Sarah

CW: This book contains a lot of potentially triggering things, both referenced and on the page, including Child Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation, Sex Work, Sexual Assault, Transphobia, Addiction

I went from not having ever heard of this book or its author to having it randomly recommended on here, seeing a scathing review referencing the issues around the author, watching the Vice documentary, reading the Guardian interview with Savannah Knoop, and finally reading/ listening to the book in pretty much one sitting, in the space of a few days. I was initially not going to read it because of the subject matter, but the controversy around the author fascinated me, and seeing the reaction that people had to the book when it was published show more convinced me I had to at least try it.

Art that is hyped up invariably cannot live up to the story told about it, and after the utter wildness of the reaction of celebrities and fans I don't think anything could really measure up to that. However, Sarah is absolutely one of the most original, awfully beautiful, and exquisitely visceral and uncomfortable books I have ever read. Regardless of the issues around the author, the authorial voice is spectacular with a grimy poetry that makes the prose feel like being stuck in the gut with a filthy platinum blade. I'm hesitant to say I love a book that has the subject matter this one does and problems with its creator/s, but I do. I bloody adored it and my issues with the problematic mythology around JT LeRoy and discomfort at how truly harrowing this book is at times with things I normally try to avoid not dulling my enjoyment of this book as a work of art and a literary masterpiece. That said, this isn't some holy, magical book. It's not the greatest work of fiction ever and it certainly isn't going to appeal to everyone for all manner of reasons. It's not even my favourite book, but I would be lying if I didn't say it was up there.

Sarah follows the strange and traumatic life of a young person assigned male at birth who predominantly presents and views themselves as a woman. Her mother is a truck stop sex worker and it isn't long before the protagonist becomes drawn into child sexual exploitation (children cannot consent to sex work). She sneaks off to makes a pilgrimage to a spiritual site for sex workers to receive a blessing and is taken advantage of again and kidnapped. Taken away from everyone she knows she takes the name of her mother, Sarah, for herself and is stuck in a situation that begins in bizarre spirituality, before things take horrifyingly bleak turn.

Sarah's perspective and view of the world is uniquely shaped by her experiences and the strange world of sex work and exploitation which is all she has ever known. This is a world in which raccoon penis bones are magical relics and marks of prestige, a large elk holy site for sex workers, and the patron saints of truckers. As ridiculous as these things sound and as unquestionably awful and disturbing many of the situations and events are the tale the reader goes on with Sarah is wonderfully woven together with prose that is beautiful, ugly, exquisite, and hypnotic. It's immensely readable and undeniably art -- you can absolutely hate it if you wish, the joys of subjectivity, but I don't belive it can be denied that this is art. In my opinion this is utterly breathtaking and incredible, confronting art.

I have seen reviews that tear the book apart or recant previously glowing reviews based entirely on the controversy, which I will talk about in a moment. While it's totally valid that information we learn about an artist can have a serious effect on how we view the art and your relationship to it, I don't think it's accurate to say that one can revoke whether something is art or to change the actual quality of the art itself -- in an individual's eyes and subjective experience, absolutely, but not objectively. I don't care how anyone feels about this book and my feelings are just that, my feelings. I do think that discrediting art because of the artist is somewhat absurd. I personally believe Picasso was virulent misogynist, but that doesn't make me think Guernica is any less a powerful piece.

The JT LeRoy controversy in a nutshell was that he was a fictional persona and psudenum used by Laura Albert that was later played by her, at the time, sibling-in-law, Savannah Knoop, who has since come out as non binary. The real issue is that the character of JT LeRoy was presented as the novel, Sarah, being at least somewhat autobiographical, with the author having been sexually exploited as a child, being transgender or having a Genderqueer experience of some kind, and that he had AIDS. Albert and Knoop presented Knoop as LeRoy, becoming a megastar with relationships with many celebrities and keeping to the LeRoy being a real person, even vociferously defending him and explicitly lying when it started to be reported that LeRoy didn't exist. The Vice documentary gives a platform for Albert to tell her side of the story that is very sympathetic to her, both in her telling of the story and the cultivated narrative of the documentary itself, after all the investigative journalism at the time, and Knoop made a film that gives their perspective, which sees Albert as more of a manipulator, taking advantage of a teenage Knoop. Bias is everywhere and we will never know the exact truth.

Something that is very clear in Albert's life story is that she was a troubled child, she was sexually abused by a family repeatedly, was sent to a mental institution by her mother a number of times, and eventually emancipated from her parents and lived in a group home. This trauma and neurodivergence was something she explored and processed through creative writing using a male voice to grant her the distance she needed, something a creative writing professor refused to allow her to do, which is abhorrent. I believe the persona of Terminator, who became JT LeRoy, began as needed creative and cathartic outlet and a cry for help. It only crossed a line when he was presented as a real person with intersections of marginalisation that Albert had not experienced and the potential manipulation of Knoop and their subsequent portrayal of him. There is appropriation of trauma in the character of JT LeRoy that, while I don't think was originally incarnated to do so, was certainly used to create the mystique around him that played a huge part in his success and becoming a megastar. This is entirely unacceptable to me as is Albert's unwillingness to truly admit to the wrong done by her. I don't think it is anywhere near the level of awful things many creators and celebrities have done, so I find the level of animosity, specifically from those not in the groups effected by her appropriation, mind boggling.

For the record I am a Genderqueer trans femme and I do think the appropriation is awful. I also see a severely traumatised and neurodivergent person who had a much needed outlet that became something more, becoming something that was no longer OK. I can sympathise and understand about how things got out of control, but the opportunities, both to come clean as the author and those that were granted Albert on the back on the somewhat artificial fame of LeRoy were many. I think she did wrong and needs to truly accept that, just as Knoop did wrong and has been much more open about their own culpability. I just don't think there is anything to be gained by putting any energy into hating either of them, especially when those they appropriated and lied to face far more serious threats and dangers posed by governments and celebrities around the world. Your feelings are valid regardless, harassing them is not.

Regarding the content of the book, I think the subjects and themes are all treated with an appropriate respect and understanding, with the exception of Grady being portrayed as too good, caring, and paternal for a pimp who sexually exploits children. We should not demand writers only write about their own experiences, as long as they do so with the respect and care they need and are not speaking over own voices. The book and its independent quality as a literary work of art, at least for me, is not tainted by everything else around it.

Ultimately, I adored the book, as troubling as it is, I don't think what Albert and Knoop did with JT LeRoy was at all acceptable, and I don't hate either of them and have sympathy and empathy for them both. I do hope Albert will be honest with herself and her audience and give a genuine apology. I wish everyone involved the best and as much healing as they can get. The sake goes for anyone who has read this, especially if you wildly different takes and energy about the whole situation. show less

When I first read the novel years ago, the LeRoy hoax was in full bloom; "JT" was even selling replica 'coon-bone charms on his website. Every effort was made to make this seem like a slightly-fictionalized autobiography.

I fell for it. I found the book very touching and I was impressed. Impressed that an author at most a year younger than myself published to such critical acclaim. Impressed by the courage it took to bare his soul in such a way. And, embarassingly, I had a bit of a nerdy reader-crush on him.

Against my better judgment, I reread it recently, knowing full well that "JT" was a lie. Without the rose-coloured glasses of the hoax, the novel is shallow crap. The surreality seems forced, the subject matter and themes show more exploitative. It no longer has a shred of honesty. I suppose it never did in the first place.

Am I angry? Yeah, a bit. Mostly due to the position that Laura Albert has taken about any negative fan reaction to her hoax. It seems as though she thinks the only appropriate reaction to the hoax's exposure is reverent clapping or Beatnik finger snaps, and that any resentment for having been taken on a ride is evidence of a deep character flaw in the disgruntled reader.

I'd give one star, but I did enjoy the book once upon a time. So, two. show less

This book blew me away when I first read it back in 2002. This account of a horrible life as a child prostitute along American highways, written not as the black story of opression it actually is, but as a sort of starry eyed, twisted fairytale, wasn't quite like anything I had ever read before. It was, as someone put it, like reading the story of Alice in the wrong Wonderland, a world where jackalopes and penis bones of raccoons give you magic powers, where pimps are kings and magicians and where the "lot lizards" and she-males are knights in shining armour. And this without shying away from the violence and horror of that environment. That the book claimed to be partly autobiographical made the tone of it even more a wonder. How was show more it possible to describe an upbringing like that in such a way???

Since then JT LeRoy has been outed as a literary persona, and I was afraid this would affect my reading of it. I read LeRoy's other "autobiographical" novel The heart is decietful above all things after the unveiling of the hoax, and that book felt speculative and cold to me, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Sarah, while behaps not knocking me out this time (lowered the rating by half a star) fares much better, and I think it has to do with the fairytale element of it. It's a strange and at times disturbing book this, but there are also elements of sweetness and quirkyness in there. It remains a book unlike any other, even without the autobiographical claim. show less

Det bästa med den här boken tycker jag är barnperspektivet som den är skriven i som både skapar komiska och obehagliga situationen.
Tycker mycket om författaren som skildrar den hårda verkligheten och utsattheten

God, what a good book! You know the type, you really want to get to the end but when its over you wish there was more to come? Sarah is that type of book. What a great story, I mean the writing was very good too, but the story had me sucked right in. Its about a young boy who dresses up as a girl to work as a truck-stop whore, apparently loosely biographical. I'm dying to read The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things now, but I'm trying to pace myself!

Disturbing and fascinating with an excellent grasp on slang and mannerisms, but lacking a narrative that compels outside of the shock value. Not that the shock value is bad, per se, it just didn't feel like a means to an end. Some sections were a little haphazard, and while the characterization is the strong point, the actual plot lags behind the limited character growth. Pooh and Sarah/Sam's interaction is among some of the strongest and simultaneously weakest in the novel, with similar issues between Sarah/Sam and his various pimps. Interesting, though, and excellent use of the disturbing to find something resembling beauty in a putrid swamp of disease, whores, greed and Barbies.

A fascinating, disturbing and odd story of teenage, cross-dressing prostitutes at trucks stops in West Virginia. Aside from the disappointing backstory involving the author's true identity, the book ended on a weak note, with psuedo-redemption, but nonetheless, was a head-scratcher. Not sure how I made it through the entire book, but overall it was an interesting read that I finished in about three hours.