TLC Tours Presents: Coop | BOOK CLUB CLASSICS!

Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursit of One Good Egg by Michael Perry

Release date: 2009 / 350 pages

Synopsis (from back cover): Living in a ramshackle Wisconsin farmhouse — faced with thiry-seven acres of fallen fences and overgrown fields, and informed by his pregnant wife that she intends to deliver their baby at home — Michael Perry plumbs his unorthodox childhood for clues to how to proceed as a farmer, a husband, and a father.

First line: “At the earliest edges of my memory, my father is plowing, and I am running behind him.”

Review: When I finished Perry’s latest, I wanted to echo the words of his oldest daughter, Amy (“Tell me another story from your childhood”) and immediately requested two of his other works from my library. I knew I was in good shape when I had flagged nine passages to quote… in the first 40 pages! At that point I decided to stop the madness and simply enjoy…

I found Perry so likeable — funny, witty, self-depreciating — and many of his insights resonated deeply. He describes a landscape that is dear to me – I fell in love with my husband near Nekoosa, Wisconsin, and he proposed at our cabin in the neighboring town of Rome. The woods of Wisconsin will always hold a significant, lasting place in my heart, even after we move to our new home in Colorado. So, I enjoyed Perry’s stories not only because he is a wonderful writer, but as someone who understands the magic of rural Wisconsin.

Beyond our shared passion for the dairy state, our similar age, and late marriage that continues to be a daily wonder — my enjoyment of Coop came from Perry’s ability to embrace and revere the beauty of simply living and living simply. From watching the seasons turn, to raising and then slaughtering chickens and pigs, to reminiscing about his parents, to balancing a writer’s life with the responsibilities of a father and husband, Perry manages to make each topic fascinating. As a 23 year vegetarian, I was a little worried about learning too much about farm life (while I love our rural cabin, I’m quite honestly a city-girl), but even the act of slaughtering was rendered simply, profoundly, and with humor.

When TLC contacted me about reading Coop, I thought, “Hmmm… a whole book about a chicken coop? And why are so many, many people into chickens today?” The boarding barn where I keep my horse just started keeping chickens, my sister-in-law just bought a bunch of chicks, and even my own sister thinks my niece would really appreciate a few chickens when we move to Colorado. On page 2, Perry addresses this fad:

“Drop the term chicken tractor in mixed company and behold the knowing nods. The online world is alive with Subaru-driving National Public Radio supporters trading tips on eco-friendly coop construction and the pros and cons of laying mash; my NASCAR-loving brother-in-law tenderly minds a box of chicks beneath a heat lamp in his garage; my biker bar bouncer-turned-Zen Buddhist pal Billy and his wife the certified nursing assistant are building their second backyard coop with an eye toward expanding into ‘ornamentals.’”

My second fear was that Perry would go down the self-righteous path of Kingsolver’s Animal, Mineral, Vegetable, but this fear was soon addressed as well:

“But I hope we don’t burden Amy with the idea that living outside the city limits is an inherently pious act. That rural equals righteous.” (whew!)

And then soon Perry’s self-depreciating humor completely won me over:

“Pausing ax in hand to gaze off across the territory, I picture myself as some austere pioneering backwoodsman on the order of Abe Lincoln — albeit dumber, stubbier, and unlikely to alter the course of human events, unless you count snoozing at a stoplight.”

“During the drive home [from the midwife] I do declare that if the term herstory is used again, I will lodge a polite but firm objection. ‘False etymology is no way to run a revolution,’ I say in the sort of declarative tones that precipitated the revolution in the first place.”

His take on horse people (me):

“These are otherwise rational folks who nonetheless devote an unbalanced preponderance of resources to keep in their possession a large four-legged animal whose one big trick is the ability to transform overpriced hay bales into road apples… Having said that, I am aware that under the right circumstances a horse can serve as the intersection where joy and responsibility meet.”

On raising his six-year-old daughter:

“In the matter of gathering hay for the guinea pig, there was slumpage unabated; piano practice had become a weeping sit-down strike interspersed with spates of enervated tinkling; spelling lessons began to feel as if they were being conducted in a room stripped of everything but a chair and one naked lightbulb.”

Lovely imagery:

“I see my feet, going pat-pat-pat over the soil, I see my father, left hand on the wheel, right forearm braced against the fender, head turning back to check the depth of the plow, then forward to gauge his progress. The soil is red and sandy in the high spots and dark and loamy in the low spots, where it curls from the plowshares like strips of licorice, leaving me this square, shin-deep trough in which to travel.”

Who do I recommend this memoir to? Everyone!! Seriously… And if you are interested in winning a copy, simply leave me a comment and I’ll choose a lucky winner by Saturday!

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tlc+tour+host TLC Book Tours Presents: Coop