Small in both size and number of pages, this novel conveys a lot of emotion in a compact space. Much of it is ostensibly about a little flock of urban chickens cared for by a woman and her husband in a down-on-its-luck section of St. Paul MN. Percy, the husband of the nameless narrator, is an academic economist who has written a popular, successful book and is finishing another. He is in the running for a tenure-track position at a prestigious California university. Over the course of a year, while waiting to learn whether they will relocate, the narrator’s time and thoughts are occupied by the chickens, Gam Gam, Miss Hennepin County, Darkness, and Gloria. And one by one, the chickens will succumb in all the ways that chickens do. It’s about a broody chicken, a brood of chickens, and the brooding the middle-aged narrator does while recovering from the disappointment of miscarrying a much-wanted baby and the vicissitudes of life. Having lived these past few years with neighboring urban chickens, now down to one, who roam free range in my backyard, I am generally charmed by chickens. See also Deb Olin Unferth’s Barn 8. 223 pp.
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