Matty Lee's 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. 35 cents is also the amount he made when he turned his very first trick at the age of thirteen This compelling, funny, and haunting memoir turns a surprising and uncompromising eye on how we tell ourselves stories about our own lives.

"My book is not asking you to feel sorry for me because of my sordid past, but rather asking you to rethink sordid pasts altogether. I thought about calling it Raised by Queens but I will stick to 35 Cents. It's about how the things that other people might consider abusive or scary turned out to be the very things that saved my life. It's about how gay men helped to raise and nurture an otherwise unloved and ignored straight kid. And although my childhood was not always rosy I wouldn't trade it for any other."

Matty Lee's deft and honest voice as a writer is a much-need antidote to the dishonest sleight of hand of the "J.T. Leroy" literary scandal. Part classic literary waif of the streets right of Dickens and half sacred child hustler Buddha finding his way to enlightenment, Matty Lee's 35 Cents is a welcome addition to our understanding of the coming-of-age memoir. I caught up with Matty Lee in Los Angeles to talk memory, meat and meaning.

TIM MILLER: One of the things I really loved about your 35 Cents was how free it is of that studied cult-of-the-victim writing that makes gets Oprah all excited. How have you found such a generous and non-judgmental voice in 35 Cents? This compelling, funny, and haunting memoir turns a surprising and uncompromising eye on how we tell ourselves stories about our own lives.

MATTY LEE: I think that we each have our crosses to bear and comparing them is useless. They are important to us, and yet they are only relative to our own life experience. For someone with a more "sheltered" childhood then mine, picking out an outfit for the prom might have been as traumatic for them as my first night sleeping on the street. On the other hand there are children growing up today in Iraq for whom seeing death has become commonplace, and my reaction to that is one of horror. In that case I consider myself the fortunate one. In fact in most cases I consider myself fortunate. We can't choose the environment we are born into and so it's not a matter of what we "deserve" it's a matter of what we got and how we deal with that.

TM: Your exploration of the fluidity and chaos of sexual identity is such a strong pulse in the book. That funny and poignant moment in 35 Cents of requesting at the library James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room as "Georgio Armani's Room" as a way to figure out if you are gay is so lovely. What did you learn about the mix-master chaos of sexual identity?

ML: Nothing! Seriously, I am continuing to learn about human sexuality on a daily basis as I think we all are. I have been having trouble lately understanding how "homosexuality" seems to transcend gender reassignment. For instance, a "gay" female becomes a male and then starts to date men. I think the proper term is "has-bien" and for men "yester-gay". I am not judgmental towards this I am just a bit slow to understand it. So just a few days ago my girlfriend, who grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and has never had a homosexual relationship (at least that's the story she's sticking to), explained to whole situation to me and now it makes perfect sense. Okay I lied; I do know one thing about sexual identity. Sexual ambiguity is hot! In fact almost all facets of human sexuality turn me on. Ain't that the point?

TM: Writing about our own lives is such a minefield. The tightrope of ethics and betrayal is vibrating wildly as we spill the beans. As fiercely honest and revealing as 35 Cents is, you approach the telling of your story with such tender open-hearted presence. You write of Ralph, your rehab counselor, "When I write of Ralph I would like my eyes to always light up and my face to become animated." Can we ever do justice-if there even is such a thing-to ourselves and to the people who we collide with on our paths?

ML: Unfortunately not; several times I have found myself becoming animated and highly excited retelling a certain tale only to look around and see a blank stare on the listener's faces. So many people have been bored to tears by my accounts of Ralph that these days I just keep my mouth shut most of them time. If you see me sitting quietly with a devilish grin, that's a pretty good indication that I am thinking of Ralph. One problem that came up with the manuscript was that I had to write about Ralph and others not as I am today, but in the voice of myself as a teenager. That turned out to be a much more daunting task than I had first imagined. If I were to describe the characters in 35 Cents to you today, in my own voice as a man, I would not necessarily be averse to my younger self, but you would definitely get a different feel. Does that make any sense?

TM: In many ways older gay men exploited you as a young man in all kinds of way, yet in 35 Cents you have such compassion and appreciation for this part of your life. In what ways you were "raised by queers?"

ML: I have been raised by queers in so many ways. Just the little things like shaving, foreign films, good food, and stuff like that. So many young guys grow up these days without good male role models; it's a shame. The funny thing is that it was gay men who taught me to be straight. I see so many alleged straight guys these days who over groom and dress like eighties queens. Whether they are trying to catch boys or girls they need to take that down a notch. Look at me giving advice on being straight. I can't think of two other straight guys in world who know who Harvey Milk is!

Tim Miller is a solo performer and the author of the books Shirts & Skin, Body Blows, and 1001 Beds. He can be reached at his website.