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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (310711) Rating (8/10) Review
by Ben Macnair The book is not as bleak as it could have been, although there are obvious elements of tragedy. Baby is written as a wise character, a female Holden Caulfield for the 21st century, able to see through the cosy world that many children her age enjoyed, and able to accept the more adult reality, and the knowledge that the only person she can really rely on is herself. The reader is led through her life in a variety of Foster homes, her encounters with her unreliable father and his dubious friends, his attempts to clean himself up, only to fail time and time again, the schools she goes to, but never quite fits in with, her habitually changing living arrangements of rotting hostels and downtown hotels. There are truly tragic aspects in the novel, Baby’s time spent in detention centres and on the streets as a prostitute stand out for their well written, vivid depictions of life that are so easily glossed over in society. Towards the denouement of the novel, Jules realises that Baby deserves more than he can offer her, and she goes to live with one of his cousin, who lives in the town that Jules left when he was 16, with his daughter, and not a lot more.
The book is relatively long, at more than 350 pages, but it needs
that space and scope to tell the story of Baby’s life, and although
it has a relatively happy ending, there are a lot of lose ends
that are left untied. |
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