I picked up this book because I enjoy historical fiction, especially anything around WWII. The cover features a beautiful young woman with a pensive expression, and the back of a man in a suit dancing with someone in the lower right-hand corner. I just had to know what it was this young woman was thinking about, and what is taxi dancing anyway?
Ruby Jacinski lives in the Back of the Yards in Chicago and has dropped out of high school to support her mother and sister since her father has died. At the age of fifteen, she is already familiar with the horrors of working in a meat packinghouse, so after bad boy Paulie Suelze tells her about dancing at the Starlight for $50 a week, Ruby knows this is her family’s only way out of the Yards. Since her mother would not approve of Ruby being a dance instructress, she lies and says she work for the phone company, but every evening she shows up at the Starlight to dance with strange men for ten cents plus a tip if she is lucky. She meets coworker and soon to be friend Peggy, who shows her the ropes of being a dancer in a taxi-dance hall. Before long, Ruby is meeting men afterwards and heading out to black and tan halls, clubs that allow white women with African American or Asian dates to come in, and drinks and dances until late in the night.
The job is not as glamorous as it seems, and soon Ruby finds herself in debt to some of the men that visit her, and they expect some sort of pay back. Ruby remembers how Paulie got into trouble in the army for beating some guy up, so she goes to him and asks him for help. She also finds that she is falling in love with him, a man her mother has forbidden her to see. What her mother does not know cannot hurt her, so Ruby sneaks off in her afternoons to visit Paulie, and before long, she finds herself being sucked into his world of crime and deception. WWII is looming, and Ruby must decide, does she want to stay true to herself and her family, or does she want a glamorous life.
Ten Cents A Dance is an honest look at how poverty and need can lead an innocent girl into a life she may not understand, but quickly adapt to. Christine Fletcher describes how Ruby waffles back and forth and rationalizes what she is doing in a way young readers can identify with. Various ethical issues arise in Ruby’s story, which are ripe for discussion. Ruby’s experiences point to a historical time period that is intriguing and also something of a turning point for women in the American workforce.
If you like this book, you might also like What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (2008) and Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen (2010).
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