J.T. Leroy: The Chron's finally on the case
The creative team behind J.T. Leroy should send James Frey flowers, since his little revelations have given the J. T. Leroy hoax story a sort of also-ran quality. However, we were pleased to see the San Francisco Chronicle finally pick up the story and give it a well-sourced local angle. First up: the local literary Who's Who with regard to who was sucked in: Dave Eggers, Susie Bright, David Wigand, Michael Ray, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.
Second up: the take from local author Armstead Maupin, who turned his previous hoax experience into The Night Listener:
"A lot of people argue that such frauds cause no harm and are a great joke played on the literary establishment," he said by telephone Monday. "But in fact there's something very callous about using AIDS and an abusive childhood as a way of getting sympathy and support," Maupin said, adding, "I'm surprised that people were bamboozled as long as they were."
Photo by Brant Ward of the San Francisco Chronicle.
By SFist Lisa, ContributingThird up: Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket), who points out that the Bay Area's got a long history of literary hoaxes. SFist is very impressed with Handler's equanimity, considering that he was the target of a letter from Team J. T. Leroy back in 2004 which concluded:
I oppose you with enormous trepidations, especially as films of our books might be going against each other and you will most likely whomp my ass at the box office. I don't have Jim Carey (sic). I do, however, have Winona Ryder and Peter Fonda, and I think in an extreme wrestling match they could do some damage to Mr. Carey (sic).
Frankly, going by critical receptions and box-office grosses for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things compared to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, we think Team J.T. should have worried less about how that movie was received and begun working on shopping around the movie that will undoubtedly hit the festival circuit in winter 2008: how some failed San Francisco rock stars perpetuated a critically-adored, star-f**king literary hoax.