The Errant Æsthete

The above quote taken from Laura Albert, who most will recognize as famed author and media darling JT LeRoy, who once wowed Bono, Courtney Love and a slew of celebrities, wrote three books, was profiled in the NY Times and Vanity Fair and was celebrated by noted authors like Michael Chabon and Dave Eggers, only to be, ultimately, exposed as a fraud is the featured attraction in a compelling read by Guy Lawson of Rolling Stone. He recently interviewed Albert (aka JT LeRoy) more than a year after she was outed as the woman behind LeRoy.

(Unfortunately, this is only an excerpt for those who don’t subscribe to Rolling Stone, although there are audio clips.)

“Over a period of weeks, in New York and then in San Francisco, she laughs and weeps and screams her way through the first complete recounting she has ever offered of the decade-long transformation of an HIV-positive, transgender street kid named Terminator into the celebrated fiction writer Jeremiah “Terminator” LeRoy. Depending on your point of view, Albert is a con, or an artist, or a con artist who created one of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time. The imaginary author she passed off as real became a darling of the gay literary world, an icon in the hipster art scene, and the weird and brave inspiration for countless people who suffered child abuse.”