes. Soffee gives a rousing defense of serious belly-dance students and performers, announcing a happy ending as she finds love with an gun-toting Aryan who honors her belly-dancing commitment by presenting herwith a snag-proof engagement ring that wouldn't "get hung up on your veils." Spirited and engaging, even for those who don't have a yen to undulate.
