Some interesting discussion on the Hoax:
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/45766
E.g. ---
I have to say I'm impressed at the skill involved in the deception and only slightly annoyed. The eroticism, identity play, and exploration of the horrible, abusive depths and bizarre renewals humans are capable of were the, er, thrust of JT's story for me, and I recall The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things delivering on all those scores.
But then again, I'm not a seriously abused kid who might have gotten real hope and strength from JT's story. If I was, I'd probably feel a lot differently about this mess.
posted by mediareport at 9:55 PM PST on October 10
I've always sort of considered JT Leroy both a real person and a literary construct at once, and still do, so this comes as no real surprise - to be honest, it strikes me as needlessly combative to think of this in terms of being 'suckered', as if it's the author versus the reader.
Both books flaunt their fictional and embellished elements anyway - Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful... are both so obviously magical-realist that - to me at least - the presence or lack of a core of truth becomes irrelevant. If you're willing to believe in the story for a while, surely believing in the author on the same terms isn't too hard.
Speaking as someone to whom both books mean a lot, and who's had similar experiences, I can't imagine how this 'revelation' is supposed to shatter any illusions.
I think readers looking for a hero to lift them out of their own troubles or a truthful window into a very different life were looking in the wrong place from the start, and projecting their own expectations onto books that never promised those things. To me, they're fairytales about a life I can relate to and a testament to how anything can be made magical, and knowing the author's a fairytale too doesn't alter that, or make it a hoax.
posted by terpsichoria at 2:09 AM PST on October 11