Chicken Dreaming Corn

Chicken Dreaming Corn

Southern Living Selects Chicken Dreaming Corn BY ROY HUFFMAN (THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS, $24.95)

This novel tells of a Romanian Jewish family's life in the South during the early 20th century. More than a novel about regional cultures, this Alabama author's story describes the melding of multiple races, religions, and languages during the country's-and one family's-most devastating time.

After making the voyage from Romania to Ellis Island at a young age, Morris Kleinman brings his family to the unfamiliar town of Mobile. "One ticket, please, to a small town, very warm," he tells a ticket clerk. "I dream of a sea, a warm sea....A good place to work, a good place for a Jew." Here, the family encounters death and disease, racism and hatred, but also love and friendship.

In an author's note, Hoffman explains, "Chicken Dreaming Corn is an expression my Romanian Jewish grandmother used to refer to the yearnings of ordinary folks for something special or extraordinary....! figure my grandmother gave an Alabama twist to the expression." So, too, does the author with this novel. -JENNIFER IMMEL

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Oct 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved