Copyright New York Times
- - - - Stephen Elliott's HAPPY BABY (McSweeney's with MacAdam/Cage, $21) is surely the most intelligent and beautiful book ever written about juvenile detention centers, sadomasochism and drugs. Lesser writers might be tempted to milk such material for shock value, but one of Elliott's many gifts is his light touch. Nowhere in this, his fourth novel, does Elliott either overexplain or depict gratuitous brutality. Instead, in episodic chapters told in reverse chronological order, his guiding principles are precision and realism. Theo, the narrator, experienced sexual abuse, violence and occasional camaraderie during his adolescence as a ward of the state of Illinois (Elliot himself was also a ward of the state). As an adult, Theo feels most sexually and emotionally fulfilled when he is being insulted or punished. Seeking out, for example, a prostitute who "makes" him wear a diaper, Theo could appear freakish; but he is so fully drawn, and so honest about himself, that he seems touchingly normal. In deft, vivid scenes, other characters also come to life — the dialogue is both natural-sounding and surprising — and Theo's first girlfriend, Maria, is especially smart, complicated and, like Theo himself, matter-of-factly rather than self-pityingly unhappy. Though Theo sometimes longs for clarity or peace, both he and the book accept as a given that many people struggle almost all the time - and that such struggling doesn't preclude moments of humor and comfort. The novel's backward structure means that rather than building momentum, it offers the sense of a mystery being slowly solved. That the mystery of why Theo, or anyone, turns out as he does is essentially unsolvable makes it no less satisfying, or, in Theo's case, less heartbreaking. Curtis Sittenfeld - - - - Happy Baby was recently reviewed in Booklist, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Village Voice. To purchase Happy Baby, click here. - - - -
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