Sarah: A Provocative American Novel of Trans Identity, Gender, and Survival

Ever look out the car window while passing through the Blue Ridge Mountains and imagine an alternative life? SARAH paints a strange nightmarish dreamscape far beyond what most could imagine. It has spontaneity, deep empathy, and characters that you can smell, feel, pinch – as well as a subject matter that balances between refreshingly original and disturbingly taboo. This book has powers, too. It can turn your judgment, a system that's been curated for an entire life, upside down, transforming "All pimps are evil" to "good pimp, bad pimp". I want to snuggle into its sentences. They make the story flow like a river, smooth at points, tumultuous at others. The prose is simple where it needs to be, careful not to call attention to itself, but rather used in the mission of telling a great American tale. I am floored by some of the 1 star reviews that claim the characters are one-dimensional. The narrator – aka Cherry Vanilla aka Sarah aka She-rah aka Saint Sarah aka Sam – evolved before the first page was even written. Ancillary people are lightly sketched, but the ones closer in are so real, silky, bristly, damp, odoriferous, creepy. I re-read SARAH after coming across the documentary "Author: The JT LeRoy Story". I had read it many years before, and like so many people was intrigued by this gender-fluid it-lit boy. When the NY Times story broke that the author was probably a much older woman, I was exuberant. Not knowing the backstory, I empathized with…

I havent read a book in a long time. In fact, haven't heard of author Laura Albert until recently viewing the film adaptation of The Heart Is Decietful Above All Things. Then decided to check out this JT Leroy fella (who really isn't a fella which caused a huge uproar from fans). Downloaded the kindle version of Sarah which I surprisingly finished. That's probably the biggest compliment, because I could never stick a book. It was that appealing to me. Miss Albert deserves a lot of credit. She delves into a world that most are either unaware of or choose to ignore. She's just the person you'd want to represent that, being a victim of child abuse (physically, sexually, and emotionally). It's my belief that people tend to overlook those things because of how depressing they are. They don't want to know. From my understanding, Sarah is an easier book to digest than The Heart because it's more humorous. In fact, alot of the characters are more likeable. Even had quite a few laughs. That's not to say there aren't any disturbing moments. It kind of comes with the territory. The second half of the novel is where it gets darker. Its a quick read (166 pages), but doesnt feel rushed. The content is whats really important. If the content is good and story written well, sometimes you wont even realize. All the little details have charm and even put a smile on my face. This dark world can surprisingly feel welcoming. The book talks alot about the diner Cherry Vanilla goes to back home…

There are now a number of reviews which, after it was revealed that JT LeRoy was a fictional persona, have taken to castigating the author rather than evaluating the merits of the work. This is a response to those who have taken this position. Which part of novel, ahem ... fiction, don't you understand. Let's do this one step at a time. You appear to be upset that the artist represented herself as HIV positive. Excuse me, would you mind pointing out where she did that. The answer, which you may not want to hear, is never. While there may be reviewers who carelessly made that claim, the truth is that Laura never made such a representation. Second, you seem to object to the artistic use of another persona as the predicate for her writing. May I remind you that there are many female authors who represent themselves as male, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many male authors who went the other way. If you have seen the recent film based upon Bob Dylan's life (I believe his real name was actually Robert Zimmerman), you will note that they used 6 different characters to play him, mainly because he had "misrepresented" his past. What about Borat? At the time the movie was shot, the public figures thought they were talking to a foreign journalist. Did that deception inflame your passions in the same way? Third, as to the lawsuit, the final chapter has yet to be written. That matter is on appeal and Ms. Albert has supplemented her team with a nationally known firm…

This is a very disturbing book. It is difficult to separate the novel from the myth of LeRoy himself. It is autobiographical fiction, but I'm not exactly sure where the autobiography ends and the fiction begins. LeRoy was a fourteen year old street-hustler whose therapist recommended he turn to writing in order to deal with his issues. He was put in touch with figures in the literary community, such as his hero, Dennis Cooper. He was first published at 16 and at 19 he wrote the novel Sarah. The book reveals a world I never knew existed (and now that I know, I'd like to forget). Apparently, there is quite a trade in child prostitution for truck drivers in West Virginia. The narrator is just one of those characters. Pre-pubescent, his mother Sarah is a prostitute and soon he (known as Cherry Vanilla) is indoctrinated as well. (This is nothing new to him as his mother's Johns have been molesting him as well.) The wrinkle is that he has to dress up to look like a girl. The story does bare a resemblance to Oliver Twist - instead of child pickpockets, they are child prostitutes. However, the drama of this story merely entails the escape from the "bad" pimp to the "good" pimp. Don't expect an overly happy ending for the book, but at least we know LeRoy's own life is turning out better. If you are interested I highly recommend viewing his homepage at [...] to get a better understanding of him (there is some speculation as to the veracity of his claims). LeRoy is now friends with…

I first came across Sarah after watching a few documentaries on the novel and its author. As soon as I finish the documentaries I ordered the books. I couldn’t set Sarah down it was such a pager turner. I knew people struggling with gender identity and sexuality. Sarah felt both family and faren. I highly recommend this novel