Sunday Review

This week I thought I would do something a little different with the Sunday Review. I am going to be reviewing a wonderful book I have just finished reading.

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill (the following plot summary is courtesy of Wikipedia)

The novel revolves around the twelve-year-old protagonist named Baby and follows her for two years. Baby lives with her father Jules, who has a worsening heroin addiction. The two move frequently, to various places around Montreal and across Canada, where they encounter many other characters, among them junkies, bums, pimps, and abused children.

Baby was born while Jules was in high school with her mother, who died soon after Baby was born, though the cause of death is not given.

Jules often leaves young Baby by herself wherever they may be living, for anywhere from a week to over a month at a time. Baby becomes distraught and finds herself wandering the streets of Montreal on her own. She is eventually taken away by Child Protective Services and put into a foster home while Jules goes through rehab. When Jules finally picks her up, he promises that everything will return to normal.

As Jules and Baby begin to settle down again, Jules' addiction gets the best of him and he begins to lash out at Baby, often for no reason. Baby eventually runs away and finds a semblance of security with a pimp named Alphonse. Alphonse develops an intimate relationship with Baby, taking her virginity, and forcing her to become a prostitute. She becomes one of his "girls" and is fearful of leaving him. She attempts to return to the apartment she had shared with Jules, but it is locked from the inside and nobody is there, so she assumes Jules has abandoned her. Alphonse also exposes her to heroin, making her addicted to it.

Baby goes back to school while still prostituting herself and meets an odd boy named Xavier. Xavier and Baby slowly but surely become closer and begin to date. As their relationship grows, they become very intimate, and have sex at Alphonse's hotel room, the only place they can be alone. When Alphonse returns to find them there, he beats Xavier and sends him home. Alphonse then beats Baby and takes all of her heroin. When Baby wakes up the next morning, she finds Alphonse dead of a drug overdose.

Baby leaves Alphonse's room and is left with nowhere to go. She decides to go to a nearby homeless shelter where she had heard that Jules was staying. They embrace, and Jules explains that he has set up a place to stay with his cousin. They pack up and walk to the local bus station. On the bus, Jules explains that Baby's mother died in a car crash while Jules was driving.

Upon arrival at Jules' cousin's house, the story ends.

This award winning novel is one which I could not put down. I think I had it read in about 3 nights.

Baby's life and story is so far removed from my life and I was intrigued to see what adventures the author had in store for her lead character. I enjoyed that this book was set in Montreal. It is great to see a Canadian city in an award winning book.

This story is told from Baby's point of view. While she is only 12, she has had to grow up very fast. This novel has believable characters and story lines where the reader feels like they are in the same room as Baby and watching the events of her life take place.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. It deals with drugs, child prostitution, and child abuse. Although, it deals with all of these tough subjects, Baby makes the reader believe she is going to be ok.

The only thing I didn't like about this novel was the ending. I felt like it left the story a little short. When the novel ends Jules and Baby are going to live with Jules' cousin. This cousin character is only brought to life in the last few paragraphs of the story. The way the author has left the book is disappointing because you want to know who this cousin is. From my standpoint, I think the cousin is actually Baby's mother and Jules' and her have reconciled and are now going to live together as a family. That is my view point. If you read the novel and have another opinion on who this cousin character is, please comment on my post.

That is if for now.

Mrs. Harty