Made in the U.S.A. is my third Billie Letts novel, and I think I’m a bit spoiled from the first novel I read. The Honk and Holler Opening Soon was so emotional that each subsequent novel has felt somewhat flawed by comparison. Where the Heart Is, the second Letts novel I read, is famous for the Natalie Portman film adaptation. Both books have this fluffy, 1990’s-Oprah-book-club feel to them, but Letts will do horrible, awful things to her characters, so reader beware!
Made in the U.S.A. is about Lutie (age 15) and Fate (age 11). They’re in Wal-Mart where Lutie is obsessing over how she got kicked off the high school gymnastics team over nepotism despite being a champ. She’s shoplifting, giving us a sense of her personality. The woman who is raising them drops over dead in the Wal-Mart, so Lutie and Fate high-tail it out of there for fear of Child Protective Services putting them in foster care. Lutie knows a girl at school in foster care who feels like a Cinderella, and Lutie isn’t having that.
The woman raising them was their father’s ex-girlfriend. He abandoned his children with her and moved to Las Vegas. Their mom has been dead a long time. Lutie steals the dead woman’s car and begins their journey to Las Vegas to find their dad with zero clues of his whereabouts. Unfortunately, Lutie is a selfish, manipulative girl, verbally abusing her brother the whole ride while he just tries to make conversation by sharing obscure facts he read in books. Basically, he’s a nerd, she’s a princess. She even picks up a hitchhiker at one point, against Fate’s wishes, who nearly kills them, just because Fate asked her not to. I really hated Lutie, to be honest.
They arrive in Vegas and everything goes wrong, as you might expect. Lutie goes shopping with their scant money because she believes everyone needs to pay attention to her (she’s gonna be famous!) while Fate starves. Here is your fair warning: Made in the U.S.A. contains off-the-page sexual violence and situations. But in the background the children have a guardian angel looking out for them in ways that nearly break credulity. Still, it’s that warm and fuzzy Letts factor creeping in.
The strength of the novel is how much feeling I had for these children (hate for one, pity for the other). But the weakness is that all the bad things happen, happen, happen for so long that when it turns around, I felt I’d been betrayed by how everything lined up nicely. If there are only two modes of emotion, and they happen separately, there’s nothing for me to get into a tizzy for. Not a bad novel, but I’d recommend The Honk and Holler Opening Soon as a better starting place if you want your emotions to be invested more meaningfully.
Grab the Lapels 
Now, The Honk and Holler is the only one I’ve read and I did really love it, but I’m thinking I should keep it that way! This one sounds a bit traumatic, though I’m a sucker for any novel set in Vegas (Larry McMurtry’s remain my favourites).
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Even though Made in the USA had an edge of disaster feel throughout and the ending was less than realistic but hopeful, I was invested in these believable characters. I felt a roller coaster ride of emotions. Now I must read the Honk and Holler!
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I see on your library website that they have the physical book, but maybe it’s on Hoopla as audio!
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I first became aware of Letts through The Honk and Holler when I was in my Internet reading group back in the late 1990s early 2000s. I was never sure whether it was a book I wanted to read or whether it was just another feel good family story, but you made it clear to me that Letts is about a bit more than that. despite your criticisms of this one, I’d be interested because of the setting as much as anything else – a road trip to Las Vegas? what’s not to like!That said, I probably might get to it given all the other books I have to read or want to read.
I guess Lutie is the way she is because that’s how she’s learnt to survive?
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The book focuses less on the road trip and more the struggle to stay alive in Las Vegas. I’d recommend The Honk and Holler any day if you want to try Letts. I know you have a huge TBR, but imagine how many books on that TBR are so highly recommended 😉
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Cheeky! (hmmm… I don’t think Americans use cheeky the way we do but I hope thou get mitt point.)
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It sounds like the author pulls the rug out from under the reader with the neat and happy ending? I prefer a little more hope mixed in with the bad things along the way. Or just be consistently bad things, ha ha!
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I think Letts would safely go on your list of authors who make you ugly cry, Laila!
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With that cover, I would expect this to be syrupy-sweet, so I’m surprised this has so much dark content in it! Obviously the cover design is unlikely to have had the author’s input, but I always wonder why publishers sometimes have such a big disparity between the two. If I’d picked this up in a bookshop, I’d expect something fairly light and fluffy, and if I got something a bit traumatic instead I’d be less likely to read something else by the author.
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Absolutely! I was surprised by the content. I mean, I know Letts will do bad things to her characters, but not so much of it. In fact, there isn’t a lightning bug jar catching scene until, I think, the last page. I wonder how many suburban moms out there bought this as a beach read and ended up going gray that day.
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I read Where the Heart is back in the 90s for a book group. It’s not my cuppa and this one definitely not. But every book its reader and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Where the Heart Is definitely has some fortuitous moments that come off as way too sweet. It’s almost like reading a bunch of Hallmark cards until something bad happens and then ope, there’s more Hallmark cards.
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Hallmark cards! Perfect description!
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Gosh her books just sound a bit traumatic, I don’t know if I can emotionally take all that turmoil, especially when it comes to kids 😦 I’m not a tough enough reader.
Speaking of tough, I abandoned a book for the first time in years. Chuck Palahniuk’s newest book is AWFUL. God awful. After 15 pages of referencing sexual violence between brothers, and enticing pedophiles, etc. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I mentioned it on the radio actually, I called it trash LOL I’ve never been so vocally critical of a book, but I have no idea why it was even published
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Wooooow, and I know you really like Chuck Palahniuk! That’s bonkers! I’ve had a somewhat similar experience with Warren Ellis, who wrote the Transmetropolitan graphic novel series. It’s dark and gritty and a bit middle-finger-y. But then he wrote a novel called Crooked Little Vein. I quit after about two pages. It was trying to be “hard” and “edgy” in the same way that a 16-year-old boy in a trench coat who acts like he’s “seen some things, man!” behaves.
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Yes, that’s exactly how I felt about this book – it was as if a teen boy had written it to shock people, and I was just annoyed
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Ohhhh, I just read that the newest Palahniuk novel is a satire of British cozy mysteries (because he hates cozy mysteries). Maybe that’s why it’s so over the top.
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And as you know, i love cozy mysteries! hahah
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Okay, last comment. The reviews on Goodreads for the newest novel are TERRIBLE. Everyone says that Palahniuk’s writing is depraved, which they expect, but it’s really very boring, too.
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Yes, I felt a bit better when I looked at the Goodreads comments because I felt so guilty about abandoning it (I never do that!) but it didn’t appear to get any better, so I gave up LOL
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I mean, these were die-hard fans that called it quits.
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Lutie sounds like a stereotype, the latest iteration of the mouthy teenager/loveable rogue and for you at least Letts fails to pull it off – too many bad qualities without the heart of gold. I feel for 15 year old girls, and especially ones without stable homes, they have hormones going off inside them like giant firecrackers.
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A bomb with potential, for sure. I’m not 100% I understand that depth to which hormones affect people, but I think I’m starting to learn for reasons I won’t go into here. It really makes me think about how out of control we all are at times, how close to animals, indeed. However, with Luttie, I never felt like I was in her head enough to know what was going on inside, how she felt about her behavior. The narration is 3rd person, so perhaps some first-person chapters would have helped.
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[…] your comments made me realize just how hard it is to categorize Billie Letts’s novels. While Made in the U.S.A. wasn’t right for me, it is impressive to find a writer who surprises you every time. Also, I […]
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If Where The Heart Is was an Oprah Book Club selection, then I’ve read that one. Need to add these others to my TBR.
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Do you read all the Oprah books?
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