Harold's End [Hardcover]

J. T. Leroy (Author), Cherry Hood (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2004

The international best selling author of Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things presents his new and tremendously moving novella, Harold's End. A San Francisco street kid hustling to feed his heroin habit. A middle-aged rich guy with an uncommon turn-on. Oh yeah, and a snail. The authentic tale uniquely allows the sweetness of childhood to seep through muck in unrivaled literary finesse. Harold's End features illustrations by Australian artist Cherry Hood.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in McSweeney’s in 2002, Leroy’s beautifully written and heartbreaking story of Oliver, a heroin-addicted street kid, and Harold, his pet snail, gets repackaged in a small and gorgeous edition illustrated by Australian artist Wood. Wood’s watercolor portraits of Oliver’s fellow teenage hustlers (Serenity, Gotti, Crayon) and their pets (a snake, a dog, a rat) reveal their toughness and frailty; the paint, lightly, caressingly applied, drips down the page in delicate streaks. "In the eyes of her subjects," Leroy writes in his acknowledgements, "she mines the unspoken, unguarded moments, what lays sic beyond their layers of fortification." Dave Eggers contributes an admiring foreword, and editor Michael Ray delivers an ecstatic afterword. For Leroy fans—and there are many—this is an essential volume.
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Review

A Grimm’s fairy tale for the dispossessed, this is unnerving, though truly essential, reading. -- Kathy Archbold

Good Lord, what a book! LeRoy’s writing is savagely authentic and appallingly beautiful. They don’t make ’em like this anymore. -- John Waters

I was gripped by every page. I loved it!  JT LeRoy is an original. -- Paula Fox

With my hand on my heart, the best I've read....writes straight from the hip, and the heart and the brain. -- Zadie Smith

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 99 pages
• Publisher: Last Gasp; First Last Gasp Edition edition (December 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867196149
• ISBN-13: 978-0867196146
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If Valuing A Hoax Should Be The Most Important Thing..., February 7, 2006

By 

Tst Task Tst (Somewhere Special) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harold's End (Hardcover)

No, there's nothing remotely COOL or WONDERFUL about this kind of hoax. The issue isn't about a 40-year-old woman pretending to be a teenage boy, rather the issue is about a 40-year-old woman pretending to be a transgendered, HIV+, abused, drug addicted teenage boy--and then using that persona to gain access, success, and sympathy from others. Some might love that she fooled "the genius literary elite," but that speaks more about someone's own resentment toward those who've made honest names for themselves as writers, etc.

In truth, it speaks volumes about the writers, artists, publishers, editors, and others who went the extra mile to help a young man pull his life together and get his work published and read. There's nothing cynical about creative people doing that for a person (in fact, I'd argue it is admirable that they would go out of their to do so), but it is incredibly cynical and cruel to take advantage of those intentions. By doing so, Laura Albert has probably made it impossible for a real young person with real problems and real talent to be taken seriously by those who were duped. Her sins aren't in the books or the quality of the writing, but in her intentions to shortcut her success by co-opting the problems of others who rarely have a voice and by lying to those who would seek to help those people. And, of course, don't forget she then went to incredible lengths to discredit anyone or anything that sought to reveal the truth.
In other words, real abused children feel real pain, and stunts like this only serve to avert good intentions that should go to the right places.

So judge the books on the merit of the writing, if you want. But please remember the one unerring mark of a sociopath is, essentially, that they'll try to make you feel sorry for them even as they're screwing you over.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars scratching my head now that the hype has been squashed, October 28, 2005

By 

Tom "avid reader" (Stillwater, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harold's End (Hardcover)

Okay, I always figured there was something suspect about Leroy's background. Now with the cat out of the bag, I have to confess that there's something about the writing that will perplex me for a while to come: When I believed SARAH, HAROLD'S END, and HEART were written by a young wunderkind with a heartbreaking past, I allowed myself to forgive much about the writing that seemed forced, over the top, and just downright questionable. Now that it's been revealed the writing comes from a 30-something woman who opted against the understandable use of a moniker and decided to pass Leroy off as real (ten points for the marketing coup, but minus fifty points for manipulating so many of us who felt real empathy for your invention), I just can't take this writing seriously anymore. Instead of coming off as the creative purging of a painful childhood, it now just reads like what it has become: the ramblings of someone who never was a child prostitute, never an addict, and never lived the life she is writing about and claiming to be real.

Perhaps J.T. is the product of a troubled woman with multiple personalities, and if that's the case there's at least a couple of more books she can write about along those lines.

Anyway, I'm very sorry to learn about Leroy being hoax. And, yes, it does make difference for how I feel about the writing.

By the way, I'm still giving HAROLD'S END three stars, but that's only because I really think the illustrations are beautiful.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, April 20, 2005

By 

Jon (Tärnsjö Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harold's End (Hardcover)

After reading - and LOVING - "Sarah" and "The heart is..." I was really looking forward to this book. But, although it's half-way decent, it's very pedestrian by J.T:s standard and WAY too short. Half of the book consists of illustrations, and the pompously written afterword is pathetic. Unfortunately, I hear that the next full-size book is going to be illustrated as well...hopefully, it will include some text as well.