Author: Heather O' Neill
Country: Canada
Year of publication: 2006
Type: Fiction
Number of pages: 330
Themes: Addiction, under-aged sex, juvenile delinquency, vulnerability, childhood
Unlike many other similar books often written in the 3rd person perspective by observers or outsiders, this book examines abuse, addiction and childhood delinquency through the eyes and mind of a freshly-turned-12 female protagonist named "Baby".
Quick Summary
When we meet Baby(yup, legal name!) at the beginning of the book, she was 1 week away from her 12th birthday and had just moved into yet another run-down apartment with Jules, her 27 year old eccentric heroin junkie father. In a span of just over a year, she had trashed and robbed a house with Theo, been placed in juvenile detention, fallen in love and lived with her pimp Alphonse, become hooked on cigarettes, pot and heroine, fallen in love with Xavier, been kicked out of school for having been in juvenile detention, been homeless and just before turning 13, had “turned tricks” with johns in dingy alleys and seedy motel rooms for heroin money. Conversely, the book also details the somewhat loving, heroin-driven lopsided relationship with her father, a 27 year old man-child who was still barely a teenager when he had her at 15, skims over details about her mother(she wasn't even named!) who died a year after she was born, and takes you through her series of jumbled friendships and relationships – first with Theo, then Alphonse who she met through Peaches, and eventually Xavier, her nerdy and awkward first true love.
Pros
Typing out all her “deeds and crimes” makes her a prime case on a national statistic chart on how the 'system' is failing or may even be a social worker's nightmare. It wants to draw disgust, sympathy or smug self righteousness because we think our sins and deeds are better or maybe even a sense of superiority from feeling we would have made better decisions. However, reading the book itself did not evoke any of those emotions mostly because her 12 year old perspective lacked any of the self-pity, excessive guilt and shame or overly reflective tone that an adult narrator would have had. Every major incident was related simply, as it happened and it was lost and never mentioned again.
Again, the narrative doesn't cast judgment on even the morally bankrupt characters we meet through Baby's eyes or try to offer a more “grown up” narrative to explain them away. The book also “stayed in character”: in spite of everything, the author doesn't make Baby overly hardened or cynical and the book maintains its childish candor and tone till the end.
Cons
The author catalogs and lets us examine what was hopefully the seediest one-year slice of Baby's life -she was 12 at the beginning of the book and was just over 13 at the end- and it did a beautiful job capturing the lives of people we often think of as societies' scummiest. However, I don't like how she seemed to romanticize Jules heroin addiction. During the heights of his addiction, she painted a strong mental image of Jules as playful, somewhat loving and spontaneous but during his sober post rehab recovery state, he was perpetually angry and abusive and I feel the author didn't try to reconcile both sides and present a more balanced picture. In later parts of the book, Baby even wishes for her heroin junkie father back so things could go back to the way they used to be.
The book also has a heavy melancholy tone that makes it difficult to get into. The author seemed to try too hard with some of the internal dialogues and metaphors; some of it felt very forced and too hipster-writer-at-a-coffee-shop and was boring to follow.
Having said that, I still enjoyed every bit of it. Or most of it anyway.
Personal Rating:
3.5/5. Unlike the name and cover art kind of implies, this is far from a feel good book for little kids! Although Baby's 12 year old voice and eyes through which we see everything kind of helps to mask some of the seediness, I wouldn't classify it as light reading at all.
Pls tell us what you think about this review.......
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