Product Description

For the millions who loved A Year by the Sea comes a memoir of a woman who awakens at midlife to find wisdom in a most unlikely place

In this lovely, unconventional, often funny memoir, we meet Catherine Goldhammer, newly separated and several tax brackets poorer, forced by circumstance to move from the affluent New England suburb of her daughter's childhood into a new, more rustic life by the sea. Against all logic, partly to please her daughter and partly for reasons not clear to her at the time, she begins this year of transition by purchasing six baby chickens-whose job, she comes to suspect, is to pull her and her daughter forward, out of one life and into another.

As she gradually transforms her new house, nine hundred feet from the sea-with its tawdry exterior but radiant soul-tile by tile, flower bed by flower bed, as she watches her precocious twelve-year-old daughter blossom into a stylish and sophisticated teenager, and as she tends to the needs of six enigmatic chickens, Catherine's life starts to slowly shift from chaos to grace. Beautifully written and ultimately inspiring, Still Life with Chickens is an unforgettable lesson in hope, in starting over, and in the transcendent wisdom that can often be found in the most unlikely of places.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #509968 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
From her book's opening lines, Goldhammer admits to the many insecurities she faced during her year of transition—during which she gets a divorce, slides "about three tax brackets poorer," relocates to a tattered New England cottage and [...] raises her 12-year-old daughter, as well as half a dozen chicks—while cheekily setting herself apart from her competition in the memoir genre: "I did not have a year in Provence or a villa under the Tuscan sun. I did not have a farm in Africa." Goldhammer, a published poet, has an eye for life's mundane details, and these minutiae can grow tiresome ("We went through two mops, several sponges.... We broke one mop right in half"). But her recounting of her frustrations and her joys while remodeling the house and rearing the chickens is not only amusing but sometimes reads like a self-help manual, in which readers conclude that rolling up one's sleeves, getting busy and staying occupied with any strange new interest can successfully distract one from life's larger trials. As Goldhammer notes, "I had thought I was renovating a house. I didn't know that in the process I would also rebuild my life." (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Goldhammer, newly single and several tax brackets poorer, finds a fixer-upper house she can afford on the peninsula bordered by Boston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Its salt pond and its possibilities intrigued her, but it was never meant to be a farm--and her 12-year-old daughter hated it, hated her mother, and refused to move. When bribery was offered in the form of six baby chicks, this animal--loving child was won over. This wonderful, poetic chronicle of chickens and life changes will entrance the reader, as Goldhammer learns about chicken care while selling one house and buying and renovating another, learns how to work with tools as she becomes proficient in building chicken coops, and in the process learns how to rebuild her life. Beautiful. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Still Life with Chickens teaches the art of moving on . . . and reminds the reader that—through friends, family, inspiration, humor, and a little chutzpah—anything is possible. -- Ann Hood, author of Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine

In wry and poignant prose, Still Life with Chickens offers a testament to new beginnings. -- Joan Anderson, author of the national bestseller A Year by the Sea

When divorce takes [Goldhammer] . . . to a honky-tonk town with a preteen daughter and six chickens in tow, there is no still life! Only deeply felt, humorous, and, at last, happy life. -- More magazine

Customer Reviews

Chickens? Why not?
Divorce happens every day. Families split up, someone leaves the house, and each individual tries to create a new life. What makes Catherine Goldhammer's experience unique is the addition of - believe it or not - CHICKENS. Buying six fluffy chicks and having her teenage daughter learn how to raise them disrupts the household enough that it helps to bridge the transition between the old, comfortable life and the new, unsure one in a fixer-upper along the Massachusetts coastline. Sharing a suburban residence with a dog, a cat, and six chicks who don't stay little for long makes for an interesting and hectic lifestyle. Catherine and Emma's daily routine soon revolves around the feathered ones. Goldhammer tells her story with the candor and humor of hindsight, and it makes for quick and entertaining reading. Most of us have never thought of poultry as possible pets. After finishing "Still Life," readers may find themselves opting for veggie platters over chicken dinners in restaurants.

An inspirational story of personal growth and familial revival
Still Life With Chickens is a captivating memoir of the life and times of Catherine Goldhammer. An exceptionally well written and entertaining memoir, Still Life With Chickens tells of the poorly positioned Goldhammer, her daughter, and their move from their suburban home to a rustic dwelling by the sea -- and the Goldhammer family's transformation from a life of chaotic disorganization to one of confluent diligence and an eclectic servitude to a brood of six newly purchased baby chickens. Very highly recommended reading (especially for those interested in a riveting tale of mother and daughter in pursuit of a better and more fulfilling life for themselves), Still Life With Chickens is an inspirational story of personal growth and familial revival.

A divorce and starting over memoir for those whose finances become tighter....
This isn't written from the perspective of a woman who has lots of money and decides to leave her husband and start over, with at least a modicum of strong financial support.

Instead, This is a nitty gritty book that should appeal to the rest of us. It is about the realities of being a divorced mom with a pre-teen daughter (age 12) and severely stressed finances.

I love the author's writing style, her ability to observe both the large and small events in her life in fine detail. By the way, the title isn't just catchy but relates to the very real chickens owned by the mother and her daughter. I'll never look at a chicken in quite the same way, not after reading her descriptions of them. It takes a special perspective to find inspiration in a chicken, but find it she does.

But the chickens are only a part of this book. Mostly it is an account of starting over while being in shakey circumstances, in a house that needs plenty of work, without extra money and with a preteen to care for. In the process, a new identity and place in the world is discovered.