Made in the U.S.A.
Billie Letts
Reviewed by Julia London
Billie Letts is a master at writing about families that don’t look like the norm, but are increasingly real in our society. And she’s also made Wal-Mart her own unique niche. Just like in WHERE THE HEART IS, MADE IN THE U.S.A. starts off at that retail giant.
Lutie and Fate McFee are two children, fifteen and eleven, who have been passed around from adult to adult, following their alcoholic father into a string of bad relationships after the death of their mother many years before. The most recent ex-girlfriend, Floy Satterfield, is a 300-pound woman who kept Lutie and Fate when their old man took off. But when Floy drops dead in the check-out line of a Wal-Mart, Lutie and Fate are faced with a choice: Foster care, or trying to make it on their own. They opt for the latter, steal Floy’s old Pontiac, and head for Las Vegas in search of their father, who, they both believe with the innocence of children, will take them in and protect them.
Of course that doesn’t happen, and what follows is a gripping tale of two kids thrown onto the mean streets of Vegas and forced to survive by their young, inexperienced wits. They live in the Pontiac, where Fate dreams of going to a really good elementary school with a really big library. Lutie is a fifteen year-old know-it-all who thinks more about the sort of tattoo she’d like to have than the long-term future for her and her little brother.
They are dealt some harsh blows, but out of the detritus of their lives grows a flower of hope. Someone is looking out for them, someone who needed looking out for years ago. That someone wants to save these lost kids, if they will allow it. The result is an uplifting tale of the power of families, in all its many shapes and connections. Billie Letts has a knack for making me believe I am sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen, listening to a bawdy tale about a beloved family member. A very nice and comforting read.
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About the Reviewer:
Julia London is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen historical and contemporary romance fiction novels. She is the recipient of a Romantic Times Achievement in Historical Fiction award, and a three-time finalist of the prestigious RITA award for excellence in romantic fiction. Her books have been translated into a ten foreign languages and are published in more than a dozen foreign countries.
Please visit her online at www.julialondon.com.
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