by Carolyn Chute
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by Carolyn Chute
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by Carolyn Chute
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by Carolyn Chute
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by David Wroblewski
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Any doubts that Chute could not follow her remarkable debut novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine with another winner will be vanquished by this assured, complex and memorable tale, told in bold, forceful prose. We are back in Egypt and in the adjacent, ironically named Miracle City, a squalid jumble of unpainted shacks and trailers that is nonetheless a welcome haven to the residents of this poverty-stricken community. The area's most important citizen is the eponymous Big Lucien Letourneau, who runs the auto salvage junkyard at which most of the men work. It's a brutal life, and in bad times Lucien can't afford to pay his men. But if he sometimes lacks money, Big Lucien never lacks compassion. He is a one-man welfare system, sheltering the destitute, homeless and elderly; some of his ex-wives and many of his children, in and out of wedlock; and a churning population of cats. For a long time we see Big Lucien only obliquely and he assumes almost mythic dimensions before we finally meet him, late in the novel, when Chute's bleakly comic message about the enobling power of compassion becomes clear. Meanwhile we become involved with the other, beautifully developed characters., The recipients of Big Lucien's "heart of gold" are desperately poor, ignorant, unwashed and unkempt, sexually promiscuous, violent when drunkyet Chute gives them humanity and dignity. Her compassion for people condemned to deadend lives infuses this powerful novel with universal meaning.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Chute's new novel is a slice-of-life story cut from the middle of the loaf. Loosely structured around the interactions and relationships of Big Lucien Letourneau, owner of the Miracle City junkyard, and his family, neighbors, and assorted hangers-on, the novel seems a series of barely connected sketches. The absence of a coherent point of view further diminish Chute's undeniably vivid language and clear eye for the details of life on the margins of society. Still, the immediacy of the prose evokes in startling clarity the amoral jumble of passions and the suffering of characters whose lives seem at once so different and yet so much like our own. Librarians should consider, given the interest in Chute's first novel, The Beans of Egypt, Maine ( LJ 3/15/87). Linda L. Rome, Mentor, Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Any doubts that Chute could not follow her remarkable debut novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine with another winner will be vanquished by this assured, complex and memorable tale, told in bold, forceful prose. We are back in Egypt and in the adjacent, ironically named Miracle City, a squalid jumble of unpainted shacks and trailers that is nonetheless a welcome haven to the residents of this poverty-stricken community. The area's most important citizen is the eponymous Big Lucien Letourneau, who runs the auto salvage junkyard at which most of the men work. It's a brutal life, and in bad times Lucien can't afford to pay his men. But if he sometimes lacks money, Big Lucien never lacks compassion. He is a one-man welfare system, sheltering the destitute, homeless and elderly; some of his ex-wives and many of his children, in and out of wedlock; and a churning population of cats. For a long time we see Big Lucien only obliquely and he assumes almost mythic dimensions before we finally meet him, late in the novel, when Chute's bleakly comic message about the enobling power of compassion becomes clear. Meanwhile we become involved with the other, beautifully developed characters., The recipients of Big Lucien's "heart of gold" are desperately poor, ignorant, unwashed and unkempt, sexually promiscuous, violent when drunkyet Chute gives them humanity and dignity. Her compassion for people condemned to deadend lives infuses this powerful novel with universal meaning.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Chute's new novel is a slice-of-life story cut from the middle of the loaf. Loosely structured around the interactions and relationships of Big Lucien Letourneau, owner of the Miracle City junkyard, and his family, neighbors, and assorted hangers-on, the novel seems a series of barely connected sketches. The absence of a coherent point of view further diminish Chute's undeniably vivid language and clear eye for the details of life on the margins of society. Still, the immediacy of the prose evokes in startling clarity the amoral jumble of passions and the suffering of characters whose lives seem at once so different and yet so much like our own. Librarians should consider, given the interest in Chute's first novel, The Beans of Egypt, Maine ( LJ 3/15/87). Linda L. Rome, Mentor, Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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First Sentence:
THE SCOUT CROW, lean in winter, makes a sweep over the outer ring of wrecks and junks. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
salvage shirt, yard wrecker, yard buggy, new old woman, hippie woman, fast meat, ramp truck, code man, slanted floor, icy eyes, mystical expression, road commissioner, eyes slide, heat register Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Big Lucien, Little Lucien, Crowe Bovey, Miracle City, Tante Flavie, Pastor Paul, Jason Robert, Miss Lily-Ann, Ernie Train, Sonny Ballard, Bobby Ward, Mark Babbidge, Tante Marie Louise, Blackstone Babbidge, Clarence Farrington, Jennifer Ann, Mon Oncle, Super Beetle, Tante Josephine, Wayne Hutchins, Armand Letourneau, Gross Monsieur Pluto, Gussie Crocker, June Marie, Kool Kone New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE SCOUT CROW, lean in winter, makes a sweep over the outer ring of wrecks and junks. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
salvage shirt, yard wrecker, yard buggy, new old woman, hippie woman, fast meat, ramp truck, code man, slanted floor, icy eyes, mystical expression, road commissioner, eyes slide, heat register Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Big Lucien, Little Lucien, Crowe Bovey, Miracle City, Tante Flavie, Pastor Paul, Jason Robert, Miss Lily-Ann, Ernie Train, Sonny Ballard, Bobby Ward, Mark Babbidge, Tante Marie Louise, Blackstone Babbidge, Clarence Farrington, Jennifer Ann, Mon Oncle, Super Beetle, Tante Josephine, Wayne Hutchins, Armand Letourneau, Gross Monsieur Pluto, Gussie Crocker, June Marie, Kool Kone New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 11
books:
See all 11 books this book cites
12
books
cite this book:
See all 12 books citing this book
- Merry Men by Carolyn Chute in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Taller Women: A Cautionary Tale by Lawrence Naumoff in Back Matter
- The Choiring Of The Trees (Stay More) by Donald Harington in Back Matter
- Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa in Back Matter
See all 11 books this book cites
- Merry Men by Carolyn Chute in Back Matter, and Back Cover
- Cultural Studies 11:2 by L. Grossberg on page 140, and page 151
- Pushing the Bear (Harvest American Writing) by Diane Glancy in Back Matter
- The Book of Mercy by Kathleen Cambor in Back Matter
- Somebody Else's Mama (Harvest Book) by David Haynes in Back Matter
See all 12 books citing this book
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