Sarah: A Novel
by J. T. LeRoy
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Book Summary Information
Author: J. T. LeRoyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06-09
ISBN: 158234146X
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Book Reviews of Sarah: A Novel
Book Review: Resting transparently in the grace that gave us rise
Summary: 5 Stars
A year or two ago, there was a sort of mid-level scandal in the
publishing world when, at around the same time, it was revealed that
James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces, had palmed off as a
factual memoir what was, in reality, an almost total fabrication, and
that J.T. LeRoy, the author of Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful above
All Things, was not, in fact, the bizarre, very young, camera-shy
homosexual man that was presented to the public, but instead a woman
in her thirties named Laura Albert.
I'd read A Million Little Pieces a year or so before it was exposed as
fiction - no; "fiction" does it an undeserved credit - before it was
exposed as a load of horsefeathers, and for my own part, recognized it
before I was halfway through as the tissue of feeble, self-glorifying
lies it could not have been other than. I'd also read Sarah several
years earlier, and although I certainly considered Mr. LeRoy a very
odd character, I never saw any meaningful reason to doubt his
existence, or even give it any thought. It wasn't an issue. Sarah
remains one of the four or five greatest American novels of the past
ten years, and whether it was written by J.T. LeRoy, Laura Albert, or
a monkey hitting random keys on a typewriter, it's a flat-out
masterpiece.
George Eliot wasn't really a man. The Ramones weren't really brothers.
Dr. Seuss did not, in reality, hold a valid medical license. You may
even be shocked to learn that my name isn't actually zarpex. But for
some reason, J.T. LeRoy is called a hoax. Authorial identity is one of
the crutches available to the aesthetically crippled. Few people, it
pains me to say, possess the faculties even to understand what they
like or dislike. The majority would wince at a glass of wine poured
from a bottle labeled "Gallo" and rhapsodize over the same wine poured
from a bottle labeled "Chateau Lafite." If Toni Morrison were to be
revealed in tomorrow's newspapers as a wealthy Caucasian, her writing
would suddenly be recognized as the facile twaddle it has always been,
and its newly identified creator would be hanged from the nearest tree
by the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature.
If anything, the invention of J.T. LeRoy should be regarded as a
creative accomplishment unto itself, stranger and more complex than
Ziggy Stardust (which, for all its endurance, was really little more
than a pseudonym), possessing both an absurdity and a plausibility
that stands toe-to-toe with Borat. And is it not possible that Laura
Albert could not have written her books without creating an alternate
character to speak through? Wagner had to dress in period costume to
compose; Brian Wilson, whose feet, as far as I know, have yet to touch
a surfboard, compensated by resting them in a box of sand when he sat
at the piano to write.
A misfortune of timing lumped an important work of art together with a
piece of crude literary onanism, and our culture is the weaker for it.
Do yourself a favor if you haven't already, and read Sarah.
The IAU stripped Pluto of its status as a planet, but you know what?
It's still out there.
By zarpex
Summary of Sarah: A Novel
The national bestselling first novel by a virtuosic young talent.
Cherry Vanilla, twelve years old with a penchant for short leather skirts and make-up, has one dream: to become the most famous 'lot lizard', or truck stop whore, in the business. With his blond curls and his naked ambition he is determined to be more woman than most, and to match his idol, rival, and mother, Sarah. Adopting her name and sex, he heads off into the dangerous and fantastic worlds pocketed away in the West Virginian wilds. On his journey for fame he meets with sinister pimps, luck-restoring Jack-a-lopes, superstitious prostitutes who take him for a saint, and a host of bizarre and beautiful outcasts that make up his unusual, heartbreaking world.
Cherry Vanilla, twelve years old with a penchant for short leather skirts and make-up, has one dream: to become the most famous 'lot lizard', or truck stop whore, in the business. With his blond curls and his naked ambition he is determined to be more woman than most, and to match his idol, rival, and mother, Sarah. Adopting her name and sex, he heads off into the dangerous and fantastic worlds pocketed away in the West Virginian wilds. On his journey for fame he meets with sinister pimps, luck-restoring Jack-a-lopes, superstitious prostitutes who take him for a saint, and a host of bizarre and beautiful outcasts that make up his unusual, heartbreaking world.
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