Fresh, raw, and unforgettable, these connected stories of a young boy on the run brought the author a cult following at the age of 16. A national b...
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Feb 07, 2011
Greg
rated it: 
It's not the heart that is deceitful above all things, but this author. But she fooled a whole lot of stupid hipsters and assorted douche bag celebrities so that makes her ok by me.
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Feb 16, 2010
Miriam
rated it:
(long)
the following biases are worth accounting for before i get into the review proper (which covers my response to both "sarah" and "the heart is deceitful"):
1) i read "sarah" and "the heart is deceitful" well after the whole leroy unveiling (which i followed with intense interest, so i knew a lot of the details beforehand), and in the context of working on a paper that read leroy into a broader history of literary deceptions/hoax More...
the following biases are worth accounting for before i get into the review proper (which covers my response to both "sarah" and "the heart is deceitful"):
1) i read "sarah" and "the heart is deceitful" well after the whole leroy unveiling (which i followed with intense interest, so i knew a lot of the details beforehand), and in the context of working on a paper that read leroy into a broader history of literary deceptions/hoax More...
Mar 26, 2011
Christine
rated it: 
I enjoyed it.
I first read this book in eighth grade (age 14 or so), and took it in simply as a work of fiction (as that is how the copy I had rented from the library was marked). I didn't know, nor did/do I care, that JT Leroy was not a real person. I still loved the book in all its scandal and insensitivity. I enjoyed reading about a sad and difficult childhood while I myself was going through difficult times. I found it very enjoyable in general, although I am one who tends to lean towards mor More...
I first read this book in eighth grade (age 14 or so), and took it in simply as a work of fiction (as that is how the copy I had rented from the library was marked). I didn't know, nor did/do I care, that JT Leroy was not a real person. I still loved the book in all its scandal and insensitivity. I enjoyed reading about a sad and difficult childhood while I myself was going through difficult times. I found it very enjoyable in general, although I am one who tends to lean towards mor More...
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Nov 17, 2007
Tosh
rated it: 
The JT LeRoy narrative is a depressing subject. It's one thing to write under another identity, but to actually pull people in via the "victim's mentality" is quite Tom Ripley like. There is no doubt in my mind that the author is disturbed, but what is worst is how she hoodwinked a whole community of people.
And I am not excluding myself from this world. I too am drawn to writers who seem to have interesting lives. So who can say what is real or not real. What is interes More...
And I am not excluding myself from this world. I too am drawn to writers who seem to have interesting lives. So who can say what is real or not real. What is interes More...
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Dec 02, 2008
Lord
rated it:
This is my second time reading this book. The first time I read it was before the whole JT LeRoy hoax was uncovered, and I've since read it again recently.
The thing with this book is, is that the narrator's mother is portrayed to be an absolute monster. The attempts to humanize her aren't convincing because she still seems like a hideous shrew. Sure, not all people are nice, but the characterization of Sarah is so absolutely static and unlikeable that it goes past villianous to unbel More...
The thing with this book is, is that the narrator's mother is portrayed to be an absolute monster. The attempts to humanize her aren't convincing because she still seems like a hideous shrew. Sure, not all people are nice, but the characterization of Sarah is so absolutely static and unlikeable that it goes past villianous to unbel More...
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Apr 11, 2008
Imogen
rated it:
Know what? Fuck that. This is better because JT Leroy was a hoax. When you look at the way that honest, caring, media-appropriately-framed stories of trans people look in this society, you throw up.
Uh. *I* throw up. Maybe you are super into it.
I can't think of a trans author (okay, one who's not Jan Morris) who's writing fiction that really pokes me in the eye. Or memoir, actually. (I haven't read T Cooper yet though, so maybe T Cooper.)
I'd much rather read More...
Uh. *I* throw up. Maybe you are super into it.
I can't think of a trans author (okay, one who's not Jan Morris) who's writing fiction that really pokes me in the eye. Or memoir, actually. (I haven't read T Cooper yet though, so maybe T Cooper.)
I'd much rather read More...
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Dec 21, 2007
Jesse
rated it:
I actually didn't have any interest in JT Leroy prior to finding out that the whole thing was a fraud. From a surface level skim of his books, I was under the impression that it was relatively lowbrow from a literary standpoint. For something lowbrow to be worth reading for me, it needs to be exciting or interesting. 200 pages of "poor me, I was abused" didn't sound particularly hip. If I wanted to read that, I could go dig up notebooks of stuff that I wrote when I was 16.
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Feb 22, 2008
L.A.Weekly
rated it:
LA Weekly's cover story this week is on Laura Albert, the woman behind the author JT Leroy. We hope you enjoy it.
http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/...
From Nancy Rommelmann's story:
"JT's stories made no sense. Sometimes he was Thor's father; sometimes Thor belonged to a woman named Emily, who was threatening to take the boy away. I read a Michael Musto column that claimed Speedie was a transsexual; I looked through the e-mailed photos — she did have More...
http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/...
From Nancy Rommelmann's story:
"JT's stories made no sense. Sometimes he was Thor's father; sometimes Thor belonged to a woman named Emily, who was threatening to take the boy away. I read a Michael Musto column that claimed Speedie was a transsexual; I looked through the e-mailed photos — she did have More...
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Nov 26, 2011
Sarah
rated it: 
I didn't really care about the whole drama surrounding JT Leroy when I read this, about whether he really existed or was a made up character (which it now turns out "he" was) in turn writing works of fiction based on a life which is also a work of fiction... I still don't care that JT didn't actually exist - it doesn't take away from the writing or the story in my eyes. Perhaps it displays even more storytelling talent on the author's part?
I found "The Heart..." More...
I found "The Heart..." More...
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Apr 16, 2011
Darin
rated it: 
Honestly, I'm still not sure that I "liked" this book. Each story was grueling and horrifying, reminiscent of American Psycho in that it tested the reader's threshold on every page. And I think you could argue that the book is "poverty porn," in that it makes the mother so unlikeable and aggressive, and the narrator so much the victim, that it lets readers situation themselves a bit too comfortably outside of this world. It makes readers into tourists, as they can revel in
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Apr 04, 2008
Ashley
rated it:
A crazy, sad, and twisted story of abuse and mayhem and its affect on a young man.
I read this years ago before the scandal about the author- it's a crazy story! I initially read about this author in the News and Observer and read two of the books, this being one of them. Then, I was on an airplane and happened to read a story in Rolling Stone about how they busted this lady....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/... for more info about the case....
I read this years ago before the scandal about the author- it's a crazy story! I initially read about this author in the News and Observer and read two of the books, this being one of them. Then, I was on an airplane and happened to read a story in Rolling Stone about how they busted this lady....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/... for more info about the case....
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May 27, 2011
Caire
rated it:
The title comes from a bible passage, actually. It’s from the book of Jeremiah (also the name of the book’s protagonist) and goes: “The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt: Who can know it?” I don’t even need to say how effective this is in the book. The book reads in a bit of a choppy sequence, though the small print on the cover which says “stories” is a little bit misleading. All the chapters add up to one big story about a kid, Jeremiah, whose mother broke More...
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Jun 24, 2009
ellie
rated it:
it's not only the author--or authors--who relied on gimmicks to garner attention; the writing, too, is full of cheap tricks and lazy one liners. this book reads like a Mass Market LiveJournal. The author establishes in the early chapters that he (she? it? oh, for Pete's sake) intends to make the reader doubly uncomfortable by invoking a child's voice to narrate explicit stories of every cardinal sin you can name and some you probably couldn't. however, that the main character's voice remains
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Jun 16, 2009
Kat
rated it:
mostly sensationalist blather. years ago, some of my upper middle class pals (who couldn't even stomach dorothy allison) all held this book in such high esteem as some tome of truth. i wasn't surprised as i read it that the grim/allegedly "raw" story-telling felt manufactured- as manufactured and fun as watching the depictions of poor or "trashy" people fighting it out on the stages of maury povich or jerry springer. more often than not leroy/altert employs caricatures to
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Dec 17, 2009
Asia
rated it:
This book plus the movie Sin City conspired to ruin my sex life for week.
But that's neither here nor there. The question that this book raises for me is this: Do yu have to hate where you are from in order to change your life? If you are fine with the specific joys and sorrows of being poor and desperate, will you ever change your situation? And should you? And is there a certain amount of shame that is socially beneficial?
But that's neither here nor there. The question that this book raises for me is this: Do yu have to hate where you are from in order to change your life? If you are fine with the specific joys and sorrows of being poor and desperate, will you ever change your situation? And should you? And is there a certain amount of shame that is socially beneficial?
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Mar 24, 2010
MJ
rated it:
A tale of irredeemable sin/depravity among a comic-book underclass, written with shrieking hysteria and sharp attention-to-detail for grotesque specifics.
JT Leroy (Laura Albert's wonderfully perverse literary persona) writes grubby dialogue packed with spite and terror, her register somewhere between the music of Babes in Toyland and laconic Zeus Cormac McCarthy.
The strongest chapter is "Coal" -- a powerful snapshot of a woman drifting into apocalyptic madness More...
JT Leroy (Laura Albert's wonderfully perverse literary persona) writes grubby dialogue packed with spite and terror, her register somewhere between the music of Babes in Toyland and laconic Zeus Cormac McCarthy.
The strongest chapter is "Coal" -- a powerful snapshot of a woman drifting into apocalyptic madness More...
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Sep 17, 2010
David
rated it:
This book is pretty painful to read. If you think Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is for pussies then this book is for you. It describes in painful detail the multiple types of abuse heaped on the main character, and the evolution of his own psychosexual identity. All of this takes place in the empty, nihilistic landscape of American Trash. I read this mostly on a plane, and it made me pretty uncomfortable, and suspicious of my neighbors.
That being said, not a whole lot actually happe More...
That being said, not a whole lot actually happe More...
Aug 23, 2010
Myles
rated it:
I feel like a hypocrite for not really caring that J.T. LeRoy was a hoax and the author was some middle-aged woman with some very probable mental health issues since I am so against books like Go Ask Alice and The Amityville Horror that operate on the same premise.
But, I really was compelled by the psychological portrait drawn in these stories, sad and twisted at it might be. I can't remember the woman's name, but she is a decent writer and she has to be given some kudos for pulling More...
But, I really was compelled by the psychological portrait drawn in these stories, sad and twisted at it might be. I can't remember the woman's name, but she is a decent writer and she has to be given some kudos for pulling More...
Feb 17, 2010
boots
rated it:
I would give this book zero stars except that it is clear the author (who is not 'j.t. leroy', btw, if you care) is capable of decent writing. It's just the content that made this the only book I ever actually threw in the trash at the airport after reading the first 40 pages, just so nobody else would have to read about something that unnecessarily heinous (and also, not true, despite the author's claim it was autobiographical).
I am not saying people shouldn't be allowed to write th More...
I am not saying people shouldn't be allowed to write th More...
Jan 23, 2012
Roberta
rated it:
Crudele.
"Su quella cornice di roccia, guardando dall'alto le case sgangherate e distrutte, capisco che il mondo è improvvisamente diventato spaventoso, violento e falso come i cartoni animati che non avevo il permesso di guardare." [pag. 18]
Comincio con il dire che non sapevo nulla dell'operazione di marketing con cui è stato lanciato questo romanzo (che in teoria doveva essere un'autobiografia e poi si è rivelato scritto da una donna di circa 40 anni madre di famig More...
"Su quella cornice di roccia, guardando dall'alto le case sgangherate e distrutte, capisco che il mondo è improvvisamente diventato spaventoso, violento e falso come i cartoni animati che non avevo il permesso di guardare." [pag. 18]
Comincio con il dire che non sapevo nulla dell'operazione di marketing con cui è stato lanciato questo romanzo (che in teoria doveva essere un'autobiografia e poi si è rivelato scritto da una donna di circa 40 anni madre di famig More...
Dec 29, 2011
Tara
rated it:
First of all, apparently they was a bunch of controversy over the author of this book back when it came out. It was branded as being a true story about a young boy, but then it was found out to have actually been written by a middle aged woman who was going so far as to actually have another woman pose as "JT LeRoy" (he's suggested to be transgendered) at book signings. Anyways, I knew all this before I read the book so I read it solely as a work of fiction.
The book is more More...
The book is more More...
Jan 23, 2012
Tancredi
rated it:
"Resto appeso lì, con le voci che ancora mi sanguinano nelle orecchie, guardo la mia ombra, solida come la silhouette di un corpo assassinato, e prego. Forse un altro taglio, solo un altro ancora, e poi mi si staccherà per sempre."
L'infanzia maledetta del giovane Jeremiah, riprodotta nella sua seconda opera. Più che un romanzo, è una raccolta di racconti, che per buona parte segue una narrazione lineare e continua, come in una successione di capitoli, per poi infrangere, con More...
L'infanzia maledetta del giovane Jeremiah, riprodotta nella sua seconda opera. Più che un romanzo, è una raccolta di racconti, che per buona parte segue una narrazione lineare e continua, come in una successione di capitoli, per poi infrangere, con More...
Sep 13, 2009
Jeff
rated it:
Though the works of J.T. Leroy turned out to be hoax. They weren’t autobiographical or the work of a runaway teenage prostitute. It still doesn’t diminish the powerful writing and stories. I am glad it was a hoax knowing things like the actions on these pages and people like this do exist is horrifying but I’m glad in this instance they all didn’t happen to this one person and that there is no real victim here reaching out and telling there story.
This book is sort of a prequel to SA More...
This book is sort of a prequel to SA More...
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Nov 16, 2008
Zack
rated it:
The night I started reading this I watched the movie version on YouTube before getting very far in. I finished the book two days later. The movie starred a woman who at first I thought was Courtney Love but perhaps wasn't, only now I think it may have been, since she gets thanked in the book's acknowledgements, but maybe not. This book's much better than the movie, but it needs a better ending. I can't remember how the movie ended. J.T. Elroy, described as male in the bio, is the pen name of a
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Feb 19, 2008
Craig
rated it:
I bought this book before all of the controversy of who the author really was came about. It took me a long time to get around to actually reading it.
I find the authorship controversy to be interesting. Is it impossible to let the stories stand alone for their value regardless of who wrote them? The particular edition of the book I have makes no claim that these are "true stories," just "stories." Regardless, I found the writing to be yes, disturbing, yet al More...
I find the authorship controversy to be interesting. Is it impossible to let the stories stand alone for their value regardless of who wrote them? The particular edition of the book I have makes no claim that these are "true stories," just "stories." Regardless, I found the writing to be yes, disturbing, yet al More...
Oct 06, 2007
Alan
rated it:
Non-stop festival of abuse and horror. Lovely writing. The lyricism flies like a bloody crow out of the rape, genital burns, schizophrenia, and meth lab explosions. But the voice of the boy is merely quiet, which only conceals the fact that the mechanics of such a childhood are not understood; they are eclipsed by the endless travesty. Moments revealing greater insight, less dramatized and subtler moments, moments even if entirely fucked, of tenderness that delved into or revealed the internal l
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Aug 12, 2007
John
rated it:
This is like a novelization of the phrase, "Life sucks and then you die," but with none of the brevity or wit, and all the of the uncomfortable detail. See family go evil. See religion go evil. See beatings, torture, rape, abandonment, gender misidentification and perversion, fluffed out in sensationalist form to wow audiences with tastes that scare me. I don't understand how people can enjoy these sorts of things any more than I can understand how people enjoy torture movies, except t
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Sep 20, 2011
Christey
rated it:
This novel heartbreakingly describes possibly every sin and the disturbing images supplementing these sins from the mind of the young child Jeremiah who is affected by rape, abandonment, and abuse accompanied with drugs, prostitution, theft, etc. While people seem biased by the fact that the story is a work of fiction, the author was a hoax, and so on, I feel none of this has any affect on the fact that the novel is a fairly accurate representation of what the product of such a hard life might p
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Feb 28, 2008
Alexandra
rated it:
As readers, we have a responsibility to see the red flag waving any time a book is "Based on True Events." Take "The Amityville Horror" or "A Million Little Pieces," for example. Anyone interested in true crime will tell you that Ronald DeFeo, the killer "Amity" is based on, made up all of the stories about hearing voices and being haunted in an attempt to use an insanity plea in court. And why should the fact that "Pieces" is fabricated change h
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Aug 20, 2010
Kelly
rated it:
Even though its author was exposed as fabricating the "true" story, its a beautiful and tragic peice of fiction none the less.
Reading this when my eldest son was the same age as the boy when he is sent back to live with his unstable mother it broke my heart.
The parrellel story of his mothers own suffering atthe hands of her father and her decent into drugs and prostitution mean you feel as much pity for her as her son.
Not a book to cheer your soul but a future classic
Reading this when my eldest son was the same age as the boy when he is sent back to live with his unstable mother it broke my heart.
The parrellel story of his mothers own suffering atthe hands of her father and her decent into drugs and prostitution mean you feel as much pity for her as her son.
Not a book to cheer your soul but a future classic
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