Gender Confusion

NYTimes:

It has been one of the most bizarre literary mysteries in recent memory: Who, exactly, is the novelist JT Leroy? An answer, at long last, is taking shape.

Mr. Leroy's tale was harrowing in its details and uplifting in its arc. He was a young truck-stop prostitute who had escaped rural West Virginia for the dismal life of a homeless San Francisco drug addict. Rescued as a young teenager by a couple named Laura Albert and Geoffrey Knoop and treated by a psychologist, he was able to turn his terrible youth into a thriving career as a writer. JT Leroy has published three critically acclaimed works of fiction noted for their stark portrayal of child prostitution and drug use.

Along the way Mr. Leroy gained the friendship and trust of celebrities and noted writers, who supported his career financially and offered him emotional support when he declared that he was infected with H.I.V. Sales were good, and his books were published around the world. Shy and reclusive, Mr. Leroy, now 25, appeared in public often disguised beneath a wig and sunglasses.

But the young man in the wig and sunglasses, it turns out, is not a man at all. The public role of JT Leroy is played by Savannah Knoop, Geoffrey Knoop's half sister, who is in her mid-20's.

This story is a couple of weeks old, but it's totally new to me and I found it only through a strange Google path.  Eli--damn his eyes--had made a pun about 'concatenation' over at Eschaton, in the context of cats, no less, and that sparked a memory for me. 

I recalled a photocopied cartoon that NTodd's Pa had brought home showing a series of cats with interlocked arms and the caption 'CONCATENATION', which I thought immeasurably clever and humorous after he explained it to me--in fact, it hung on our fridge for quite a while.  So tonight I tried googling to find the toon for old times' sake.

The cats were by a famous cat artist, though I'm pretty sure it's not Kliban.  I had in my head that his name was something like 'Boylan', so I searched for "boylan cat".  First hit included this graf at GalleyCat:

Jennifer Finney Boylan, who wrote about her sex change operation in the memoir She's Not There, wasn't familiar with JT LeRoy or his work before reading the Times, and the article left her with more questions about LeRoy than answers. "Jeez, who wouldn't like to have someone else take the heat once in a while?" she asked in response to an email query about the Albert/Knoop ruse. "I admire what would appear from the outside to be the cleverness and invention of JT's solution, but the truth of JT's situation doesn't really appear to have emerged yet. Until it does, all I can say is that we should treat her with the compassion and forgiveness, and respect that she deserves. Maybe in time the whole story will become clear."

I'm not the most literary kinda guy, and I'm not one to follow transgender stuff generally, but Jenny was one of my favorite profs at Colby so the story caught my eye. 

I honestly have no clue what this is all about--it's late and I'm late to the party as it is.  I did do a search on the author and found a book that I've actually heard of: Sarah : A Novel.  Never read it. 

This note in the editorial reviews at Amazon struck me as a bit funny, however:

FYI: LeRoy has edited several anthologies under the pseudonym Terminator.

I'm still generally confused, and apparently so is Leroy.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  One thing I'm sure of: the boys and I gotta go to bed.

ntodd