Sarah: A Novel [Hardcover]

J. T. Leroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2000

Sarah is the story of the prodigal son recast in the carnivalesque world of the highway truck stop and its environs. The narrator, an androgynous twelve year old boy, idolizes his mother Sarah, a "lot lizard", or truck-stop whore. He leaves the safety of the lot-a perversely idyllic kingdom ruled by Gladening Grateful Etc., a benevolent pimp who sent one of his boys to chef's school to cook gourmet meals at the truckstop diner-on a quest to become as famous as his mother. Adopting her name and sex, "Sarah" stumbles into dangerous and fantastic worlds pocketed away in the West Virginian wilds. He hitches a ride to the famous luck-restoring Jack-a-lope, is mistaken for a saint and must prove himself by walking on water. When he is captured by LeLoup, Glad's violent rival, "Sarah"'s life is all but over. Will he perish at the hands of LeLoup, or will "Sarah" find his way home?

J.T. LeRoy has created a hauntingly memorable world, strangely reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. Heartwarming as it is bizarre, beautiful and stunningly original, Sarah heralds the debut of an inimitable new talent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Who would have thought that there were so many truckstop devotees of cross-dressing children in West Virginia? In this disturbing debut novel by 19-year-old LeRoy, they appear to be everywhere. The narrator, a 12-year-old boy, has renamed himself Sarah after his whorish mother because he has learned from her example that "Most anything you want in this world is easier when you're a pretty girl." Following in her footsteps, he plies his trade at the Doves, a truckstop/gourmet restaurant run by Glad, a despotic pimp with a heart of gold. When his mother rejects him, Sarah runs away from the Doves and finds his way to the hellish Three Crutches, a rival truckstop run by the evil Le Loup. Taken for a girl, and then advertised as Saint Sarah in a money-making ploy by Le Loup, Sarah is expected to bless truckers and then walk on water. Will these experiences convince Sarah to resume the life of a full-time boy? And will he discover that there's no place like home? Sometimes Sarah's masochistic attention-getting strategies and desperate need to be loved are genuinely moving, but the freak-show world LeRoy conjures up never quite gels. In the self-consciously bizarre gallery of misfits and fetishes he assembles, potentially resonant themes like the interchangeability of saints and whores are obscured, and the novel remains but a curiosity. (Apr.) FYI: LeRoy has edited several anthologies under the pseudonym Terminator.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Scary, sad, and way, way out there, Leroys picaresque debut novel follows a young boy through southern truckstops, where lot lizards turn tricks for drivers whose tastes run from women to transvestites to boys in jeans. Sarah is actually the name of our heros mother, and in the beginning they both work for Glad, a fairly nice pimp who treats his whores decently and serves them up to a not-too-rough clientele. But when the boy appropriates his mothers name and gender (at least in appearance) to go wandering, he winds up in the clutches of a really bad guy named Le Loup. The gory details of how Sarah is abused by this monster and his cohorts will come as no surprise to those familiar with Leroys journalistic pieces (in Spin, Nerve, New York Press) under the pseudonym Terminator, some of which dealt with his own experiences. Its disturbing to encounter a 20-year-old who knows this much about lifes seamy side, but Leroy depicts his damaged, degraded characters with considerable tenderness. Not exactly a laugh riot, but not as unrelievedly sordid as a plot synopsis might suggest. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 166 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 Us ed edition (April 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582340765
• ISBN-13: 978-1582340760
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What Tangled Webs..., October 27, 2005

By 

Bubbles "Bubbles" (Fredonia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarah: A Novel (Paperback)

First off, as with the story collection, I'm giving SARAH two stars based solely on my reading of it and nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that J.T. Leroy is a hoax. I read it before the hoax came to light, and, like the collection, found it to be so poorly realized on so many levels that I was shocked by the praise and hype driving it along. As someone born and raised in the South, it became very obvious to me that "Mr. Leroy" wasn't from this part of the world but had created an entire fiction based on little else other than imagination. Unfortunately, the fabrications weren't very interesting to me. Now, of course, we know J.T. Leroy wasn't even a real person to begin with, so that only adds to my frustration to having been lured into this "autobiographical" account by reviewers who hailed it as truthful, painful, and wonderful.

Secondly, I've noticed that others who have posted reviews since the J.T. hoax have had their reviews removed from Amazon.com (at least 3 by my count). I find that very troubling, as it seems someone is trying to prevent the disappointment and anger many feel for having been duped from being heard. That form of censorship in order to keep an already dying myth afloat will only backfire.

For Laura Albert-the woman behind this whole myth-I urge you to own up to the fact that the hoax is done with and it had a very good run. Why you decided to invent J.T. in the first place, as well as other characters involved in his story, strikes me as ten times more interesting than what this ill-imagined collection offered. My advice to you is to retire "J.T." with some dignity and put yourself forward in as honest a manner as possible. You might be surprised how many of us would now be willing to listen to your story instead. Otherwise, I fear "J.T." is going to have a rough road ahead, because few are going to champion his story anymore (something that was much easier to do when we thought he was alive).

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 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: Sarah: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Are you kidding me?, October 19, 2005

By 

I'm Karin (I read books) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarah: A Novel (Paperback)

Concerning J.T. Leroy and the fact of him being a mean hoax played on a whole bunch of people, many deserving to be fooled but many more not deserving it, I'm reminded of a few lyrics by Pete Townshend: "We forsake you/Gonna rape you/Let's forget you, better still." It sucks Leroy not being real, because for a while there he was almost worth it.