Overview
Kathryn Scanlan’s Majestic Speedlube follows Happy and Early, couriers eking out a living driving unshippable objects—a taxidermied bear, a two-hundred pound crystal, a custom tombstone—across the country in their “club-cab bed-capped” rig. The resulting linguistic joy ride, powered by Scanlan’s signature live-wire style, is a hectic confluence of billboards, user reviews, overheard conversations, receipts, bumper stickers, bills of lading, diner orders and a very talkative radio—a discordant, clanking music of simulated gunfire, bleating microwaves, squealing dry vans and trains blasting their grievous mourning horns. Yet in the din of the novel are clearings and rest stops for bright bursts of pleasure—moments of stillness and profundity in nature, with animals, with children: a silent steel-haired couple dance a waltz, a woman saves a snapping turtle from getting crushed on the road, and light comes in “godly shafts through the trees.” Here the usual givens of the novel form are sidestepped in service to a narrative that pays precise, epiphanic and capacious attention to the vast and the infinitesimal in a feat of distilled radical empathy. Majestic Speedlube, as it barrels along—restless and relentless, lean and prickly—hums with power and mystery, with language that’s alive and kicking. It’s at once a comedy, a lament, an ecological elegy, an account book, a pastoral, a protest song—the Great American Novel thundering with consumption, where “the whole kit of life” can be seen through busted-out windows—and a new vision of how the “pure products of America / go crazy.”
While major retailers like Amazon may carry Majestic Speedlube, we specialize in bulk book sales and offer personalized service from our friendly, book-smart team based in Portland, Oregon. We’re proud to offer a Price Match Guarantee and a streamlined ordering experience from people who truly care.
We’re trusted by over 75,000 customers, many of whom return time and again. Want proof? Just check out our 25,000+ customer reviews—real feedback from people who love how we do business.
Prefer to talk to a real person? Our Book Specialists are here Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST and ready to help with your bulk order of Majestic Speedlube.