(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Sarah, JT LeRoy's 2000 debut novel, recently translated into Norwegian, has attracted considerable attention in several countries and has provided the author with a large following in the home country, USA. Among other things, the novel is described as one Alice i eventyrland on the acid of the New York Times' critic, "with the ironic twist that the hero longs to be a woman, not a man."
Magical jackolope
The novel starts at Sarah's home, whore at a trailer stop, and her 12-year-old son Cherry Vanilla. The latter is the book's narrator and I-person, and we follow him as he takes his mother's name and begins to compete with her at the relatively friendly pardon of Glad, dressed as a girl. The environment is a bit surreal, populated with beautiful transvestite whores at a gourmet restaurant at a trailer stop.
But as Cherry's entry into the profession, his ambitions in the field rise. He simply wants to be the best trailer stopper, and he seeks out a magical jackolope that the "trailer bitches" worship to give them psychic abilities for what customers want.
Weekend
From here it carries on to the far less friendly pagan Le Loup, who drives him to the weekend and begins to pose him as a religious icon and lets him walk on the water.
The fall is inevitable, and it comes when it is revealed that the light-cut, sweet girl is not a girl at all. From there and out, history becomes an increasingly macabre study of violence, substance abuse and the dream of a rescue.
misuse
But it's also grotesque in the first place, where 12-year-old Cherry Vanilla is stuck under her mother's varying girlfriends:
They used to kick empty goods in the dark, pull my blankets aside, and move into me, overpowering me with silent, invading shocks. I liked those who lay with me afterwards, who held me so close to them with hands that could easily have broken me in two, but who did not. They used to stroke my stomach and whisper in my ear: 'Sweet you, sweet you, I'm inside you, babe.' I also remember the blood afterwards, after they pull everything out of me. It felt like they pulled out all my sweetness and all my guts. Then they took it with them. "
Redefine roles
Cherry is a child who apparently knows the rules of the game, where he plays with Barbie dolls to please pedophiles and stands up as innocent little girls. Cherry / Sarah tries to take control by selling themselves as efficiently as possible. In order to transform the negative in the abuse into something positive that it is possible to live with. Of course it does not go so well, but there is something both touching and uplifting in these constant attempts – and screaming painful.
In their struggle for survival, Cherry / Sarah seduces prostitutes into repeating the abuse, thus showing that they appreciate him in the only way he knows an adult can appreciate him. He is an extremely love-hungry and neglected child. He misses his mother and tries to become her. He misses a father and thus allows himself to be fucked by father figures.
Impressive
The whole thing is, of course, deeply, deeply tragic. Cherry / Sarah is probably the type of victim that an abuser would have received a reduced sentence for raping, because he has not been "harmed" by it – and moreover, he would. Cherry's breakdown is not happening in a social services office, but in full public. And he is not a charming and handsome victim, he does not show his shame and misfortune with the right amount of submissiveness.
Sarah is in every way an impressive debut novel, beautiful, funny, tragic, shocking and raw. Cherry / Sarah is one of the most believable, honest and gripping novel characters I have ever met, and autobiography or not, JT LeRoy is a great narrator. Sarah is among the few books I am grateful to have read.
