35 Cents

by Matty Lee

35 Cents is the story of a straight, young, white boy growing up and coming of age as he hustles his way both through the gay community and the juvenile-detention system of South Florida in the late 1980s. It s also the amount he made when he turned his first trick at 13. Will he find home? Will he find love? All it costs is 35 cents.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, LGBT, Gay

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Matty Lee received his GED from the Dade County School Board sometime in the late eighties. He went on to attend Los Angeles Community College but lost interest after Spanish I. He's been employed as a tree climber, a bartender, a medical research patient, a deckhand, a telephone repairman, a salesman, a fabric librarian, a night watchman, a grave digger, a customer service representative and on and on. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California where he loves to surf, read and play with small fury animals.

Matty Lee's writing first appeared in print when Tin House Literary Journal published the short story 35 Cents in their issue #15, The Sex Issue under the name Matt Hersh.

He has also been published in Christopher Russell's Bedwetter Magazine, Darin Klein's After Life, The Velvet Mafia and Fritz Haeg's Sundown Salon Book.

In 2006 his book 35 Cents was nominated for a Lambda Award for Best Memoir.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is something about this 'memoir', I just don't believe it. I was 13 years old in the 1970s and neither I nor anyone I knew would have taken 35 cents to let someone touch us let alone do anything else. That is not because I and my friends were very moral, we were very greedy, and knew that we worth more. This is just too much the paint-by-number, connect-the-dots, tale of drugs and abuse and overcoming the same to be believable. I have my own good reasons and experience for finding everything about this tale unbelievable but I also think it is cynical, manipulative and designed to comfort/shock white suburban readers.

To be honest I think this book is even more of a lie than the 'abuse' literature' produced by J.T. Leroy. The only difference is that Matty Lee can't write.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book over one about life in a brothel because it seemed less analytical and just pure...sob story. This became book 1 of long 12-hour flight. At first I strongly disliked the author because he seemed incredibly whiny and defensive while telling his story. Sorta like James Frey in "A Million Little Pieces". Towards the end I began to appreciate his attitude and actually started enjoying the story. But it still made me feel like a dirty old pervert reading about his 12 year old tricks in great detail. It's what I imagine Harlequin Romance novels for Pedophiles to read like.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matty Lee has written a revealing autobiography of a kid who was sexualized at much too young an age but who has apparently gone on to a happier life. He writes in the book jacket intro that he wouldn't trade his childhood for any other. He adds that this book is about how "there is goodness everywhere, even in the darkest of parked cars and leather bars."

I'm afraid that some of that is hyperbole. And if it were my life I'd want to believe something like that too. Unfortunately for those of us that had happier childhoods, this book may be depressing and an ordeal to finish. Since the skinny little kid who loved to hide out at the library has gone on to be a published author it's not all bad news, but I found this book seedier and mostly joyless.

I've wondered about that. Having just finished Target which has a victimized young protagonist who is much sadder for the majority of the book than this kid, I wondered why that book was page turner and this one was an ordeal. I think the answer is in the focus. Target is about the road back after an awful incident. This book dwells more on the downward spiral. While this book may be a form of therapy for the author, I found that it wasn't an uplifting read like Target turned out to be. But then Target is fiction and this is, as far as I can tell, gritty real life.


That said, this book does contain some redeeming characters and is worth the time to read if you have a high tolerance for the seedier side of life.

I was originally drawn to this book as much by its setting in the run down Miami Beach of the 80's as by it's favorable reviews. In that it doesn't disappoint. I recognized a number of locations from my mid 80's times in Miami Beach when I too was just beginning to explore my gay side.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some quite funny elements here, but the writer was unable to offer a satisfactory conclusion, preferring instead to tease the reader rather than to go to the heart of this very dark subject or offer any sense of resolution. Try Dennis Cooper's "the Sluts" instead.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hope keeps the misery in place."

"Be a lamp unto yourself and seek your own liberation with diligence."

[Bud Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story. Had quite a psychological twist.

[Arabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have ever read. Nuff said.