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- - - - Booklist
Stephen Elliott
Don't let the title throw you: Elliott's Happy Baby is anything but. The Stanford University lecturer and former Wallace Stegner Fellow peels back the layers of his painful past in this searing examination of the consequences of sexual abuse. A ward of the state of Illinois from the age of 13 to 18, Elliott recounts his own experiences through the eyes of 36-year-old Theo, a man emotionally eviscerated by years of mental and physical torture. Beginning in the present and unraveling back to years of sexual molestation in Chicago's juvenile-detention centers, the street-smart narrator fearlessly dissects a series of dysfunctional relationships in which abuse is equated with affection. From the male caseworker who raped Theo at age 12 to the girlfriend who burned his limbs with cigarettes, Elliott's fourth novel recalls a life defined by longing for both love and pain. Blending the edginess of Augusten Burroughs with the raw emotion of Marguerite Duras, this compelling confessional reveals a ravaged soul seeking solace and resolution in the wake of unspeakable crimes. - Allison Boyle
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