Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, but gripping
Review: This book was read by my neighborhood book club in Los Angeles consisting of several women, most of whom are in the entertainment industry. One woman refused to read it because of its content. Some couldn't finish it because it was to upsetting for them. I couldn't put it down because as sick as it was, I was gripped. I wanted to know how it ended. It might not be the most literary thing, and I've read some reviews slamming it non-uniqueness, but how many of these types of people reach adulthood and are able to write about it? Rumor has it this is going to be a movie. I doubt I'll be able to see it, it's just too sick. I can read about gross stuff and sick violence, but I can't watch it (if that helps you decide if you can read this). If you're able to read about S&M, gay sex, child abuse, sexual abuse, and like to read non-mainstream stuff, go for it. The woman who recommended this book, did so because she had met the author, who apparently does not do his own book readings. He lives somewhat anonymously and unusually and we suspect he may not live past the age of 30.
Rating: 
Summary: A childhood in hell
Review: This is a heartbreaking, brutally honest portrait of childhood that may be the most gut-wrenching of its type since Jean Genet first took up his pen or Arthur Rimbaud spent his season in hell. True or not, the stories that comprise J. T. Leroy's "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" are convincing enough to lead even the most reluctant reader into accepting them as a legitimate vision of family and abuse in America. All the usual suspects are here--the teenage mother with the substance abuse problem, who has turned to prostitution and is barely more than a child herself; the string of redneck boyfriends, who drive trucks or live in trailers, and who are just as capable of raping little boys as making love to Baby Doll girls; and the hell-fire and brimstone spouting preacher, who is the scourge of God when it comes to disciplining defenseless children and who may be more than just a grandfather to poor young Jeremiah, the Bible-named narrator of the stories and presumed autobiographical stand-in for Leroy--but Leroy keeps them fresh. His writing is spare and convincingly adolescent, all the while it is clearly guided by an assured hand. The only problem is that, for this reader at least, the pace is so relentlessly downbeat that, in spite of welcome flashes of humor, I was exhausted three-fourths of the way into the book and found the last two stories before "Natoma Street" to be overkill. The climax of the novel (for it is so much more a novel than a collection of stories) occurs in "Coal," in which we learn something of the horrors of Sarah's upbringing and can even forgive her, up to point, for the horrors she has in turn inflicted upon her son. I haven't read Leroy's "Sarah," which I understand is to be made into a movie. But it will now be as hard not to read that book as it would be for me to avert my eyes from a train wreck. Paul Golding's "The Abomination" and Patrick McCabe's "Breakfast on Pluto" treat similar themes and are worthy reads in their own right, but "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" comes closer to approximating what hell must be like for an abused child. If this sort of thing is truly going on anywhere in America, God help us all.
Rating:
Summary: Ten stories that wil leave a mark
Review: This is by far one of the most disturbing, yet remarkable books I have ever read. When I started it, I didn't know what I was getting myself into, and I was shocked, even repulsed by some of the horrific details that leapt out of the pages at me, but I had to keep reading. This book doesn't sugarcoat Jeremiah's traumatizing experiences, nor does it offer euphemisms to spare the readers sensitivity; it's completely uncensored.
What makes the story really unique is the childlike perspective from which appalling events are told. It's amazing how complicated the book is, despite the simplicity of the language. We're able to discover the inner-workings of Jeremiah's twisted mind, which is exposed to such atrocity at a young age. The ironic part of the story is that Jeremiah's just searching for love and acceptance, but everywhere he turns he runs into abominations of human nature. His lack of love has serious consequences.
I don't think the book intends to shock or offend, even thought it may do so, but it just offers a brutally honest recount of such a perverse childhood, and how it affected the character as an adult. The accounts of the physical and emotional abuse he experienced are so candid and raw, you ask yourself how J.T LeRoy could have had the courage to put them on paper. LeRoy's ability to transmit pure emotions through the graphic nature of his book is amazing, especially since this book was written by the time he was 21, and if these events actually happened to him, it makes his achievement even more astounding.
The book reveals that terrifying things like the ones depicted can and do happen, even if people like to pretend that they don't. These ten stories may shock you, disgust you, or disturb you, but they will certainly leave a mark.
Rating:
Summary: Something (new)
Review: To say that something is REALLY new is always ridicolous,
but this is at least different from many of lately read
"new writers".
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