Dressed to impress

Sometimes That Happens With Chicken: The Cojones Review

Wanda Shapiro, author of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken, was kind enough to submit to an interview (read thorough interrogation) several weeks ago.  In the interview, I mentioned that I had been cheating on my current reading list with her novel.

Well folks, I enjoyed Sometimes That Happens With Chicken so much that I practically abandoned my reading list entirely and focused on this one novel so intensely that I finished it at 2am on a work night, while sitting on the john (you’re welcome).

I honestly tried to review this novel purely on the writing and story alone, but I couldn’t. Since we met on this here “interwebs,” Wanda and this novel have become my test case for self publishing. I watch and learn as she works tirelessly to make it a success and I know that her success is a success for us all.

Having put  this novel  in this difficult position (a bellweather for self publishing), my expectations were extraordinarily high and my criteria for a great reading experience particularly strict. I looked for many things that I do not necessarily check for in traditionally published novels. The novel did not disappoint.

Sometimes That Happens With Chicken explores the relationships between a very diverse (and yet linked) set of characters. It examines their myriad pasts (hidden and revealed) and dances staccato down the paths that lead them all to each other.

I swear to you by Leno’s chin, this novel is different, and different in a most wonderful way. Every classification or category I came up with for the book seemed to crumble within it’s 250 pages. On every page, I met characters and situations so deeply different and yet so blindingly familiar. The greatest thing I can say about this novel then is that I found something in it that I rarely find  in literary fiction, escape.

Wanda’s prose is particularly honest, insightful, vulgar and hilarious. It is this raw simplicity in her writing that allows the reader to follow the gossamer threads of individual stories that form the whole without getting lost. At the end, I couldn’t believe that I had followed all those sinuous twists as easily as  I had, As a writer, I can’t help but think of that as a stunning achievement.

This is not one of those quick reads. This is a slow down, make sure I don’t miss any of this wonderful chaos, butt planted in favorite reading spot  read. And even after I was done, I found myself thinking about the stories for weeks after (which is one reason, this review took a while to write, I had to let it sink in for a bit). These characters will linger in your mind, you’ll see them in people you see on the street and you’ll wonder.

There are whole websites devoted to finding typos in published novelsand after some serious searching I was able to find one typo in Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. I am no copyeditor but I can promise you that the spelling and grammar are very much excellent. Ditto for the typography, cover, binding, paper quality etc. In every way that I could assess, Sometimes That Happens With Chicken is of a physical quality equal to that of traditional publishing.   Next time you hear someone moan about the quality of self published books, send them a copy of this one and enjoy the silence will follow.

Books start to blend together for me the more I read. Sometimes That Happens With Chicken refuses to blend, merge or disappear into the murky void of vaguely remembered reads. Get a copy (buy or download free) and enjoy a story apart from the usual. See for yourself what we can accomplish without middlemen.

Related Posts:

1. Sometimes That Happens With Chicken: Interview with the Author
2. The Cojones Review: 1984 by George Orwell
3. The Shame of What We Are by Sam Gridley: The Cojones Review
4. Tamper by Bill Ectric: The Cojones Review
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: The Cojones Review