A Life Without Consequences

by Stephen Elliott

A Life Without Consequences is a semi-biographical novel from emerging author Stephen Elliott. His novel traces the fate of Paul, a boy whose mother has died and who runs away from a violent father. The book follows Paul from living on the streets of Chicago to passing through juvenile institutions and a state system that is primarily programmed for failure. There, he meets Tanya and they fall in love but they are young and are separated after a failed attempt to escape the institution. Paul battles through the violent system all the while battling his own rapidly budding adolescence. But as he turns sixteen he starts to come to terms with his own path, not as an adult, but as a scared child and we see that Paul’s emotions that we think of as anger are actually the determination to take control of his future. While the characters are fictional, they are representative of many and we realize the fragility of childhood and the burden on the children who have nowhere else to go.

Genres: Fiction

186 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, as well as a Best Book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, Journal News, and Village Voice. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 & 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He is the editor of Where To Invade Next and three collections of politically inspired fiction. In January, 2009, he founded the online culture magazine, The Rumpus."

Reviews

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never see this anywhere, and it starts at like a dollar on abebooks- I guess because it's early stuff and he doesn't really write about kink? And mostly I, too, am interested in Mr Elliot's stuff about kink- there's one paragraph from Happy Baby that just fuckin haunts me- but I liked this one a lot. It's a funny book, and not the sort of thing that I usually get super sucked into, because it's all about atmosphere, wet blankets and thick snow in Chicago winter, two kids hiding from those elements in an unlocked tool shed, swearing they're in love. That sort of thing.

It's also not as quick a read as the fiction that's come after it- this one's very writerly, whatever that means in 2008. But so you work to get what's going on and then it sticks with you. Also, I was insane, reading it on an airplane between un-restful naps, so my impression of it's maybe a little warped.

Still. Stephen Elliot. Yes.

OH! I just remembered this: it reminded me of the first two Bret Easton Ellis books. In a really good, more concretely plotted way. I like early Bret.

[Tittirossa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non so se sia veramente autobiografico e se l'autobiografia sia solo uno spunto, però notevole.
Crudo ma permeato di pragmatico romanticismo.
Elliott passa da un'esperienza disgraziata all'altra, compreso un manicomio.
Ma evidentemente - come scrive lui - c'è una quota che ce la fa, e lui fa parte di quella quota.
Più sveglio? Più dotato? Chissà, non si piange mai addosso, nonostante ne abbia i motivi!, forse è ancora troppo giovane e la vita dopo l'inizio brutale non l'ha ancora risbattuto a terra.
O forse è forte abbastanza per farcela.

[GD · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I like best about Elliott's book is the narrator's first person pov. The character narrates without irony about the specifics of his violent world. The voice seems in pitch. I didn't know for sure that I wasn't reading a memoir until very close to the end.

The story is rough going, but the narrator is a memorable one. No matter how ugly the stories he has to tell, I'm hooked, for now at least.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book of my #DontJudgeABookByItsCoverChallenge although it is an older purchase. I was in a book binge mood a few months ago and selected this one from Better World Books based only on the title and short description. When it came, I scoffed a bit at the cover and stuck it on my shelf, no longer interested.

I decided to give it a chance after all and, well, it could have been left on the shelf. It wasn't terrible, but it also didn't make me repent my judgmental ways.

The story is semi-autobiographical as the author had spent many years homeless or in group homes. A Life Without Consequences is based in the 1970s-80s (it's never exactly specified what year, but I estimated based on my knowledge of terrible clothing choices and big hair) and the state of the juvenile care is abysmal. Children are placed into "homes" that are more like prisons with no expectations of ever amounting to anything.

After running away from abuse and neglect, Paul spends a year being homeless and living on rooftops before he is finally found and placed in the care of the state. This book tracks his journey between juvenile mental institute, running away and living a tool shed, arrest and placement in a violent home with gang members, to finally being moved to a group home in the suburbs. (The moral of the story was basically never move to Chicago.)

While the story was difficult to read and important for people to realize how removing a child from a home doesn't always mean that everything is going to be better, I just wasn't that into the story. I attributed it to the writer's style; it is very short and overly simplified. It was written from the point of view as Paul, but the whole time, while he was emphasizing how intelligent he really was, he was narrating at a third-grade level. (Also, I discovered that the author's "better" books are based around kink, so there's that.)

The characters were all victims of stereotype threat, and I didn't find that any of them really appealed to me. They were typical teenagers who believed they were atypical because of their circumstances.

Overall, it wasn't bad, and it opened my eyes to how much worse the child welfare system used to be, but it matched the cover: not interesting to me.

[Gabe Labovitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't necessarily a book I had wanted to read; I was looking for something else that was not on the shelves (and supposed to be - thanks, CPL), and this one caught my eye. To be sure, a grim story and I certainly recognize that most of the people he describes in the book do not end as well-off as he did. Elliott's writing style eventually hooked me, I appreciate his short, tight sentences, it almost starts to feel like a cadence. Fun to read about local Chicago locations, many of which are probably not there any longer - in just the 11 years since I moved to Chicago, the city has changed dramatically.

[Aris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elliot is a great writer. I'm generally not a fan of memoirs of a troubled childhood, but boy if I didn't read two of his books in a row.

He has some great moments of language in here, and doesn't try to wallow in the harshness of what he experienced. For me this makes the experience of reading far more real, more like talking to a friend you fell out of touch with than meeting some weirdo at a bar that wants to prove how square you are.

He's more than willing to admit that he's had it easier than many and for that I applaud him. It gets a bit cluttered towards the end as he tries to sum up the book with a more psychological essay than narrative, but for a first- solid.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elliott quickly became one of my favorite writers of the year, mostly because he writes almost exlusively about Chicago (discounting the sexual memoir). His personal history with the city--in and out of group homes, street kid--provides a ridiculous amount of material, which he wields well. After a couple of his books, he does tend to repeat himself (sometimes, entire passages are re-used), but he provides insight into an underbelly that I haven't seen or smelled.
Why aren't there more Chicago writers?

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A LIFE WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES by Stephen Elliott (PB) $12.50

A deeply moving story of hard truth.. of hard life. Chicago is known for its cold, merciless winters and for Paul, it last almost a lifetime. A runaway "street rat," he is shoved from mental hospital to housing project to group homes - always fighting to hide the hole of emptiness he suffers. With more biography than fiction, his ugly duckling metamorphosis is not without some lost feathers. Yet somehow, he emerges from this snake pit to create his better life. To survive and succeed and flip the bird as he leaves.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a thing that Stephen Elliott does better than anybody else, and he does it seemingly effortlessly. He writes in this sparse, almost simplistic style - but then the words just tumble through your skull, snowballing and adding more and more meaning until your drowning in the story, just as his desolate characters are always drowning. Elliott is just a remarkable person who has led a remarkable life, and then has the talent and guts to present his story in an outstandingly relatable and beautiful way.

[Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of interest mainly to those who have enjoyed Elliott's later works, such as Happy Baby and the Adderall Diaries. This is his first novel, and while you can see some elements of the style Elliott later honed to become one of the best writers working today, its not quite there yet here. There are some good sentences, some good paragraphs, and some poignant moments, but the good parts aren't sustained throughout. Definitely read his later work first, then consider checking this one out.

[Jalen Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Life Without Consequences tells the story of Paul, a young man who is moved a lot around by the system because of his lack of a family and history of behavioral problems. The amount of sex, drugs, profanity and violence is great throughout the the book, but those attributes are not exploited. If we use these types of characteristics in our writing, we have to make sure we don't use too much. And if we happen to use a lot, it has to be relevant to the tale and help it progress.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

semi-autobiographical novel by stephen elliot... another super smart kid with shitty parents learning to start life from the bottom up and making it through chicago institutions to become a more interesting individual. it's scary, sweet, thoughtful, with such well written observations and i read the whole thing in one night.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked "A Life Without Consequences" for its ties to Chi-Town and friends of friends, but the book came up short for me in the plot. I just felt the subject of shunned, struggling teens is a tad typical. "Happy Baby" is his superior work.

[clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

he is a good writer...

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoah! Great read! And all the crazier for being 110% true. Stephen Elliott is super good and you should read Happy Baby too.

[Josephine]

This book was okay. Not what I thought it was going to be and it was not very informative - more of a partial biography.

[Christopher Jayy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. The story is great and it was pretty well written. It's more of a page-turner than most memoir type books. It is definately worth reading.
Good Read.

[Sgilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semi-autobiographical story about a guy caught in the juvenile justice system. He is a druggie and has the tendency towards violence. Not exactly uplifting but interesting none the less.

[Sheherazahde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindblowing story about teenage homelessness by someone who knows first hand. Semi-autobiographical.