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kyleofbooks 's review for:
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
by J.T. LeRoy
DNF
Honestly, I hard skimmed the last 60 pages (disregarding the seven additional stories not included in the original publication text).
It's not solely due to the fact that the subject matter is truly vile, and at the same time leaving me numb (I've been so desensitized by the worst-of-the-worst films and literature to be affected any more-so); this book is just not written well. The abuse is exploitative and repetitive in its savagery. It's an unrelenting Hell for Jeremiah, but one that feels forced for the sake of being ruthlessly edgy on the author's part.
This book is, as others have expressed, "poverty porn". Sarah is the white trash villainess to little Jeremiah's victim. Again and again, we are hammered over the head with: Sarah being a horrible mother and Jeremiah paying for it in the most violent of ways. But that's it. I never saw any much of an in between for their roles. It was always Sarah being a terrible person, and Jeremiah suffering because of it. It felt too much, again, like a contrived effort at keeping the story more despicable than the next-- and I can almost imagine this book becoming a talking point for many Brooklynite Hipsters: "I just read the craziest book. It's pretty hard to get through- you should try!"
The reason I picked this up was because I heard about the author's story, which was more interesting than this attempt at tackling a difficult subject matter. I wish I had read something else. Abandonment, child abuse, loss of identity... issues that should be treated with better care, and not made to feel exploited and false in an effort to generate a shock factor.
In the end, I am disappointed.
This book...
It's not edgy, it's phony.
Honestly, I hard skimmed the last 60 pages (disregarding the seven additional stories not included in the original publication text).
It's not solely due to the fact that the subject matter is truly vile, and at the same time leaving me numb (I've been so desensitized by the worst-of-the-worst films and literature to be affected any more-so); this book is just not written well. The abuse is exploitative and repetitive in its savagery. It's an unrelenting Hell for Jeremiah, but one that feels forced for the sake of being ruthlessly edgy on the author's part.
This book is, as others have expressed, "poverty porn". Sarah is the white trash villainess to little Jeremiah's victim. Again and again, we are hammered over the head with: Sarah being a horrible mother and Jeremiah paying for it in the most violent of ways. But that's it. I never saw any much of an in between for their roles. It was always Sarah being a terrible person, and Jeremiah suffering because of it. It felt too much, again, like a contrived effort at keeping the story more despicable than the next-- and I can almost imagine this book becoming a talking point for many Brooklynite Hipsters: "I just read the craziest book. It's pretty hard to get through- you should try!"
The reason I picked this up was because I heard about the author's story, which was more interesting than this attempt at tackling a difficult subject matter. I wish I had read something else. Abandonment, child abuse, loss of identity... issues that should be treated with better care, and not made to feel exploited and false in an effort to generate a shock factor.
In the end, I am disappointed.
This book...
It's not edgy, it's phony.