The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, The Gladyses, & Babe: A Memoir - Hardcover

Walker, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1595586458 ISBN 13: 9781595586452

Publisher: The New Press, 2011

Synopsis

For the past several years, on a farm north of San Francisco, the celebrated writer Alice Walker has diligently cared for a flock of chickens. Over time, her blossoming relationship with her girls” became a source of inspiration, strength, and spiritual discovery, and helped Walker connect more profoundly with her own past as a girl in rural Georgia. Walker has recorded this journey in The Chicken Chronicles, an extraordinary document of personal discovery, political commitment, and the joys of relating to
animals.

Each of Walker’s thirty-eight chronicles addresses her girls” directly, sometimes from the intimate proximity of her yard, other times at a great distance, from her journeys to Bali and Dharamsala as a witness and activist for peace and justice. By turns uplifting and heartbreaking, The Chicken Chronicles is a new treat for Walker fans, a powerful touchstone for anyone seeking a deeper connection with the natural world, and a celebration of chickens everywhere!

About this title

About the Author:

Alice Walker is one of the most prolific writers of our time, known for her literary fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Color Purple, her many volumes of poetry, and her powerful nonfiction collections. Her advocacy for the dispossessed has spanned the globe. She lives in Northern California.

Review:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of imparts life lessons and sage wisdom through the care and feeding of a delightful flock of chickens.
Walker ("Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems, " 2010, etc.) realized that as a serious egg-lover, it would behoove her to "get to know the chickens laying them." She soon hatched an agreement with a family nearby to raise them together in the rudimentary Northern California wine country neighborhood where she's lived for 30 years. As offbeat as it may seem, Walker developed a profound attachment and an intrinsic contentment by befriending her nine "undeniably gorgeous" chickens. Often found crouched and crowing in her lap and balanced upon her shoulders, the author named each of them personally (Gertrude Stein, Babe, Rufus, Gladys, Glorious, etc.), contemplated their behaviors and researched their varietal breeds. The memoir is, in part, an assemblage of chronological entries from the author's blog, and spans from present-day farming

"That is when you realize how powerful Walker is, how she draws you through trauma into an Eternity, a chicken house on her peaceful bit of land in Northern California, next to her garden, where she sits on a green metal stool and watches her chickens. It's a book-long spell--hypnotic."
--"Los Angeles Times"
"With an eye for wonderment and plenty of surprisingly wry humor, author Alice Walker shakes up fans with a memoir that's nothing like her novels. Instead, "The Chicken Chronicles" is a series of enchanted musings on Walker's life and charitable works, the richly-imagined life of her pets, and a powerful sense of gratitude for friends, the Earth, and its gifts. I flew through this book, loving every page of it. For pet lovers, chicken people, or anyone who craves a perfectly charming memoir, here's one to read. "The Chicken Chronicles" is worth bringing home to roost."
--Terri Schlichenmeyer, "Life After 50"
"Walker invites her readers into her personal spaces t

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1595586458
• ISBN 13: 9781595586452
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208