I didn’t read this book at the time, but I was aware of the scandal surrounding it. If I understand correctly, these stories were presented as being autobiographical, written by a boy called J. T. LeRoy. The real author even got somebody (her sister) to play the part during interviews and stuff.
This all sounded like a wonderful lark to me, and I wondered why people were so upset. I mean, if the stories are good, they’re still good even if it turns out that somebody else wrote them? Pseudonymous authors have always been a thing, and the additional playacting seemed like fun?
But I didn’t pick up a copy of the book until 2019, when I happened upon it at a bookstore sale. This edition (published after a documentary movie was made about the debacle) had apparently been sitting on the shelves for two years, unbought, before they reduced the price by 70% percent. (I love price stickers and the stories they tell.)
But after reading the first two stories, I kinda get it. I mean, the disappointment. Because this isn’t good. I can see people going “oh my god, how awful” and pouring out sympathy when they thought it was real, but as an invention (“older woman fantasises for several hundred pages about gay boy being abused, tortured and raped a lot”) is a bit “eeeh?” On the other hand,
A Little Life (by Hanya Yanagihara) is apparently the same formula, and that’s sold millions — it’s OK if you’re upfront about your misery and torture porn?
(No, I’m not saying nobody should write about awful things — but I’m saying it’s sus as fuck sometimes. Like, Bolaños’ 2666 is written from a place of honest rage, and he’s punishing the readers with all the murders in that book. Fine. But we’ve all read those mystery books where the author seems to spend way too much time and too many pages on torture and sexual abuse, and that’s coming from an entirely different place.)
This is just badly written. Like, his mother is punishing him… while driving in a car… almost having an accident… during a rainstorm… This is like writing done for a Netflix TV series. So much fake drama.
NOOOE NOT DAY OLD BREAD NOOOE THE HUMANITY (and certainly something a five year old (?) would notice)
Anyway, I gave up after two stories (about 50 pages in). Perhaps the rest of the book is brilliant? I’ll never know.
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2001) by J. T. LeRoy (buy used, 3.63 on Goodreads)