They Told Me I Couldn't

Cover

Title They Told Me I Couldn't

Author Tamalyn Dallal

ISBN 1-890916--19-6

Publisher Talion Publishing

Category Non-Fiction: Travelogue

Shira's Rating (on a scale of 0 to 5)

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What It's About

There's a picture of a belly dancer on the cover, and it is sold in belly dancing circles, but if you're expecting a book about belly dancing, you'll be disappointed.

This book is a travelogue of the adventures Tamalyn Dallal had when she traveled to Colombia during the 1980's to spend a month as one of the regular performers in an Arab restaurant in Bogota. Although belly dancing was the activity that got her there, the book says very little about that. By far, the bulk of it is about the local people she met, the side trips she took, her discoveries about the local culture, and the adventures she had in the process. If you like to read about people's interesting adventures when they travel in a land that's foreign to them, you'll probably enjoy this book. But if you want to read about Middle Eastern dance, music, or culture, this isn't the right book for you.

Its Good Points

The various anecdotes about Dallal's adventures are entertaining to read, and a number of them made me smile. By telling the stories of the people she actually met there, Dallal put a human face on the many news stories that have been published about Colombia over the past couple of decades. It's one thing to read about guerillas in the newspaper, but a totally different understanding of the country and its struggles arises when reading what it was like to visit one in his home.

The large typeface makes it easy to read.

On The Negative Side....

As noted above, if the cover photo showing Dallal in her costume leads you to believe you're going to be reading about belly dancing, you'll be disappointed. Although there are a couple of the usual stories about club owners who try to cheat the dancers and musicians who are surly to work with, these stories occupy only a few pages of the total book.

The book is actually rather short--I read the whole thing in half a day.