Private Dancer - Highly Recommended
Firstly this book is about Thailand but is very relevant to the Philippines situation. Each year many men repeat the mistakes made in this book by
falling in love with the wrong bar girl. I would not suggest that you can not find love with a bar girl but for most guys such relationships end in
heartbreak when they later discover “she” did not really love him.
If you are in a relationship with a Bargirl or may come into contact
with them in your travels then read this book and avoid making a huge mistake. Don’t be a “Sad Fuck”
The Atavist Review of Private Dancer:
The two main characters in the novel are Pete and Joy. Pete has just moved to Bangkok for
work and meets and falls in love with Joy who is working in a bar. We follow their story in an almost predictable sequence of events that lead to disaster.
What makes Private dancer interesting is that we are presented with a whole range of perspectives including that of more traditional and conservative Thais who find the behaviour
of many foreigners equally disturbing to that of the bar girls.
At the end of the novel I did not feel empathy with either. I found both to be pathetic in a
different way. In many ways Pete is more to blame for the disaster than Joy. Stephen used
the term Sad Fucks to describe them and since reading the novel this term now comes to mind when I am confronted with similar people.
I think the novel is compulsory reading for any man that travels to Asian destinations like
Bangkok where you might encounter bargirls or working girls. The book is a vital warning on the dangerous of forming relationships with bargirls. It will also serve as reality check
when you encounter circumstances reminiscent of what you have read about in the novel.
Even if think you are already streetwise or otherwise feel the story might be irrelevant to your
circumstances Private Dancer will provide an interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes and if nothing else expands your understanding of human relationships
The point to emphasise here is that the real danger is not external – the bargirl - but rather the
individuals internal response. Bars and Bargirls have been around a long time and the game
is established. Don’t blame the other players because you don’t know the rules. Those that
out of ignorance thing that the relationships they form with the girls are real are destined for disappointment.
The book is also a great read with a real unexpected twist at the end
A Personal Expereience
A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to Thailand and was infatuated with a Thai bar
girl. He was calling her on the phone and talking about the possibility of marriage. He then
announced that she told she had left the bar. I very strongly advised him to read Private Dancer.
He did so but rather than take the meaning from the book he pulled it apart finding fault with
the way it was written. In particular he criticized a part of the book where a Thai person mixes some metaphors in quoted speech. His complaints were that a Thai person would not
be familiar with such western metaphors and that they were mixed. He asked who the writer
was and suggested that they were not professional. A response from a person in denial – and what Stephen would describe as a “Sad Fuck”.
Lucky for my friend the girl simply stopped responding to his pathetic communications confirming that the interest was one sided (I guess that she allowed a certain amount of time
for him to express his interest in monitory terms and when this was not forthcoming she lost interest). He incidentally is a Attorney which goes to show that having apparent intelligence
and experience accounts for little when it comes to making poor judgments in affairs of the heart.
About the Author
Private Dancer is one of four unpublished novels by Stephen Leather, a best selling author of Thriller novels.
His published works include Hardlanding, The Eyewitness, Tango One, The Stretch, The Bombmaker, The Tunnel Rats, The Solitary Man, The Double Tap, The Birthday Girl, The
Vets, The Longshot, The Chinaman, Hungry Ghost, The Fireman, Rap Off,
Private dance is a different style of work to his published novels and draws upon his personal
experience of living in Thailand and observing Westerners forming disastrous relationships with bargirls.
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