Written in an nonlinear manner, Stephen Elliott accompanies his readers through Theo's heartbreaking and haunting story that started from his current life as a submissive and spineless adult to his abusive and violent childhood. Elliott tells such a heavy and difficult story to read in a light and subtle way that it left the readers developing a slight ache in their hearts despite not knowing the roots of Theo's troubles until the end. I am fond of books, movies, TV shows, and any type of media

I won’t presume to imagine Stephen Elliott’s reaction on the day, not long after the publication of Elliott’s Happy Baby, when wunderkind street hustler author JT LeRoy was exposed as a middle-aged woman named Laura Albert. Unaware of Albert’s grandest and grossest fiction—her impersonation of a young man afflicted with AIDS—Elliott had placed a chunk from a JT LeRoy interview ahead of his own precise and sure Happy Baby narration, and a JT LeRoy blurb gushes on the novel’s back cover. So, I pic...

Stephen Elliot's Happy Baby is beautiful. Although I am not saying the subject matter is beautiful. Violence, sadness, desperation, fear, abandonment, and rape - are not subjects that are beautiful. However the book is still beautiful. Elliot's sparse writing style of stripped down quick prose not only gets the job done, but flows with the rhythm, or maybe the pulse, of who he was then - even though it is the "him" of now that is telling us the story. If that makes any sense, I don't know. This

oh man. good but a harrowing read. definitely a poor choice on my part for beach reading.

sad, wise and heartbreaking. what more could you ask for in a book? the writing is first rate and what's even better -- the writer knows what he's talking about. he's lived the life and it's palpable. the book is told in reverse order but, once you understand that, it's not a problem. i read this book right after reading 'the delivery man' by joe mcginess jr. hated that book because it was so false you felt it in every page. hey joe, if you want to know what's it like to write about fucked-up ch...

I downloaded a free copy from Mr. Elliott's website. And I read this while simultaneously reading Elliott's newest book, The Adderall Diaries, and while reading the oral histories of his childhood friends and acquaintances on therumpus.net. All of these writings deal in some way with the same subject and time period --- so I feel like maybe I will end up remembering all of it in a lump, fictionalized and not.So, anyway. Elliott has a very clear way of writing without sacrificing description. One...

Told anti-linearly, this book illuminates darker corners of the sadomasochistic mind in a more thoughtful and sensitive fashion than I expected. It is about the marriage of sexuality and violence. Brave, sparse and lovely. Plus Stephen Elliott is super nice---I met him (and bought this book) at a Sex Worker's Art Show; he showed us his scars.

I waffled a lot on whether to give this book three or four stars. Sometimes I found the subject matter -- S&M, drugs, sodomy -- difficult to read. Sometimes I found the subject matter -- love, identity, pain, loss -- enveloping. Mostly I liked it. Some passages were searingly beautiful. I think it's a really significant novel, beautifully executed. Having read some of Elliott's nonfiction, it's impossible to read this without knowing that much of it is rooted in reality. I'm not sure whether tha...

My favorite of the three novels by Elliott that I've read. His portrayal of children in foster care in Chicago seems improbably horrific, but I suspect some very real life experience was utilized to create the scenes described in "Happy Baby." Each chapter works as a stand alone short story, and the literary device Elliott uses here (telling the story in reverse chronology) brings the main character, Theo, into intense focus by the end (when Theo is a 5th grader). The narrative is sparse, but th...

"Wow."That's what I said last evening upon finishing Stephen Elliott's impressive Happy Baby. Though the subject matter, particularly the scenes of S&M and drug use, is often quite disturbing, this book has an oddly uplifting quality to it. Elliott based the novel generously on his own childhood as a ward of the State of Illinois, and it's a tightly written adventure through group homes, juvenile detention facilities and ultimately the outside world, from the sex trade of Amsterdam to file-clerk...

Very unappealing. I'll read a little more, since several people I respect say it is very good. Okay, I'm about halfway done with this. No doubt I'll finish. It's an amazing book. Finished this a few days ago. The chapter sequence comes in reverse. At times, I wondered if this technique was too affective. It isn't. The last chapter is powerful. It made me reconsider everyting that had happened to the protagonist and understand a little bit how he'd arrived at the terrible place he did in the firs...

i learned that stephen elliot is a really good writer, and he took me on a little old trip - a trip to those hideous places unplacable orphans and the children of the fantastically inept are placed, and an explanation of why he likes to get beat up in the right way by a woman he is terrified of.

picked this up to see what my tolerance level is like for forthright prose by slightly damaged thirty-something males in a post-eggers world. plenty of dripping candlewax & coke-and-mirrors so far. but i'm all for futzing around with chronology and this one's told backwards.at the end of it all, i realised i never let myself get below the surface of the story. that might be my fault as a reader, but might also be the distance at which the prose held me. it's clearly heartfelt, clearly very real....

This book reminded me of how I felt when I had to read The Stranger in high school. Back then I was confused by the existentialist tone and the attitude of the main character, who had a total resignation towards his shitty life as it happened around him. Happy Baby had that similar resignation, but it was one I was well familiar with. Something I used to liken to being stuck in the doldrums at sea. The feeling of helplessness. Of simply being a recipient of mundanity, violence, and existence at

That's so weird that I never reviewed this- I just left my review for The Adderall Diaries and saw that I didn't have a rating here. Stephen always says this is his best book, but I think it's just his best pre-Adderall Diaries. They do such different things, though, it's hard to compare them; this is definitely the best novelization of his early life, though. The backwards conceit works well, the prose (as always) is clear and direct and gives you room to feel however you want about it, althoug...

I now totally understand why some people like to be beaten while in sexual situations.

Interesting, this, though I'm not sure whether it has quite the desired effect. The movement into the past feels like regression, but also potentially positively, therapeutically, rather than entirely fatalistically. I kind of feel like it should've had a bit more substance, but it illustrated a lot of stuff I'd been uncertain about.

readable but forgetable

I read this book because I discovered The Rumpus on the internet and then Stephen Elliot on twitter. I subsequently signed up for The Rumpus's newsletter and began to look forward to reading Elliot's emails. So, I went to my local book store, Skylight Books in Los Feliz, and bought Happy Baby, not knowing what to expect really. Reading someone's fiction is drastically different than reading their letters.Elliot's book is beautiful, it's quiet and unassuming and seemingly very honest. It reminds

this book should really have four and a half stars. i found the format of this novel (progressing backwards by chapter) to be perfectly suited for the subject matter (bdsm, juvenile detention centers, and abuse), and Steven Elliot's observations were simple and true. I have one complaint (don't read this if you're planning to read the book...)we never find out really why he got into the detention center. It drove me a little nuts, especially since that is what started his whole life on this part...