Lullabies For Little Criminals (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Lullabies for Little Criminals, set in the crime-alerted city of Montreal, is Heather O'Neill's most extraordinary piece of writing so far. I happened to glance through the first few pages of this book when I was hunting for books to help me endure my Summer holidays, at my local bookstore, and luckily I was only able to skim through the beginning of the book before deciding to buy it. Because had I seen what was in store for me at the climax, I wouldn't have hesitated before slamming that book back in the bookshelf, where I though it belonged. Prostitution, drug addictions and 'pimp' stalkers are not things I expected a 12 year old to deal with, even in one of the most crime-infected areas of the world. But as the novel progressed, so did my interest, and I found myself rushing through the last few pages of the book, gripping the pages while anticipating the ending.The story is based around the life of Baby, a vulnerable yet smart young girl, while she battles between the fine lines that define childhood and adulthood. She struggles with reality, and forces herself to oblivion to avoid the ugly facts that confront her when her father her father indulges his Heroin addiction and abandons all presences of looking after her. With a 'pimp' who strikes up a special interest to Baby and a sometimes-abusive father, Baby's life is far from perfect, but she manages to find beauty in certain things in life that we ourselves take for granted, which undoubtedly keeps her afloat to the chaos that engulfs her through her 'childhood'. This was, without a doubt, one of the most enthralling books I have ever read. No, not because of an extraordinary use of vocabulary or insightful observations, but because it was an honest-to-god, factual novel that actually allowed the reader to step into 12 year old Baby's world and experience the dark, dangerous city of Montreal as it is. Although this book may be hard to digest, it certainly provides an inside look into the world of drug-lords and addicts. Yes, O'Neill lacks personal opinion and feeling in certain incidents in the novel, such as ransacking a former friend's house or being subjected to abuse, but that proves to be an asset rather than a vulnerability. The casual way the author is able to describe incidents with an oblivious feel to narration, makes the facts she puts down so much more realistic. Scrape away the few emotions that sugarcoat Baby's life and you have some horrendous facts in front of you, and the fact that the 12 year old is unable to process then means that it is your job to do so. Add the fact that the events of this novel are narrated without a trace of self-pity or wallowing, and the novel is the perfect tool for instant gratitude. Had Baby resided to her room each time she was treated unfairly, bawling her eyes out while marveling at her misfortune, I would have been able to relate to the character so much more. But her lack of self-awareness only led to me becoming so much more aware of her, and I found myself taking her place and pitying her. Baby was used throughout the novel, and her naivety makes it so much more agitating to get through the book. At some point in the novel I felt like shouting in her ear 'He's taking advantage of you, DO something!'. She only adds to my angst when she wordlessly accepts the criticism and mistreatment her father and Alphonse (her 'pimp') had to offer without any protests, but perhaps O'Neill meant for us to feel this way as to truly let us see the real picture she had painted for us.Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who was feeling particular ungrateful or spiteful at any time of the day, because this shocking novel will snap you right out of any fits, and will have you counting your lucky stars in no time. A word of caution, this book is not for the fainthearted, so if you're looking for one of those happy-go-lucky novels before bedtime, perhaps you should try another novel. Although this novel is difficult to get through, and is quite hard to get into towards the beginning, you will certainly thank yourself when you actually finish reading and have experienced the book for yourself.
don't make your books look like chick lit if you want people to read 'em.more free advice from me.but it's true - not all of us have a sarah montambo in our lives to tell us, "no, this is really very good." because it is. and this is not just me groping all the canadian books in the corner of the dancefloor, this book is a sparkly little gem.at the beginning, it reminded me a lot of weetzie bat. it is a similarly glossy-slick storytelling style, but this one is about a girl with a loving junkie single dad who treats her like a peer (and since he is only 15 years older than her, he's not far off) and they breeze from apartment to apartment in montreal in a daze where there are no consequences and everything will be okay, even if they have no money and there are dangers on the streets and foster homes.but it doesn't stay rosy.this one is not teen fiction, but she captures the young teenage character so well, in both thoughts and actions. even though baby is exposed to so much that is unsavory, she is still a little kid with a kid's energy, freaking out pimps with her sudden dancing and yelling, trashing a house and not stealing the jewelry (because of her own kid-logic) but stealing a cute turtle knickknack, avoiding bathing...it's like what greg is always saying when he talks about lolita; that lo is totally gross, the way a little kid is, playing with her gum and being dirty and smelly, and it's not like in the movie at all, or in most may-december films. kids are rarely sexually precocious, even when they are imitating behaviors they have seen or been taught. the gross will always out. and i loved that about this book; the moments of kid-grossery that would pop out unexpectedly. in the back of the book, where harpercollins slaps all those readers' guides and interviews, there is this wonderful passage in her "making of" feature:the inability to properly identify danger exists throughout the book. whereas children can be terrified by a puppet of a crocodile or a photograph of a shark in a national geographic magazine, they are unable to get it through their heads to look both ways when they cross the street or that there are strangers that you cannot talk to....when i was eleven, i used to have a friend whose older brother was a junkie. he and his friends were the coolest kids in the neighborhood. some high points in my childhood were when drug addicts would flip out and come out of their apartments in their underwear with cats on their heads. we kids would dance around them, shouting and laughing with our hands up in the air. i wanted to capture this nonjudgmental attitude a lot of lower-class kids have to drugs. i also wanted to portray the relationships these same kids have with seedy adults. children believe the lies that adults tell them and are dutifully impressed. lowlifes are fantastical creatures who animate the world of children, and, in turn, lowlifes love children who are their most captive and adoring audience.that's what i was trying to say, about the things i liked about this book. but she is a writer, so she said it much much better.this book was written five years ago. i am ready for a follow-up, please!!edit - yayyy!!! i finally got my second book. thanks for listening, heather o'neill!
What do You think about Lullabies For Little Criminals (2006)?
Oh, I really did want to like this book. I fell in love with Heather O'Neill's story about Jesus in middle school on This American Life, and was hoping for more writing like that. Instead, I often found her writing style so distracting that it was hard to stay in the story. Just opening the book to a couple random pages:"The snowflakes came down like little bits of newspaper. The night was a typewriter key that got stuck and kept punching all the letters on top of the others until all that was left was a black blob.""All the trees looked like the tufts you pulled out of hairbrushes. They were like a child's drawing of lightning or the veins on an old man's arm."Like fellow reviewer Sharon, as the book went on I found it harder to care about the characters and what was happening to them. I still have hope for O'Neill's future work, but this one did not do it for me.
—Jessica
12 year old Baby lives with her 27 year old father Jules in a run down apartment in Montreal. She's known little else of life, seeing that her mother was tragically killed at a young age, and for the most part, life's been okay with Jules. He tries hard and he provides what he can when he can.Except, now that Baby is at that tender age of awareness of adults and their faults, she's realizing Jules is far more troubled than she ever believed. He is in and out of rehab for drugs, for illness, for being an all together wreck of a human being. Baby herself shifts from an apartment with Jules to a home for children then back to life with Jules and then, ultimately, the most painful life: living with the man who took away all of her innocence. O'Neill's book was incredibly hard to read, as Baby's story begins as entirely optimistic, despite being dark and painful. Being Jules's age, I kept finding myself caring a lot about his story and worrying about him in a way that Baby purposefully didn't -- which is testament to the skill of the writing, I think. As much as this is Baby's story, she herself is so outwardly focused that she doesn't realize how much life around her impacts her directly. She's very much looking for that silver lining and appreciating it on immense levels. But Baby loses so much of herself when (view spoiler)[ she falls into being abused sexually. While she agrees to being sexually active with older men, agrees to being prostituted out, it's downright abuse of her. As readers, we watch her innocence being raped away, and more than once I had to put the book down and just stop because I was crying so hard. (hide spoiler)]
—Kelly
I was so impressed by this book. And while it's true, as a previous reviewer wrote, that there are similes galore, I thought they were insightful and original and become part of the character's personality, and voice. Even though I was aware of these stylistic elements, I think that the girl's voice seemed to me to be coming from a later stage in her life, looking back somewhat, so it was not inconceivable to me that it would be insightful and mature. The book captivated me. The brutal childhood of Baby was shocking, but guess what...there are children who live such lives, and from what I have read, Heather O'Neil knows of what she speaks. I thought it to be a wonderful and original book.
—C. Highbury
