Synopses & Reviews
The extraordinary stories that brought the author a cult following at the age of sixteen.
These are the stories of a young boy on the run, away from his past, hellbent towards an unknown future. Connected, they form a sometimes harrowing, sometimes bleakly funny, and often tender portrait of a complicated life. Like a modern-day Voltaire, LeRoy bounces his characters from adventure to adventure, each of them unyielding in the belief that the best of all possible worlds lies just around the next corner. Fresh, raw, and absolutely unforgettable, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things has further established the acclaimed author of Sarah as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary fiction.
Review
"A fascinating book, a book that instantly stirs the emotions and involves the readers in the lives of the people. It did not take long for the judgments to come fast and furious. That's what can be so deceitful about this book: you get so caught up in the circumstances and lives of the people you can easily overlook the quality of the writing, which is exceptional. One of the reasons this book is so powerful and effective is because it is beautifully structured and written. JT LeRoy should have a most remarkable future as a writer." Hubert Selby, Jr. author of Requiem for a Dream
Review
"Good Lord, what a book! JT LeRoy's writing is savagely authentic and appallingly beautiful. They don't make 'em like this anymore. He's a born writer." John Waters director of Pink Flamingos
Review
"Extraordinarily, Leroy manages to lace this horrific story with tenderness and humour. Not for the fainthearted, these few raw pages constitute a breathtaking debut." Guardian
Review
"Brilliant, gifted and profound . . . [JT LeRoy] is the witness to all the tales that go on in the dark, and for all of us, long may he have the courage to remember."—
Vanity Fair"JT LeRoy is an authentic wunderkind."—Los Angeles Times
"LeRoy's impressive gift is mesmerizing."—San Francisco Chronicle
"Few writers can deliver LeRoy's sense of a child in the hands of angry adults—or handle it with such assurance."—The Village Voice
"An eyewitness imagination burns in [LeRoy's] language . . . as vivid as a match held close to the face."—The New York Times Book Review
"Jeremy LeRoy writes like Flannery O'Connor tied to the bed and plied with angel dust."—Jerry Stahl, author of Perv: A Love Story and Permanent Midnight
"Relentlessly brutal and flawlessly scribed . . . LeRoy's prose soars."—San Francisco Bay Guardian
"LeRoy's work is a startling achievement in his accelerating mastery of the literary form."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Strong, fierce, hard, and frankly astonishing."—Kirkus Reviews
"[LeRoy is] a hungry writer with the instincts of a person who fishes to eat. Once he hooks the reader he doesn't let go."—Bookforum
About the Author
JT LeRoy was born in 1980. He is the author of the novel Sarah. First published at the age of sixteen, he has also written article and stories for Spin, Nerve, NY Press, The Stranger, and several anthologies, under the pseudonym Terminator. He lives in San Francisco.
Table of Contents
DisappearancesThe Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Toyboxed
Foolishness Is Bound in the Heart of a Child
Lizards
Baby Doll
Coal
Viva Las Vegas
Meteors
Natoma Street