Sarah, by J.T. Leroy

This short novel is written in such an engaging, witty prose that it is a pleasure to read, in spite of its horrific subject matter.



Sarah follows a young boy  through several years of prostitution and substance abuse as he waits to hear from his mother, Sarah - an abusive, drug-addicted prostitute.

The boy, calling himself Sarah, flees their pimp, but soon finds himself working for another, posing as an angel-faced little girl for paedophile clients.

Obviously, the story is harrowing, but it is nonetheless gripping. J.T. Leroy writes with an unbelievable talent for viewing the world through the eyes of child, and is astute at capturing the language and landscape of the American South. 

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, J.T. Leroy

I read this book knowing about the scandal behind it. J.T. Leroy, the purported author, is not a real person, and when the book was released, people thought it was autobiographical. For that reason, the book gets a lot of criticism. It is, however, a fantastic book that loses none of its value, in my mind, from the literary scandal surrounding its author.

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a novel or series of short stories that tell the story of the horrific childhood of a boy called Jeremiah. Jeremiah is taken from his adoptive familiar at the age of four and given to his birth mother – a mentally unstable, meth-addicted “lot lizard,” or prostitute.

Throughout the book, Jeremiah suffers all kinds of physical and mental abuse at the hands of his severely damaged mother and her boyfriends/husbands/clients. The story, although famously not true, is a depressingly accurate depiction of child abuse. The life of Jeremiah, who we last see at fifteen years old, is beyond tragic, yet this is the plight of too many children in this awful world.

Although it can be difficult to read due to the subject matter, and though people are put off by the scandal surrounding its authorship, this is a truly great piece of contemporary literature.