Lullabies for Little Criminals
CDN$ 6.62
Brilliantly Original - This book possesses some of the most original writing published in Canada in a very long time. It contains more brilliant poetic images than most writers, including poets, will produce over an entire career. The author s capturing of the emotional lives and imaginations of the characters is also profound.
waste of time - Reading this book was a total waste of time. I kept reading it because I thought it had to get better - after all it did win an award! I was wrong. It didn t get better and the worst part is I will never be able to get back the time I wasted reading this book when there are so many books worth reading like for instance Kite Runner. Now that s a good book.
Brilliance... Sheer Brilliance - I hadn t heard anything about this novel before I read it. I became interested in it based on the plot and intrigued by its status as the winner of Canada Reads. As it turns out, I absolutely devoured this novel in just over a day during my Christmas holidays. As a student, it s such a treat to read something that means something to me that I can pick apart and keep the parts of the novel that I like without it becoming sterile and overkilled. I love this novel entirely, and that s what I found while reading it.What I find beautiful about this book is what I have found a lot of people criticize about it. For one, that the characters all seem overly naive and simplistic and everything seems taken in stride. I found this to be a haunting layer to the novel in that Baby, the protagonist, is only 12. She longs for childhood, she longs to see things through a child s eyes, despite that it becomes increasingly difficult for her too. The almost lighthearted tone of her relationship with her father seems purposeful, to project a sort of longing for simplicity in her life. As well, a lack of understanding and most importantly, to demonstrate that these misfortunes, tragedies and sadnesses happen to Baby all the time. This is her life. This is what she s used to. The simplicity of her vision reflects that so perfectly and seems a clear reason for the first-person narration.Something else that people criticize about Lullabies is the lack of dramatic tension, the fact that it is obvious nothing happens to Baby and so the novel seems boring and predictable. While I was reading this, I found the fact that she doesn t die (or worse) incredible. Her ability to survive in this world and her dependence on luck and wit without even realizing she needs to depend on these things is amazingly and accurately portrayed.All of these episodic events in her life are completely horrendous, all the other side characters are so tragic, all the adults are so selfish. And yet, the book is so completely beautiful that it s almost easy for us as readers to be caught up in the sweeping imagery that eclipses the horror story of this novel. Yet, gruesome, difficult-to-handle scenes pull us back in and remind us that this is Baby s brutal reality, something that she managed to find beautiful when she was 12. O Neill handles delicate characters with often rough, unsympathetic hands and yet, there is sympathy in even the most minute child in the novel. She walks a perfect line between tragic and gorgeous and does it so eloquently, I was in awe.There are too many reasons to love this book. Read it and see why for yourself.
Just....bad. - This book is just poorly written. The characters are completely false. There is an obvious aping of Holden Caulfield here but the effect is frustratingly inept. There is no dramatic tension and the characters are cliche. The overall effect is just grating. I was surprised to read the author s bio at the end because the reading convinced me that the author had no experience with poverty or street life. Every character and situation is absurdly romanticized and the motivation of the characters comes across as incredibly simplistic. The author seems to have some idea about an affinity between children and adults marginalized by drug use, poverty and mental illness. It just comes across incredibly naive. My review is overly negative mostly because of my impatience with the fundamental flaw here: bad writing.
Not what I was expecting - After all the rave reviews and extensive coverage of Lullabies, I came away feeling a bit disappointed. The book does not flow well and none of the characters are likable. I found it hard to feel sympathy for Baby, much less her idiotic father or anyone else she crossed paths with. I feel as though Heather O Neill wrote Lullabies simply to shock people, and I know that she has succeeded in that sense, the book is certainly shocking and often appalling, almost to the point of being self-destructive. It seems as though nothing good happens in Baby s world, and if something good does occur, it is inevitably followed by a chain of horrible events. Although it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, Lullabies can and will hold your attention.