Bawdy and subversionary, narrator is a Chicken Farmer at odds with suburbia; his thoughts could therefore possibly prove offensive to those with quieter tastes. Starting in the early 1960s with a description of the motorbike and coffee bar culture he takes his group of friends on through their love affairs, marriages, betrayals, dalliances and disasters, divorces, successes, failures...
This period piece has its beginnings in the early 1960s, opens with a description of the motorbike/coffee bar culture then prevalent. From those motorbike days in that nameless town in southern England our narrator, the Chicken Farmer to be, takes his group of friends on through the next twenty plus years.
Giving instances from the ordinary lives happening around him the Chicken Farmer discourses on, not only Love and its many betrayals, but on most other aspects of life. Told from a young[ish] male perspective, it is yet generally sympathetic to the human condition both male and female.
Although the narrator largely remains in the one place not all that he relates happens in and around the one town, characters come and go, bringing their stories from near and far. Allowing the Chicken Farmer to have Thoughts on – as well as Love (and these are just a few of the chapter headings) – Flat Places, Resurrection, Hopeless Aspirations, Becoming a Cripple, Romantic Illusions, Incest, Suicide, Murder, Hunting, Friendship... and the possibility of Happy Endings.
Excerpt
Some of us may have had motorbikes because they were an expression of phallic power; others because their inherent dangers came close to fulfilling a death wish, taking risks being a sneaky kind of suicide. Or our bikes and leather jackets could have been seen as symbols of' rebellion. A few of us were certainly contrary sods, for the rest the opposite was true. We had motorbikes because everyone else our age had motorbikes, and we went fast because we wanted to go faster than anybody else, and we wore leather jackets to keep warm.
Mind you, having been made outsiders because of our leather jackets and motorbikes, like a man wrongly convicted and bearing the stigma of his conviction, we saw through the decent people who disapproved of us, wanted none of their hypocrisy and quiet lives, and so we acquired a noisy rebelliousness along with the leather jackets and jeans.
There were about twenty of us. We hung out at the cafe by the roundabout on the way out of town. the town being the dead end of nowhere. There were a couple of factories, an engineering works, but the only real industry was building. The town hasn't changed much, just spread.
Robin Lindsay Wilson's review of A Chicken Farmer's Thought's on Love
Amazon wouldn't let me post this review of a book because, even though I bought the book through Amazon, I hadn't spent enough money - over £20. That's why I'm going to post it here. I've never done this on FB before. Here goes. The book is called -
A Chicken Farmer's Thoughts on Love by Sam Smith
Here's my review...
This novel is described as bawdy and subversionary on the back cover and it certainly is – in spades!
The title suggested something comic and light-hearted, and although there are plenty of laugh out loud moments, there is a depth of consciousness, intelligence and sense of futility, self-doubt and drift and seems completely accurate in the life of the young male protagonist.
The main narrative describes the efforts of Keith and his friends to try and find satisfying work, fun and self-respect in a depressed and faltering northern England. Most of the humour comes from the completely believable laddish culture of the late 60s and early 70s. Motorbikes, pubs, hanging with dubious mates, boredom, shitty accommodation, one-night stands. The dialogue is hilarious! Everyone is fair game for Keith’s laser like put downs. But Keith is also very witty about his own attitudes and failings. There is a palpable sense of futility and fatigue that generates sympathy in the reader, as well as anxiety and a genuine concern about Keith’s life chances. You care. It’s a page turner!
If you want to know what it is was like maturing, having to accept responsibility, growing away from friends and siblings, trying to be liked, trying to get laid, and sweating it out in a job that make you want to throw yourself in front of traffic – here is that novel. When nothing ever seems to happen, friends do the strangest things, and death arrives right next to exhilaration and laughter.
Keith, has the testosterone fuelled, unWOKE, attitudes of the time towards women. However, the novel as a whole, is not misogynistic, quite the opposite. Not only do the women give as good as they get, but Keith’s gradual push back against the limitations of his upbringing and education, personifies that greater progression, over time, in the whole country. One is left feeling sorry for everyone. They are all struggling to live within the strictures and gender norms of that period.
When said out loud, by Keith, or any of his mates, these forbidden thoughts, produced in me, a shudder of shock, recognition and laughter. His is a rounded and completely believable character, embedded in a very particular setting. I also thought that, if men these days were honest, many of them would confess to having similar sexual frustrations and sexual fantasies. I wonder if, in the deep recesses of the male psyche, much has really changed.
Cleverly, Sam Smith, the author, let’s Keith speak for himself, without feeling the need to criticise him, or view him through a lens of contemporary morals and attitudes. We are trusted to come to our own understanding of Keith and with every page we are appalled and delighted by his sharp observations and selfish behaviour. Keith’s voice leads us through the intimate ups and downs, and ups, of his relationships and life. Each stage of Keith’s life is described with three-dimensional insight and lived authority.
Sam Smith writes in a pleasing loose conversational style which folds us effortlessly into Keith’s sensibilities and emotions until we are looking through his eyes and making excuses for his bad behaviour. We trust Keith to tell us the truth, we know it when we hear it, and we desperately want him to succeed and find love – even if it is eventually through chicken farming. Yes, you heard that right - Chicken Farming!
I thoroughly recommend this book. It even has little stand-alone chapters, where Keith expounds his curious off-beat views on everything from Socialising to Resurrection. These are as entertaining as the narrative passages, and if you think you know what Keith is going to say, then you will be proved wrong. This seemingly ordinary man is full of surprising complexity, tenderness and contradiction.
Having read this, I am confirmed in my belief that there is no such thing as an average conventional person – you just have to look closely under the surface. Sam Smith has done this. What I found there moved me to tears. Every character jumps vividly off the page. Every detail rings completely true. I’m going to read it again!
South Baltimore serves as the backdrop for this gripping story of three brothers leading very different lives but joined forever by the secrets of a painful family past.
South Baltimore serves as the backdrop for this gripping story of three brothers leading very different lives but joined forever by the secrets of a painful family past.
