{"id":529047,"date":"2025-09-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=529047"},"modified":"2025-10-08T08:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:41:10","slug":"because-critical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/because-critical\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abCar\u00bb, the American dream through and through"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's no surprise that literary critics devour tons of books. However, in this chronicle, the one who devours the object of his work is not him, but a modest, intrepid employee of a car junkyard.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In Jacksonville, the Mack dynasty has been running Florida's biggest junkyard for years. In this Palace of Scrap, everything is a family affair: Easy, the father, runs the business with an iron fist, while his daughter Junell drives her tow truck, the Grosse Mama, to accidents to pick up carcasses, which she then takes to her brother, Mister, to crush with the giant press. Under the watchful eye of her twin brother, Herman, always a little behind the scenes, more dreamy than the others, but just as passionate about cars. (read our feature on cars)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, Herman Mack finally figured out what he wanted to do with his life: absorb his love of mechanical engineering for the glory of his family. So he had only one idea in mind: to eat a car. But not just any car, but the car of his dreams, the 1971 Ford Maverick. Piece by piece, piece by piece of metal, he swallows his fantasies, and the American myth in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perversion of the American Dream<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the premise of Harry Crews' first novel to be published in France (but actually his fifth in the U.S.), featuring characters with shattered ideals, deviant appetites and unfailing pragmatism. It's grotesque, it's funny, it's tragic. And above all, it's terribly lucid. Under the hood lies a sharp critique of a country that prefers to drive than to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n