I just received Lullabies for Little Criminals in the mail today. I’ll provide updates on my thoughts later.
From the backcover:
A gritty, heart-wrenching novel about bruised innocence on the city’s feral streets– the remarkable debut of a stunning literary talent. Heather O’Neill dazzles with a first novel of extraordinary prescience and power, a subtly understated yet searingly effective story of a young life on the streets–and the strength, wits and luck necessary for survival.
At thirteen, Baby vacillates between childhood comforts and adult temptation: still young enough to drag her dolls around in a vinyl suitcase yet old enough to know more than she should about urban cruelties. Motherless, she lives with her father, Jules, who takes better care of his heroin habit than he does of his daughter. Baby’s gift is a genius for spinning stories and for cherishing the small crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. But her blossoming beauty has captured the attention of a charismatic and dangerous local pimp who runs an army of sad, slavishly devoted girls–a volatile situation even the normally oblivious Jules cannot ignore. And when an escape disguised as betrayal threatens to crush Baby’s spirit, she will ultimately realize that the power of salvation rests in her hands alone.
Sounds interesting. I’ve always preferred “heart-wrenching” over “heart-warming.” I read somewhere else that this novel is “semi-autobiographical,” which, I guess is unsurprising: I’ve always viewed Heather O’Neill that way in my mind–rough and forlorn with the child/adult vacillation and all. The back also has mad props from our friend David Rakoff ["This is a beautiful book, all the more remarkable beacuse its harrowing tale is (vitruosically) told without a trace of self-pity or bathos..."] and a brief bio:
Heather O’Neill is a contributor to This American Life, and her work has appeared in New York Times Magazine. She lives in Montreal, Canada.
Hm, they left out her most sterling accomplishment (in my eyes): contributor to Wiretap and “long-time partner” of Jonathan Goldstein! No worries, our hero gets mentioned in the dedication:
“I would especially like to thank . . . Jonathan Goldstein for love and squalor.”
Squalor? Hm. I guess I do remember him noting that he (or a character?) looks like he has a five o’clock shadow even when clean-shaven. Here’s how Transom.org displays him:
Anyway, that’s all for now.
UPDATE: Turns out there’s an audio podcast excerpt of this from HarperCollins Canada Prosecast. Check it. It’s read by Miriam McDonald, “one of the stars of Degrassi: The Next Generation.” Here’s what else they said:
This podcast is the second in our series of excerpts from terrific new AudioBooks. This
time, we’ll be listening to the beginning of Heather O’Neill’s debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals. This book was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, as well as winning CBC Radio’s prestigious Canada Reads. It’s no wonder all of Canada was reading it.
