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Living in a small Indian town at 16 may seem like a living hell for Arjuna --- with a
drunk and bullying father, a meek and quiet mother, an overachieving sister, and an
underachieving brother, Arjuna escapes to the movies regularly and imagines herself Audrey
Hepburn, anything to get away from the reality that surrounds her and limits her dreams.
When her sister is married off, Arjuna is upset; but then realizes that perhaps it is her
only chance for escape. She allows herself to be married off as well and rushes to The
City in order to live out her Holly Golightly dreams. IN BEAUTIFUL DISGUISES by Rajeev
Balasubramanyam casts the reality of life for such a girl in Hollywood lights and the
inevitable push and pull of the eccentric characters she encounters on her journey to
herself.
Arjuna is an appealing character, an expressive and imaginative girl whose flights of
fancy are just that, flights from reality and not towards it. However, once she
gets out into the real world, her perspective changes. She delves into the people and new
life that beckons her upon the vehicle that is her arranged marriage, an arrangement for
which she has little patience. Bravely, she even allows herself the opportunity to explore
the tastes of croissants and champagne and the son of the man for whom she works as a
maid. Eventually, Arjuna comes to the understanding that the "disguises" she
creates for herself cannot keep her from who she really is and where she is really from
and she sets about on the difficult path to acceptance --- of herself, of her flawed
family, of her less-than-Holly-Golightly-wood life.
IN BEAUTIFUL DISGUISES is a fine first novel, an often-told tale of changing identities
that makes a fresh start for this genre --- Arjuna, her background, her tall tales, her
love of the movies, and the fantasy life they create for her, is a bright and funny
heroine in a world that many Western readers will find exotic and new. Rajeev
Balasubramanyam has a burgeoning talent that we will surely hear from again.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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