Chicken Dinner News - Jeff Billington - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Jeff Billington

GENRE: Contemporary Literary Fiction

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary literary fiction set in the heart of the Ozark mountains. Found some interesting moments, but couldn’t connect better with the setting.

Story Synopsis:

Thirty-year-old Ryan Shipley, a journalist based in Los Angeles, is forced by his mother to attend his estranged grandfather’s funeral in the small town of White Oak City in the Ozarks. Imagine his surprise when he learns that his grandfather, who owned a weekly newspaper and almost half of the property in the small town, has left almost everything to Ryan. Initially, Ryan can see that the town is dying but the residents have a firm faith in their values and refuse any attempt of modernisation or of outsiders buying out the old property. When Ryan supports the setting up of a chicken-processing plant on the outskirts, the locals turn against him for “selling out.’ Now it’s upto Ryan to show them that his intentions will work better for the long-term future.

The story comes to us in the limited third person perspective of Ryan.

Bookish Yays:

😍 The small-town setting is captured really well, right from the old-worldly values to the resistance to modernisation to the gossip to the friendly interference. The book also highlights how urbanisation and modernisation have affected routine life in such areas.

😍 Some of the secondary characters are impressive.

😍 I didn’t expect to find a realistic and well-written homosexual relationship track in such a conservative setting.

😍 Honestly, when I picked up the book, I didn’t even know that “chicken dinner news” is an actual term in journalism. I just thought it was a quirky title! 😁 But after I saw the meaning, I realised how well it fits a book that is all about community. (FYI, “chicken dinner news’ refers to the columns written by community correspondents who aren’t official employees of the local newspaper and send in their articles about local events or day-to-day themes for little to no remuneration.)

😍 It was interesting to see how the religious faith of the townspeople was woven into the narrative. The depiction seemed authentic to the setting.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 I am not sure how to feel about Ryan’s character. A part of me actually sympathised with him because he was almost bulldozed in giving up his earlier life in order to continue his grandfather’s legacy. While the intentions of the townspeople might have been good, the fact still is that they were guilt-tripping Ryan. At the same time, Ryan also comes off as somewhat short-sighted and whiny at times. It felt like he couldn’t take any major constructive decision without someone around to guide him.

Bookish Nays:

😟 The description of the scene gets much extended at times. Being a visual reader, I like descriptions, but I felt that they bogged down the pace this time.

😟 Though there are plenty of characters, the plotline is somewhat straightforward and goes as expected. I expected more complications and depth from a literary fiction novel.

😟 The romantic track seems too hurried and too convenient. (This is also more of a *my* problem than a *book* problem – I am not a fan of romance arcs in non-romance stories.)

😟 Somehow, I couldn’t empathise or connect with most of the characters. I wish I could pinpoint the reason for this. But most of them felt like strangers even at the end of the book.

😟 The ending was too abrupt. I would have liked to have some kind of continuity from that point, maybe even an epilogue just to give us a glimpse of the town a few months ahead.

As the author hails from a small farm in the Ozarks and has been a journalist, his experience is put to good use in the work. However, some of the events and character choices felt distant to me and I couldn’t connect more with the characters. If you like contemporary fiction set in small-town USA, this ought to work much better for you.

My thanks to author Jeff Billington for providing me with a complimentary copy of “Chicken Dinner News”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warnings: Homophobia, death, racism.