35 Cents

Cottonmouth Kisses Remember that con-artist, that literary construct of a tortured boy Laura Albert gave the name J.T. as if "The Leroy Syndrome" were another terminal illness? In the span of a few years, this increasingly tortured creature of myth festered from a truck stop prostitute into a full-blown media monstrosity whose stories spun more out of control than the crackled sparkle of a majorette's baton: suddenly "he" had full-blown AIDS; then "he" began to remember that he was also forced into starring in child pornography, ad nauseum? Well: no, Virginia--I hate to break the news, but there is no J.T. Leroy...just as there is no Santa Claus. There *is*, however, a brilliant and beautiful underrated memoirist named Matty Lee whose prose beats with the same pure intent as his heart, and whose debut release 35 Cents is precisely what it purports to be: a shattered account of a handsome boy's life who hustled his way through juvie and midnight streets, through the front seats of johns and the backward ways he developed into the straight-up talent the author is today. It's been almost a year since I finished this humble confessional, yet sometimes passages from its pages will come to mind and tap me on the shoulder when I least expect it: rough-edged little reminders that it's something bigger than I initially thought it to be. All flowery descriptions pushed aside, here's the deal: I love love love this book.

Matty Lee's "35 cents" is just brillant! Painful to read at times yet at the same time, so inspiring and hopeful! I grew up in Miami Beach as well though I was playing with Barbies while Matty was well, you read the book! I honestly had NO idea that these types of encounters were lurking so close to my sheltered Jewish suburban upbringing! The author truly shows that when life throws you lemons, make a Lemondrop! I loved this Book!!

I just picked up this book and couldn't put it down. It's a great, pretty quick read. The author doesn't beat around the bush when dealing with his hustling background. He gives one of the most honest, real, gritty, touching, and charming accounts of what it's like to fall into the hustling world and come out with your chin held high. I imagine Mr. Lee being a very charming person in real life since his writing has such charm. I found myself liking him as a protagonist from the very beginning. This is an important book for both gay and straight audiences. His refusal to be restrained by sometimes oppressing labels should be applauded. It's too bad more ppl aren't so willing to talk about the fluid nature of sexuality. Go read this book :-)

I loved this book. It will be a classic- the protagonist, like a modern-day Holden Caufield is so lovable for his honesty. Matty Lee, the author crafted an evolved, sensative, layered novel that deserves a higher level of respect than current trends may allow. The self-aware, innocent autobiography is way beyond his contemporary's (James Frey and JT LeRoy) as far as honesty, and integrity. I hope that because of the controversy surrounding them doesn't affect Matty Lee's success. For me, this book was not about being gay, or drugs or abuse, but more about humanity, survival and enlightenment. I read it in one night, unable to put it down... when I finished, my heart was full. I just ordered more copies for gifts, I wish for all the people in my life who have suffered ill-fated childhoods to feel the hopefulness and evolution of this boys journey into himself. Thank you Matty, for sharing your insight... can't wait for the next novel... and wish it was available in hardcover for the treasured books in my library.

He was the victim of a horde of vultures who wouldn't leave him alone. "Everywhere I went they were there: at the bathrooms in the park, at the YMCA, at family gatherings, everywhere." He was molested so many times he began to think it was normal human discourse. There must have been something special about this boy, because he was tragically popular. He grew to hate being alone, for instantly they would ruffle their vulture wings, seeking a sacrifice. "Every time I was alone for five minutes or more, one of them would turn up." They played a game, pedophile and abandoned boy. "Always the same game, touch me, let me touch you." The wonder is that, in recounting these events thirty years on, Matty Lee is able to bring so much humor and clarity to his story. He brings to writing the gifts of a great comedian, the timing, the knowledge of human nature, and the capability for forgiveness and redemption. Our narrator learns that "if you pretend to be something you aren't, sooner or later it will catch up with you." In Lee's own case, it wasn't so much pretense, it was an honest mistake. His abusive father taught him to solve his problems through alcohol and violence, and his termagant mother, who had him committed to the social services when he was still a little boy, just because she could, was no better. They set him up to try to please as many men as possible by offering his body, often for bargain prices and at least once for only 35 cents. The graphic designers who made a cover for this memoir, showing us the extreme mental poverty of 35 cents, bring it all back home. Along the way he meets the pond scum of South Beach (Miami) and the detail is so disgusting that I hope never to find myself in Dade County ever again. And yet somewhere along the way young Matty learned lessons in resilience that help him even now. There were some good people, even among the men who bought his company. He buried his heterosexual desires under a cloud of heavy drugs, believing himself to be gay until he turned seventeen or eighteen. Amazingly he lived, when many of his compadrinos wound up dead, either from drugs, sexual predators, or heroin. Like a cat he wound up on all four feet, and after a difficult beginning with the mysteries of language (he goes to the library and asks for "Giorgio Armani's Room" by "James Baldron"), his verbal and imaginative skills skyrocketed. At the end of a long journey he has emerged from a dark and savage tunnel, the author of one of the best memoirs of our century.