Letourneau's Used Auto Parts (Harvest American Writing) [Paperback]

Carolyn Chute (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 1995 | Series: Harvest American Writing

In this “assured, complex and memorable tale” (Publishers Weekly), Chute once again makes a tiny corner of the world her own,a kind of Oz turned upside down with a wizard named Big Lucien, head of the Letourneau clan, another ragtag family that inhabits Egypt, Maine, and the nearby Miracle City.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The impoverished citizenry of Miracle City, Maine, rely on Big Lucien Letourneau, the proprietor of an auto salvage junkyard, for jobs and assistance of all kinds. Chute's "compassion for people condemned to dead-end lives infuses this powerful novel with universal meaning," maintained PW .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"The immediacy of the prose evokes in startling clarity the amoral jumble of passions and the suffering of characters' whole lives seem at once so different and yet so much like our own," said LJ's reviewer (LJ 6/15/88) of this follow-up to Chute's first novel, The Beans of Egypt Maine (LJ 3/15/87).
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books/Harvest Book (March 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156001896
• ISBN-13: 978-0156001892
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A continuation of the story of Egypt, Maine, December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Letourneau's Used Auto Parts (Harvest American Writing) (Paperback)

Carolyn Chute's manipulation of the English language alone warrants her place at the forefront of America's writers today. In Letourneau's Used Auto Parts, Chute continues to tell the story of the very poor of western Maine. This book, even more than The Beans truly evokes the world of the poor, the desperate, and the struggling; as well as their small but important joys and victories. This book truly opened my eyes to what is important in life.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of American Literature, July 28, 2008

By 

J. Gunning - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letourneau's Used Auto Parts (Harvest American Writing) (Paperback)

Mrs. Chute has done something eternal. It's as though she has carved the Pieta with a chain saw; a Pieta far more moving, poignant and beautiful than Michelangelo's. Society is only a precarious charade against chaos. Your fine manners and social skills aside; we are these people and always have been.

1.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Finish, April 29, 2011

By 

Melissa McCauley (North Little Rock, AR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letourneau's Used Auto Parts (Harvest American Writing) (Paperback)

I guess you can include me in the list of unwashed heathens who didn't think this book was a work of literary genius. I found the non-exploits of the Letourneaus and the Babbidges to be beyond boring, and I could not force myself to finish.