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Stupid Baby
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 28, 2022
Idiot scum. Blind idiot. Stupid baby. Luckless fool. Cunt-face.
July 10, 2018
There appeared to be some apprehension from other reviewers about the content, and granted it is about a relationship between a prostitute and a John in Thailand, it is so well written that, for me at least, the apprehension faded away with each brief chapter. New Juche is an excellent writer, the descriptions of the swamp and the relationships are so fleshed out and well composed it drags you in. Each chapter begins with texts and references to images, emojis, etc. that are a really clever device to show this sordid love (?) triangle. Anyway, it's definitely one that stunned me a bit with the level of quality of the prose and the abject subject matter. A big find.
November 25, 2019
this one was warm and bold and genius to me. looks at a relationship between two people, with a sort of dark third body in the water, if that makes sense, and it does in the end. there's a lot in here that i absolutely cannot relate to, experiences i have never had and have no desire to. but in divuling this there's also a lot of universality in how these experiences make us feel, like a fine chaulk that seepings into the wide gaps in our personalities, leaving you changed and full of strange synthetic gel. not obtuse for the sake of being obtuse, just laying out the facts and details in an interesting order. could feasibly be pure fiction or direct modified-diary memoir. could be about your own life in a dream not so wild. i expected the language here to be more cruel or lust-for-power-y but its not. its about understanding i guess, about transactionality, bodies, the limits of everything, about leaving, about insulting someone and being insulted, about beliefs you don't understand, it's very very good. going to check out more from this fellow. a recommended lunch break read. i ate it while having the final portion of this huge slow cooker chili i had made the week before. this was somewhat wise
April 7, 2026
This book was upsetting and sad, but good. The pattern that it used, the repetitions of text messages from Thai prostitutes followed by thorough, journalistic descriptions of the narrator’s life with these ladies, culminated in something mournfully sad. The environments these tales happened in, and the people described, were grotesque but somehow at the same time, suffused with a humane presence. Prostitution, pornography, outsiders, obsession: these are the cardinals points to New Juche’s compass as developed in Stupid Baby. This was a score from Amphetamine Sulphate. Uncomfortable and redolent with the literary underground.
June 4, 2018
Derationalizes a physical form; removes sexuality from sex and allows the act to simply become an image. The most affecting text I've read this year (alongside Dennis Cooper's "Closer"), I do wonder why Juche forgoes the privilege of visibility and sight, here? In that we are fairly consistently disallowed any sense of imagery and instead place, pivotal action takes the forefront. It's an effective methodology and one that allows the closing pages to close in all at once, but means the first half (that is, on a first read) struggles to scale the heights of the rest.
"Prostitution shifted from being my private escapeful world into a cultish lifestyle with stupid values. That is what flattens people. I thought I was being clever and audacious."
"Prostitution shifted from being my private escapeful world into a cultish lifestyle with stupid values. That is what flattens people. I thought I was being clever and audacious."
March 13, 2019
Highly recommend. A love story told though Thailand sweat
April 11, 2019
Recommended!
April 10, 2025
Brief but kind of beautiful within the vacant loneliness of NJ's prose. This dude loves boobs.
March 16, 2022
The thirty-something narrator of Stupid Baby, a Scottish ex-pat, lives in a Thai slum with a prostitute named Goong, his girlfriend. The conditions are squalid, the setting tropical, the heat sweltering, the breeze nil, the stench profound. Surprisingly, supplies of water and electricity are reliable.
The story divides along two lines that slowly merge as it unfolds: A series of twinned text messages from two women begins each chapter, one gentle and coaxing, the other abusive and hostile. The rest of each chapter consists of the narrator’s recollections of Goong, whom he abandoned, and their lives together on the narrator’s tab, paid, presumably via earnings from his writing (about what or for whom is never mentioned).
In exchange for the narrator paying Goong’s family’s bills, she has sex with him daily. She also comes to like him, for at least two reasons—his taking care of her family and his remaining devoted to her, a woman 20 years his senior. That’s one of his kinks. He’s a man of kinks, all of which—like his preference for older women—are harmless (save for the potential transmission of STDs).
He is either on a journey toward or away from salvation from a life of drink and whoring. While he prefers emotional and physical isolation from others (see also Chet Brown’s Paying for It), he is also saddened by harming Goong with his behavior. What remains ambiguous is whether, by leaving her, he is attempting to come to terms with himself in a way that would allow him to reunite with her or pushing himself to further pursue his encounters with ladyboys—which seems to be the point of contention motivating the story’s action.
New Juche is the pseudonym of a photographer and writer who works in Southeast Asia. (“Juche” is the term given to Kim Il-sung's so-called “thoughts.” I assume the appellation is intended as humorously ironic.) He seems to be William Vollmann’s protégé: in general, regarding Vollmann’s writings on prostitutes; in particular, Vollmann’s time writing about and living with Southeast Asian prostitutes (see Butterly Stories, for instance). I’m a fan of Vollmann’s, so that’s a good thing.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
The story divides along two lines that slowly merge as it unfolds: A series of twinned text messages from two women begins each chapter, one gentle and coaxing, the other abusive and hostile. The rest of each chapter consists of the narrator’s recollections of Goong, whom he abandoned, and their lives together on the narrator’s tab, paid, presumably via earnings from his writing (about what or for whom is never mentioned).
In exchange for the narrator paying Goong’s family’s bills, she has sex with him daily. She also comes to like him, for at least two reasons—his taking care of her family and his remaining devoted to her, a woman 20 years his senior. That’s one of his kinks. He’s a man of kinks, all of which—like his preference for older women—are harmless (save for the potential transmission of STDs).
He is either on a journey toward or away from salvation from a life of drink and whoring. While he prefers emotional and physical isolation from others (see also Chet Brown’s Paying for It), he is also saddened by harming Goong with his behavior. What remains ambiguous is whether, by leaving her, he is attempting to come to terms with himself in a way that would allow him to reunite with her or pushing himself to further pursue his encounters with ladyboys—which seems to be the point of contention motivating the story’s action.
New Juche is the pseudonym of a photographer and writer who works in Southeast Asia. (“Juche” is the term given to Kim Il-sung's so-called “thoughts.” I assume the appellation is intended as humorously ironic.) He seems to be William Vollmann’s protégé: in general, regarding Vollmann’s writings on prostitutes; in particular, Vollmann’s time writing about and living with Southeast Asian prostitutes (see Butterly Stories, for instance). I’m a fan of Vollmann’s, so that’s a good thing.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
April 19, 2026
"The buildings are blackened and stained with grime and welts of water damage inside and out. The corridors are filled with insects and feral dogs. Accumulated tat fringes each block like a defensive structure; old ladders, lengths of pipe, rusted skeletons of bicycles and motorbikes, toys, shoes, rice sacks, and terrific growths of luminous green foliage that frame makeshift hovels and shops, giving their dark interiors an accent like the mouths of so many caves. Rats clamber through piles of organic waste and lizards cover the concrete walls. The humid air is heavier still with smoke and cement dust."
Stupid Baby is a deeply and horrifically sad novel - It is bleak, and upsetting and feels so god-damn isolating. There's just something so lonely, so very depressing and desolate about this novel. New Juche is a damn great writer, the almost poetic quality of his prose only seems to heighten the melancholic nature of this story and the vividity with which he envisions the environment he writes about is simply breathtaking. This is a novel that left me both stunned and speechless, in fact, it's hard, still, to do this novel justice in a simple review. You'd be forgiven for having some apprehension going into this book, it is, after all, a love story between a prostitute and a john, there's drug use and people living in squalor, and it all feels very seedy and dirty and filthy.
But, the moment you push past your initiation apprehension, the moment you take in the beauty of the prose, the moment you truly appreciate the descriptions of the sordid relationships and oppressive living conditions, you'll find yourself captivated and enraptured. I still have no idea how to categorize this book, or what genre of novel this even is - Stupid Baby is full of feelings I have absolutely no desire to ever relate to, yet, being submerged in this world feels nothing short of magical. This is another one of those books that excels in writing about being alive when being alive is really fucking awful, actually. And, there's something almost soft about the storytelling here, given the subject matter you'd almost expect a book full of the most abject cruelty.
And, maybe it is, maybe this is actually a horrible, cruel, nasty novel. If there's cruelty here at all, though, it's subtle and muted. For all of its sadness and drugged-out bliss, this is a startlingly powerful novel, it's a truly enlightening experience - it's sort of Dennis Cooper but set in Thailand, a highly recommended read. Uncomfortable, and certain to leave behind a stain on your soul, Stupid Baby is a very human novel. Its words may make it seem ugly and grotesque, foul and disgusting, even, but, there's true beauty here. Books like this one are achieving what, I believe, literature should be achieving, impacting us and changing us, challenging us, making us uncomfortable and forcing us to think. Stupid Baby wasn't as harrowing as I first imagined it would be, it was simply just, wonderful.
"Fucking farang scum like you hate women with good hearts. Fucking farang scum, lizard farang like you like women with low manners. Good liars. Fuck around. Lizards like women like that. Goong said you're a faggot. Can't fuck properly. If you can't fuck, make sure your new woman doesn't fuck around on you. Scum like you will always find fucking lizard women. It makes sense. Evil men like you can't get a good woman like me. Cunt-skin face. Smeared-shit-face. Sick faggot. Fucking faggot. Lizard. Low fucking cunt. Idiot. Moron. Wrinkly-arse-fucker. Scum."
Stupid Baby is a deeply and horrifically sad novel - It is bleak, and upsetting and feels so god-damn isolating. There's just something so lonely, so very depressing and desolate about this novel. New Juche is a damn great writer, the almost poetic quality of his prose only seems to heighten the melancholic nature of this story and the vividity with which he envisions the environment he writes about is simply breathtaking. This is a novel that left me both stunned and speechless, in fact, it's hard, still, to do this novel justice in a simple review. You'd be forgiven for having some apprehension going into this book, it is, after all, a love story between a prostitute and a john, there's drug use and people living in squalor, and it all feels very seedy and dirty and filthy.
But, the moment you push past your initiation apprehension, the moment you take in the beauty of the prose, the moment you truly appreciate the descriptions of the sordid relationships and oppressive living conditions, you'll find yourself captivated and enraptured. I still have no idea how to categorize this book, or what genre of novel this even is - Stupid Baby is full of feelings I have absolutely no desire to ever relate to, yet, being submerged in this world feels nothing short of magical. This is another one of those books that excels in writing about being alive when being alive is really fucking awful, actually. And, there's something almost soft about the storytelling here, given the subject matter you'd almost expect a book full of the most abject cruelty.
"By twelve the heat is so intense that all I can bear to do is lie on the stone floor between two fans and dribble cold water on myself. I smell like a dog. The heat and lack of exercise occasion the most debilitating lethargy and ennui in the evenings, it's paralysing, I'm listless but I can't concentrate on anything. Even going down to buy food and ice feels like a major undertaking. When I wake in the morning I feel a dull panic at the prospect of facing the hours ahead."
And, maybe it is, maybe this is actually a horrible, cruel, nasty novel. If there's cruelty here at all, though, it's subtle and muted. For all of its sadness and drugged-out bliss, this is a startlingly powerful novel, it's a truly enlightening experience - it's sort of Dennis Cooper but set in Thailand, a highly recommended read. Uncomfortable, and certain to leave behind a stain on your soul, Stupid Baby is a very human novel. Its words may make it seem ugly and grotesque, foul and disgusting, even, but, there's true beauty here. Books like this one are achieving what, I believe, literature should be achieving, impacting us and changing us, challenging us, making us uncomfortable and forcing us to think. Stupid Baby wasn't as harrowing as I first imagined it would be, it was simply just, wonderful.
"Fucking farang scum like you hate women with good hearts. Fucking farang scum, lizard farang like you like women with low manners. Good liars. Fuck around. Lizards like women like that. Goong said you're a faggot. Can't fuck properly. If you can't fuck, make sure your new woman doesn't fuck around on you. Scum like you will always find fucking lizard women. It makes sense. Evil men like you can't get a good woman like me. Cunt-skin face. Smeared-shit-face. Sick faggot. Fucking faggot. Lizard. Low fucking cunt. Idiot. Moron. Wrinkly-arse-fucker. Scum."
April 22, 2026
After reading New Juche’s Mountainhead, I was faced with the sobering realization that I had encountered yet another fringe author working in highly limited print runs which would inspire an obsessive need to collect in me. Fortunately, Amphetamine Sulphate’s recent reprints obviated my need to track down a copy of Stupid Baby on the secondary market. It is, unsurprisingly, outstanding.
Describing New Juche’s writing is a challenge in that every adjective used to describe it feels shallow and one-dimensional; one could call it hallucinatory, erotic, depressive, agonizing, and spiritual, and one would be correct in every regard, but completely useless in describing the actual process of reading his work. Stupid Baby is a brief work which details the author’s relationship with a middle-aged Thai prostitute, expressed in simultaneously razor-sharp and pillow-soft fragments of memory. Where Mountainhead sprawls dreamlike and mystical even in its most brutal moments, Stupid Baby has the flat, punishing quality of fully internalized and accepted personal guilt. Juche’s relationship with Goong is both tender and transactional, hopelessly doomed by its very nature, but not in a way that delegitimizes the emotional texture present; it is very clear that Juche was, on some level, in love with this woman, that love expressed through achingly worshipful description of her body and mannerisms, at once dreadfully solipsistic in its fetishism but also open-hearted and vulnerable in a manner rarely seen in this sort of writing. At no point does Juche try to defend his own behavior and its violent self-centeredness; if nothing else, he is a man deeply in touch with his own flaws and worldview. But part of accepting those flaws involves allowing a humanizing grace to permeate his writing- the absence of vast moral questions allows the granular reality of kindness and mistreatment to be revealed. What does “goodness” mean for a man who has, in some sense at least, abandoned society itself? Stupid Baby is one potential answer: a hazy life of petty cruelties, legitimate beauty, and an absolute dedication to unvarnished truth. Highly recommended.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
Describing New Juche’s writing is a challenge in that every adjective used to describe it feels shallow and one-dimensional; one could call it hallucinatory, erotic, depressive, agonizing, and spiritual, and one would be correct in every regard, but completely useless in describing the actual process of reading his work. Stupid Baby is a brief work which details the author’s relationship with a middle-aged Thai prostitute, expressed in simultaneously razor-sharp and pillow-soft fragments of memory. Where Mountainhead sprawls dreamlike and mystical even in its most brutal moments, Stupid Baby has the flat, punishing quality of fully internalized and accepted personal guilt. Juche’s relationship with Goong is both tender and transactional, hopelessly doomed by its very nature, but not in a way that delegitimizes the emotional texture present; it is very clear that Juche was, on some level, in love with this woman, that love expressed through achingly worshipful description of her body and mannerisms, at once dreadfully solipsistic in its fetishism but also open-hearted and vulnerable in a manner rarely seen in this sort of writing. At no point does Juche try to defend his own behavior and its violent self-centeredness; if nothing else, he is a man deeply in touch with his own flaws and worldview. But part of accepting those flaws involves allowing a humanizing grace to permeate his writing- the absence of vast moral questions allows the granular reality of kindness and mistreatment to be revealed. What does “goodness” mean for a man who has, in some sense at least, abandoned society itself? Stupid Baby is one potential answer: a hazy life of petty cruelties, legitimate beauty, and an absolute dedication to unvarnished truth. Highly recommended.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
July 22, 2022
such a disgusting, beautifully composed piece. new juche crafts an appalling labyrinth that reels you in, chews you up, and spits you out in the blink of an eye. i’m so glad i stumbled upon this brilliance, highly recommended for those wanting to explore the grotesque
October 31, 2023
A very well written romcom.
June 18, 2025
My introduction to the author and probably a good one for most. A good blend of prose about abjection, harshness, beauty, and being the john. Somehow not his meanest work.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews