About this title: Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father. While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780446529013ISBN:044652901X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780446529013ISBN:044652901X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780446529013ISBN:044652901X
Description: New in new dust jacket. First Edition, First Print. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 355 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780446582452ISBN:044658245X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. sd Hardly used, almost like new! Clean, unmarked pages. Some shelfwear/rubbing on cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 367 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780446529013ISBN:044652901X
Description: Fine. Dust Jacket Included. BP. Like new hardback and jacket! Appears unread. Text is clean, unmarked, tight. All items are carefully and securely packed to insure they arrive in the advertised condition. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: 2008-06-19
ISBN-13:9780446505499ISBN:0446505498
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
"How I Came To Read This Book: One of my best friends' favourite books is 'Where The Heart Is'. I bought this book for her for Christmas last year, and finally got around to reading it for myself.
The Plot: Billie Letts' opens her story in her favourite setting: Wal-Mart, where fifteen-year-old firecracker Lutie and her introverted cerebral brother Fate are sort of enjoying an afternoon out with their pseudo-stepmom Floy. When Floy drops dead at the checkout stand, Lutie and Fate hit the road in Floy's car to avoid foster care, by heading to Las Vegas to find their father who abandoned them over a year ago. Instead, Lutie and Fate find a life they never dreamed of - one filled with hard knocks, empty promises, and dashed dreams. Luckily they find a bit of help when they least expect it...
The Good & The Bad: My ultimate conclusion after reading two of Letts' books is that she's kind of lucky to have Where The Heart Is as such a popular book. Her writing in both books always struck me as tentative and unsure - the marks of a writer still finding her groove. Although she never fully dips into mass market territory with tired cliches, it often felt like her plot was mired by what she felt her audiences would expect. As in, she's writing a trip about two runaways kids? How about we have them pick up a hitchhiker, who will of course, be sadistic? I felt like there's a way she could have still had the kids go through the horrible things they go through, but maybe in a more surprising way.
My friend Robyn hated Lutie for 99.9% of the book, which made the book unlovable in her mind. I didn't despise Lutie with as much fervor, but her and Fate seemed remarkably stuck in certain boxes, and the justification for Lutie's behaviour fell a little flat. This is mostly because the third part of the book really adds a bunch of secondary and tertiary characters and plotlines that truly diminish that cheerleader aspect the reader has for Lutie and Fate for the first two parts. Much like the five-ring circus referenced in the last section, you just don't know where to look, with so many stories fighting for the spotlight. Plus I kind of saw from a mile away where Fate and Lutie were headed, so the other stories just felt like a distraction from that journey.
Overall though, this book is entertaining and could have really been great had Letts pushed it a bit more in certain areas, and not lost her footing with the introduction of a half-dozen more characters by the end.
The Bottom Line: Not as high-flying as the circus acts described by the end, but pretty decent at showing the lowest of the lows.
Anything Memorable: This book reminded me a bit, in the off-course last section, of Sarah Gruen's maginificent 'Water for Elephants'. But this is no WFE - the circus element is just one small piece of a much larger humble pie.
"It's really an adult/young adult book. VERY good for those teens to read who think they can make it on their own. Lutie, the main character, has to leave South Dakota with her 11-year-old brother when their caretaker dies in line at WalMart. (Billie Letts seems to have a "thing" for WalMart - remember Places in the Heart? The two go to Las Vegas to search for their dad, only to discover that he has died in prison. As the two make their way through the seamy side of Las Vegas, they are watched over by an unseen guardian angel who plays a big role in the last half of the book. I went back and forth between a 3 and a 4 on this book. The last half was as hard to put down as the first half was to get through. The end seemed a bit unreal unless researched and found that the circus actually does winter in Hugo, Oklahoma!"
"Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts is a truly unforgettable tale of children that slip through the cracks in our society. I could actually see this happening to those children that come from broken homes and families of abusive parents. This is a very emotional tale and will certainly touch you.
Lutie Mcfee is a fifteen year old girl that has to grow up way to fast. Having lost her mum some years past and her drunken father abandoning her and her brother leaving them with one of his old girl friends does not make for a comfortable life. Lutie is a gifted child with gymnastics but ends up not being able to continue on due to unfairness in the school system. This turns her bitter and who could rightly blame her. Her chance at the Olympics has flown right out the window because of this and I think that would make even the best of us down right depressed.
The story starts us at a Walmart store and the woman that is taking care of Lutie and her brother drops dead of a heart attack. Lutie and her brother end up fleeing their home in search of a father that is supposedly in Las Vegas with a job only to find out upon getting their that their father went to jail and ended up dying.
We soon find out how rough life can be for two children who have set out on their own to avoid an even worse fate of being cast into the welfare system and placed into homes that most likely won't care for them anyway.
Life is indeed tough for young Lutie as she tries her best to take care of her and her younger brother and the story is quite graphic in it's treatment of this child and the dangers that are ever so present out there in the real world when not protected by adults.
This is a sad story but with a happy ending but not all stories are like this in reality. The author has touched upon many subjects here including child predators, gangs, child pornography, drug abuse, good Samaritans, love, caring and so much more. I will not say this is a delightful story because it doesn't start out that way but it is a very well written one. Our author has taken care to do much homework on the subjects presented to give us a story that will touch us right down to our souls. Next time you see a child on the street corner you will wonder if this child is in need of help and it will make you search your soul asking yourself what you could possibly do to change just one life if you had the chance."
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