Books I have read: Lullabies for Little Criminals

I will do my best to not spoil your reading of this book, because you all should go and read it as soon as you can.

The premise is this: we follow Baby, a 12-13 year old girl who is raised by her father Jules, a 27 year-old heroin addict. This novel contrasts the beauty of the innocence of childhood with the horrible realities of the world. We see Baby make friends, lose friends, and try to find her place in the world. The first person narration adds to the feeling of innocence and removes many of our personal judgements over the various elements in the novel.

Jules is not seen as a horrible father, but as a loving one, Baby's friends are not judged too severely on the basis of their actions, there is a sense of wonder and mystery even when Baby is exposed to the horrors of poverty, drugs, violence, and prostitution. This is a book that will make you go through a whole range of emotions, but if you are anything like me, when it ends, all you will want to do is hug Baby.

This is the kind of book that should be read more often, and I wish I could one day hope to rival Heather O'Neill's ability to write this type of story with a tone that does not leave the reader depressed. It's about human misery, but it is seen through the eyes of someone who does not lose hope, and it's refreshing.