Despite the attention he has willingly or unwillingly gotten, I for one love his books. I compare him on some levels with Hubert Selby Jr, for his knack of depicting the lowest depths of humanity with some sort of beauty. Personally I have witnessed similar creatures growing up in the midwest with southern roots and alot of white trash on one side of my family. I am able to "smell" the carpeting in the motel rooms and feel the grimy toys he drags from new home to new home. Sarah to me was a much too short journey with alot of flaws, but we are also looking at a writer that had barely finished high school. The guy is YOUNG!!! I find it very strange that we as a culture have to constantly pick at artists to see whats underneath. Myself included, I am fascinated by a young man whose imagination could create such despicable characters and yet make them somehow redeemable at the same time. Its wonderful to find rich characters that are painted on the surface as so evil, and then when the crust comes off the top, you peek in to see what made them so. If you seperate Leroy the "presswhore" and Leroy the young writer who has a whole lifetime ahead of him to create, maybe you could get lost in his work a little better. GOD I want to play a TV lot lizard if Gus vanZandt does Sarah as a movie. I have the perrrrfect cowl neck mini sweater dress and high heeled moccossin boots.