I just finished reading a light comedy and heavy drama novel of The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia. Throughout this book, the theme of appreciating heritage and family, no matter the circumstances is revealed after lots of fighting, filming, and fried chicken. I personally love the way Antonia chose to narrate this novel; switching the perspective between two sisters at two different chicken restaurants in the homey Mernic, Kansas, while being filmed for a reality TV show called “Food Wars”. Amanda is a widow and vegetarian who married into Frannie’s chicken restaurant, and dabbles in art in which she only draws chickens. Mae is a television co host and author in her work of organization, but when her job blows up she comes home to help her mother at Mimi’s chicken restaurant. Food Wars comes for a week to film and judge Frannie’s and Mimi’s restaurants, and by doing so release a whole lot of chicken drama. In the final chapters, the judges claim which chicken restaurant they like best, but a huge twist occurs and the life of Mimi’s and Frannie’s is changed forever. This read was addicting, once I got past the introduction. I like it when books like Counting By 7’s (Holly Goldberg Sloan) jump right into the plot, and hook your attention right away, unlike this one where I was stranded in a sea of memorabilia and little details that I could have figured out later in the book. I’m not saying that the introduction was completely useless because I did keep when I read there in mind throughout the rest of the book, but maybe a more efficient way of writing is diving into the story and elaborating along the way. Although, this was quite a complex web of a plot, and it was probably a good choice to start with an introduction (that was actually pretty interesting) because it made the rest of the intense book more fluent and enjoyable. The message of this book- love for family rises above all drama that they cause- really made a deep impact through a fun read. A great example of this is when Mae- known for her cleaning- helped her mother with her hoarding obsession, the exact thing she had always run and hid from by moving to New York (Antonia, 214, 280). At this moment, Mae feels more connected to her mother because of issues that were shed some light, and is willing to do anything to help her with them. The end of the book is really where this memorable message is revealed, but I won’t spoil it for you ;). This book really is “The comfort food of novels” (Laura Zigman, author of Separation Anxiety) and made me appreciate and reflect upon my own life in ways I haven’t before. A piece of advice I will offer you before you cuddle up on the couch and get reading is this: stick with it, don’t quit in the beginning because I promise it gets much more interesting and worthwhile by the second half!
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