JT LeRoy review – a less surprising hoax the second time around

The fake author who fooled the publishing world is brought back to life in a diverting tale that treads familiar ground“Sometimes, a lie’s more truth than the truth,” drawls author JT Leroy, speaking down a crackling telephone line. This straightforward dramatisation of Savannah Knoop’s 2008 memoir Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy details the scandalous, six-year-long ruse created by Knoop (Kristen Stewart) and author Laura Albert (Laura Dern) in the early noughties. Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy wasn’t just Albert’s pseudonym; he was a full-blown literary persona with a salacious backstory of poverty and child abuse that made the teenager’s acclaimed semi-autobiographical novels appear more authentic.When Albert meets her boyfriend’s shy, androgynous sister Savannah, she sees an opportunity to realise the reclusive LeRoy (the hunched, shuffling Stewart is perfect casting) and turn him into a celebrity phenomenon. Albert styles herself as LeRoy’s mad British manager Speedie; magazine covers and multimillion dollar film adaptations follow. For those familiar with the story, this version of LeRoy’s rise and fall won’t offer new revelations. Still, Dern brings a hungry, manic energy to Albert, a sad and troubled woman who used LeRoy as a vehicle to process her own childhood trauma, while Stewart’s performance is typically interiorised and exacting. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-08-18 07:00:10 UTC ]
News tagged with: #magazine covers #childhood trauma #memoir #publishing world

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Kevin Merida takes the top job at the LA Times

Yesterday, after months of speculation, the LA Times appointed its next executive editor. The paper has given the job to Kevin Merida, the editor in chief of The Undefeated, an arm of ESPN that reports on the intersection of sports, race, and culture; prior to working there, he spent twenty-two... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-05-04 12:30:57 UTC ]
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Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award longlist revealed

American authors dominate the 2021 longlist for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, the world’s richest short story prize with £30,000 for the winner. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-01 18:26:14 UTC ]
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Review: Two iconic novelists, Adichie and Lahiri, step off their pedestals

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-30 14:00:38 UTC ]
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Hachette makes Times' Top 50 Employers for Women for second year

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-28 21:32:56 UTC ]
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Review: Rachel Cusk trades in a blank-slate narrator for a tall drink of vinegar

"Second Place," Rachel Cusk's first novel after the radical, brilliant "Outline" trilogy, follows a forceful woman who's had enough of difficult men. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-28 14:00:33 UTC ]
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Publishers like The Guardian become conscientious FLoC objectors, as The New York Times and others open to testing the controversial tech

The drumbeat against Google's cookieless tracking and ad targeting method gets louder as publishers including The Guardian and The Markup block FLoC. The post Publishers like The Guardian become conscientious FLoC objectors, as The New York Times and others open to testing the controversial tech... Continue reading at Digiday

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These are the 50 best-selling books of all time (on Amazon).

Want to read what everyone else is reading? MarketWatch reports that in honor of World Book Day, Amazon has released a list of their 50 overall bestselling books in the U.S. (at least in the 27 years since their launch in 1994). Of course, not everyone buys their books on Amazon (may we suggest... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-23 16:45:58 UTC ]
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A Very Bad Poem From the Book Review Archives

As we scour the past issues of the Book Review on its 125th anniversary, we have come across a lot of commissioned poetry — including this interesting specimen. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-04-23 15:47:00 UTC ]
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How to watch former President Obama and Ava DuVernay at the L.A. Times Book Club

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-21 21:09:15 UTC ]
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L.A. Times Book Award Winners Announced

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-17 01:06:54 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-16 12:00:30 UTC ]
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President Obama, Ava DuVernay bring 'A Promised Land' to L.A. Times Community Book Club

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-16 01:25:03 UTC ]
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15 Favorite Episodes as the Book Review Podcast Turns 15

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[ The New York Times | 2021-04-14 13:30:36 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-09 16:58:23 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2021-04-09 13:05:40 UTC ]
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Get 'Machine Learning for Cybersecurity Cookbook' ($31.99 value) FREE for a limited time

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