Weekly Reader: Little Blue Eyes by Rob Santana; Little Baby Brings Big Trouble and Tough Decisions

 

Weekly Reader: Little Blue Eyes by Rob Santana; Little Baby Brings Big Trouble and Tough Decisions

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rob Santana has made a career of writing about people making rash and reckless decisions, usually in moments of desperation. His previous work, The Oscar Goes To and his latest work, Little Blue Eyes feature people that do things like appear in adult films, steal and withhold information, deal and buy drugs, and practically kidnap children. These decisions are often abhorrent and create problems for the characters. But Santana writes these characters with a lot of understanding so that the Reader sees that they were made not from intended malice but by other forces like poverty, addiction, revenge, envy, and simple desperation to improve one's life no matter the circumstances. They act and don't stop to consider the consequences. It's later that the consequences come back to haunt them.

That is the situation faced by Elena Mitchell, protagonist of Little Blue Eyes. Elena has been recently let go from her position at a bank even though a lesser qualified woman was promoted in her place. (The Latina/African-American Elena suspects racism since the blond woman not only cannot do the job but can't speak Spanish very well which is a requirement and in which Elena is fluent.) Worse, her sister Terry is moving in with her soon-to-be-fiance and they are having a baby. Terry rubs further salt on the wound of Elena's life that she is unable to bear children, a painful reminder for her.

 While on a fruitless job search, she hears a cry from behind a dumpster. A small Caucasian baby boy with blue eyes stares at her. Elena picks up the little one and falls into confusion and love. 

After some indecision and contacting the wrong people, Elena decides to raise the baby herself and name him Todd. That is slightly complicated when she arouses suspicion as a biracial woman carrying a white baby in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood of mostly black and Latino residents. (She tells them that she is babysitting.) Of course it isn't too long before the police, a dangerous baby broker and his team, and Todd's less-than-stellar birth parents are on the case and Elena finds herself in a world of trouble.

There are conflicts within the book and unfortunately many of them are caused by Elena's actions. The first thing that Elena does is take Todd to a hospital which is good and makes sense. But the second thing that she does is unexplainable. Instead of contacting any authority figures, adoption agency, or family services, she calls a baby broker, Carlos Ruiz. Not only that but she tells him that the baby is white, a prime catch for baby brokers, since they can sell Caucasian infants to wealthy white families and make a profit. True, Elena changes her mind and grows attached to Baby Todd. The book also makes it clear that she is not a cruel heartless person. She is driven by poverty and possibly mistrust of the police or other official services. She sees no reasonable way out. The worst that she can be thought of is reckless and thoughtless. However, her calling Carlos leads to worse complications that could have been easily resolved if she hadn't called him.

To be fair, Elena may make rash and hasty decisions but once she starts actually caring for Todd, she holds his best interests at heart. She protects him as a lioness would protect her cub, often bringing him along on job interviews, or introducing him to friends and family. She properly feeds, cleans up after, and nurtures the little one and protects him from danger. (Granted, danger she put him in herself.) When things get too dangerous, she makes a very tough decision out of love. It becomes clear that contacting Carlos was a mistake, but it doesn't diminish her love for Todd or her role in his life.

By contrast, Todd's birth parents, Sharon and Nick, make plenty of mistakes and are proven to be inferior parents. They are a pair of addicts who are more interested in their next fix than caring for a baby.

The whole reason that Todd is behind a dumpster in the first place is because Nick coerced Sharon into abandoning him at the hospital waiting room and he was left outside by accident. When they finally regret their decision to give Todd up, they harass and stalk people to get answers. (This is not only foolish but unnecessary since it's later revealed that Sharon's uncle is a cop and they could have just asked him. Though they probably didn't want him to know about their addiction or their shameful neglect of Todd.) There is a lot of covert racism as they harass Elena's neighbors and mistrust them on sight.

While they are more self centered than Elena, Nick and Sharon are also seen as driven and desperate people. They are certainly more unlikeable than Elena but they are seen as people who are so bound to their addictions that they put their own lives and that of their child at risk. Even when they search for Todd, it seems to be less out of love and more out of desperation. There is a moment though that the Reader encounters the hurting and suffering would inside and how they regret the path that their addictions led them on as they realize that they could have been a happy family, but were unable to be.

 Little Blue Eyes becomes a clear choice between a baby's addicted seriously messed up birth parents or an unemployed troubled potential adopted mother. While all three have their flaws, only one actually has the baby's best interest in mind and proves to be the real loving parent.