Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: The Heart, San Francisco, Ana Lou (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When is an HIV-positive, transgender, ex-truck-stop-prostitute turned pseudo-celebrity novelist none of the above? When the faux man of letters is JT Leroy, revealed to be erstwhile community-college coed Savannah Knoop, who masqueraded as her middle-aged sister-in-law Laura’s nom de plume. At 18, Knoop started living in public as JT, “a boy who became a girl, still pretending to be a boy.” Secret thumbsucker and compulsive overeater Laura, who was JT’s publicist, Speedie, created JT as a metaphor for her own pain—perhaps. Eventually, portraying JT became Savannah’s “exciting reprieve from real life. He had access to a world so beyond what I thought could be my own.” The game ran for seven years, ending in a 2006 public revelation/scandal. “The whole experience had been a contagious lie,” quoth Savannah, “that spread and obstructed what I wanted my life to be.” What with snapshots and celebrity photos, her confession’s a breezy, fast, oddly likable read for fans of bizarre deceit or, perhaps, just the bizarre. --Whitney Scott

Product Description

In January 2006, The New York Times unmasked Savannah Knoop as the face of the mysterious author JT LeRoy. A media frenzy ensued as JT’s fans, mentors, and readers came to terms with the fact that the gay-male-ex-truck-stop-prostitute-turned-literary-wunderkind was really a girl from San Francisco, whose middle-aged sister-in-law, Laura Albert, wrote the books.

Girl Boy Girl is the story of how Savannah led this bizarre double life for six years, trading a precarious existence as a college dropout for a life in which she was embraced by celebrities and artists—Carrie Fisher, Courtney Love, Mary Ellen Mark, Winona Ryder, Asia Argento, Sharon Olds, Gus Van Sant, Mike Pitt, Calvin Klein, Shirley Manson, to name a few—and traveled the world. Telling her side of the story for the first time, Savannah reveals how being perceived as a boy gave her a sense of confidence and entitlement she never had before. Her love affair with Asia Argento is particularly wrenching, as they embark on an intimate relationship that causes more alienation than closeness. As Savannah and Laura struggle over control of the JT character, Savannah realizes the limits of the game, and is relieved when it’s over. Inadvertently, she finds herself through the adventure of being someone else.

"In 2001 I photographed JT Leroy for Vanity Fair. Five years later, we met again; this
time Savannah Knoop was her true self. We immediately became friends. She gave me her book to read. Not only is it beautifully written, it's a fascinating and intimate story. I couldn’t put it down." --Mary Ellen Mark

Savannah Knoop began to lead a double life in 1999, when her sister-in-law asked her to be the face of JT LeRoy, author of the internationally acclaimed novels Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. Their true identities were revealed in 2006. Born in 1981, Knoop began designing clothing six years ago. In 2003, she and a partner began a clothing company under the name of Tinc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press; A Seven Stories Press 1st Ed edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583228519
• ISBN-13: 978-1583228517
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #682,198 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply fascinating., September 11, 2008

By	Jo D. (CT USA) - See all my reviews

Savannah Knoop's well written account of her experience as the body [or wig and glasses] of J. T. LeRoy, the famed but fictitious truckstop-boy-turned-author, is rivetting even if you've never read a LeRoy book or seen the movie. Simply put, the experience of seeing how people react to her when they think she's not just a he but also a victim and a celebrity is a fascinating exposure of the projections people make and of celebrity culture. Knoop captures both the humor and pathos of never being sure what people are seeing or reacting to when they believe her to be JT. Also, it is surprisingly easy to sympathize with Knoop, as she was not the mastermind of the hoax but in many ways simply a conveniently aimless and exploited sister-in-law. Her vexed relation to Laura Albert, equal parts admiration and resentment [and a sorority of shared eating disorders], is uncomfortable but very believable. Finally, this book interests not because it or the JT hoax is important in its own right but because of what it reveals about our insecurities, our self presentations, and our acute desires to be the sort of person, with the sort of experiences, others find desirable or charismatic -- to be, in short, the people we wish to be and are not.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read, April 29, 2009

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (4/09)

I found this to be an interesting read; not only for the story, but also for how celebrities operate and what they do enthrall us as a society.

The author describes her years as JT Leroy, a female-gone-male, in order to help her sister-in-law write her book. Being loyal to family she agrees to take on the character of JT Leroy for six years. Although at the time she doesn't see anything wrong with what she is doing, she eventually finds that being honest with oneself is more important than the glory and money.

Under all the writing it shows us that we take people for face value in how they present themselves to us, real or perceived. Being a woman in a male world is no fun, so when you discover that being a male gives you more power, you take it to the hilt.

It is a story that shows how we as a society get caught up in our lives. Once we are in this realm, we cannot get out. Lies are part of everyone's lives, but will everyone go as far as Savannah did. How many people did we deceive or hurt on the way?

Psychologically speaking, it is people like this that make a bad name for those who are homosexuals and trying to live a decent life. It is people like this that continue to deceive the public for their own gain.

I found reading "Girl Boy Girl" by Savannah Knoop gave me more information on the extremes people will go through to gain popularity while not even considering those they hurt along the way. How many more like this are out there?

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars shamless & talentless, March 1, 2009

By	T. Stamos - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book... and the writer itself, is a good representation of a sign of the times...people's obsession with celebrity and how they will do anything to get in the limelight.

As is, the initial writer of the J.T. Leroy books, ought to be ashamed of herself. How can she feel no guilt? Most of her initial fans were people who identified with the horrific events described in her book. They related, identified and came to love the character...loved J.T. Leroy...for having suffered and overcome TRUE horrors in life. Thus, putting him/her on a pedestal. A pedestal she would never have been put on if those same fans knew that he/she had not actually gone through ANY of the books detailed events. Does she have the slightest clue what it feels like to be raped? To be abused? To be abandoned? To be sold as meat? How can she receive the accolades of one who has suffered and overcame when she has not done either?

It wasn't enough to profit off of a lie. now THIS book? explaining or trying to justify her actions and involvement in the whole scandal? to pawn off deceit as talent?

Who would care about the drivel that spews forth now?