• Review: Coop by Michael Perry

    by  • 06/07/2010 • 3.5 Stars, C Titles, Memoir, Non-Fiction, P Authors • 18 Comments

    Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg
    Michael Perry
    ISBN: 978-0-06-124044-7
    Harper Perennial, 2009
    350 pages
    Memoir, Non-Fiction
    My rating: 3.5 stars
    Book Overview

    Michael Perry grew up in Wisconsin on a sheep and dairy farm so farming was in his blood from a very young age. And although he left Wisconsin to explore the wider world, his heart never really left the area where he grew up. So when he settles down with his wife Anneliese and his 6-year-old stepdaughter Amy to await the arrival of the newest member of their family, it feels right to move into a ramshackle Wisconsin farmhouse that has been in his wife’s family for generations. With 37 acres of falling down farm around him, Perry decides to “start small” with some pigs, a few chickens and a patch of land to grow some of their own food.

    This book chronicles Perry’s adventures into the world of livestock and farming—including the challenge of building his own chicken coop—but it is really about so much more. It is about the challenges of creating a blended family, the stress that happens when your wife tells you she plans on giving birth at home, the joys and tribulations of homeschooling, dealing with the unexpected death of friends and family, and realizing how your childhood informs and affects your life as a grown-up.

    Perry came from a family that was far from conventional. Besides being raised in an “obscure fundamentalist Christian sect,” Perry’s parents cared for more than 60 foster children—many with developmental disabilities. His recollections of family life and the challenges his parents faced to support such a large family while working an oftentimes struggling farm are interwoven throughout Perry’s account of his present day life—creating two parallel story lines that describe Perry’s childhood and his present-day quest to define himself as a father, husband and man.

    My Thoughts

    I’m a big fan of memoirs, but I’ve found the genre dominated by tragic stories of alcoholism, drug addiction or mental illness. Thus, it was a pleasant change to read a memoir in which everyone is well-adjusted and has no substance abuse problems. This doesn’t mean the book is all sunshine and moonbeams. Instead, you get a slice of real life, which is often messy, confusing and sometimes tragic. At the midpoint of the book, Perry’s family faces a heart-breaking tragedy that comes out of nowhere (like they always seem to do), and the resulting devastation casts a shadow over the rest of the book. Yet Perry manages to write about this event in a way that doesn’t feel maudlin. Rather, he faces it head-on—with all the questions such a tragedy raises—and does his best to find his way through and support his family. So many memoirs are filled with stories of families that rip each other apart, so it was uplifting to read about a family dedicated to loving, supporting and helping each other through the worst moments of life.

    At the same time, the book is often very amusing. Although Perry grew up on a farm, he isn’t necessarily the farmer type. His account of his struggle to build his own chicken coop or the antics of his pigs are simultaneously informative and amusing. (The story of Little Miss Shake-N-Bake, one of their laying chickens, could easily be turned into a delightful children’s book … minus her tragic end, of course.) However, I most related to his experiences as a father—the difficulties of punishing a good kid, the challenges of a newborn, the joys of working side-by-side with your child on a project. Perry does a brilliant job of capturing the ups and downs of parenthood in a way that was always relatable and genuine. One part that particularly stood out for me was when Perry writes about the process of naming their new child as it so closely echoed my own experiences:

    There is also the matter of naming the child. We’ve been waffling for months. While Anneliese does her best to invest the decision with spirituality and ancestral reverence, I am largely concerned with scansion and assonance and the potential for naughty playground rhymes. Furthermore, it has always seemed to me that a child’s name should be reducible to one crisp syllable for what I call the “freeze-factor,” to be used when you wish to arrest the progress of the child in a precipitous manner, like when he is about to stick his fingers in the fan or she is sneaking out the bedroom window, in which case you want a name you can crack like a whip. “Pollyanna!” for instance, has no freeze factor. It got to be a bedtime game, the name list: Anneliese would read her latest choices, and one by one I would bat them down. Then she would do the same for me. There were some doozies, but I will not reveal the rejected list of monikers, because somewhere out there is someone else who dreams of naming a child Ezekiel Storm. Zeke! (I practiced.) On day five or six of our young child’s life it becomes a matter of some embarrassment, and so we take the form the government provides, and—in honor of a family member—write “Jane.” Then I try it out: “Jane!” The kid doesn’t flinch.

    My only real quibble with the book is that I had a difficult time adapting to its rhythms at first. Perry’s writing style is a bit meandering. He moves back and forth between his childhood and his present-day life with little transition. At first, I found this a bit off-putting. But once I got further into the book, I settled in to the narrative flow and just ambled along with Perry wherever he decided to go. He has as pleasant, conversational writing style, and it begins to feel like you’re taking a walk with a friend who has lots of stories to tell. At one point, he’ll be telling you about how the progress of his chicken coop, but that will remind him of trips to the feed store with his dad when he was young. Or the news that an old friend passed away will lead to reminisces of the times they spent together growing up. My suggestion is just to settle in and enjoy this ramble throughout Perry’s life because you’ll find moments both big and small that will warm your heart or make it ache.

    My Final Recommendation

    As far as memoirs go, it was a pleasure to read one that wasn’t about a messed-up family. Perry is delightfully well-adjusted and genuine, and he strikes me as someone I’d enjoy hanging out with. Although Perry tends to ramble a little, it is a pleasant rambling, and I rather began to enjoy this meandering style. I imagine that if you were raised on a farm or have a few chickens or pigs of your own, you might get even more out of this book than I did. It was also inspiring to read about the lifestyle that Perry’s parents chose. To me, they seem like the true example of what a Christian acts like. It was both humbling and inspiring to read about Perry’s childhood, and reading about their love for these children who no one else wanted makes you want to be a better person.

    About the Author

    Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the bestselling memoirs Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time and Truck: A Love Story, the essay collection Off Main Street, and the upcoming memoir Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting. Perry has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion, and Salon.com, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. His essays have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, and he has performed and produced two live audience recordings (I Got It From the Cows and Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow). Perry lives in rural Wisconsin, where he remains active with the local volunteer rescue service.

    Visit Michael at his website,www.sneezingcow.com

    The Whys and Wheres

    I received my review copy of this book from Harper Perennial as part of a TLC Book Tours. Thank you to Trish from TLC Book Tours for this opportunity. If you would like to visit some of the other stops on the book tour for Coop, here are the links and the dates of each stop.

    In addition, Michael Perry will be on Blog Talk Radio with Book Club Girl on Monday, June 7th at 7pm EST.

    Tour Stops Completed:

    Upcoming Tour Stops:

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    To find out what other book bloggers are saying about this book or author, visit the Book Blogs Search Engine.

    18 Responses to Review: Coop by Michael Perry

    1. aaron
      09/25/2012 at 10:13 am

      Boring as can be. Reading it for college, and its virtually impossible not to fall asleep after one paragraph.

      Reply
      • Jenners
        09/28/2012 at 8:57 pm

        Well, it is better than Plato’s Republic, I can tell you that from personal experience.

        Reply
    2. hope chest
      06/30/2010 at 8:46 am

      I agree to some. It really sounds good. I am hoping for that book to be published very soon.

      Reply
    3. heathertlc
      06/16/2010 at 8:45 pm

      I usually avoid memoirs for exactly the reasons you mention – they always seem to be about depression, abuse, and families falling apart. This sounds like the perfect antidote to that kind of book. I’m looking forward to reading it!

      Reply
    4. stacybuckeye
      06/15/2010 at 3:55 pm

      I don't read too many memoirs and avoid the kind you've mentioned. This one sounds different. I like the excerpt about naming the baby since we're getting to that point here :)

      Reply
    5. Literary Feline
      06/09/2010 at 8:39 pm

      This sounds like an interesting memoir. Farm life is so foreign to me, a born and bred city girl. :-)

      Reply
    6. Esme
      06/08/2010 at 4:50 am

      This is going on my wish list now. I adore books like this.

      Reply
    7. Irene
      06/08/2010 at 2:47 am

      Sounds good.

      Reply
    8. softdrink
      06/08/2010 at 2:15 am

      I really enjoyed Population 485, so this one is on my list. 485 is also memoirish, but the chapters are almost stand alone essays, so the meandering totally works.

      Reply
    9. Kelly
      06/07/2010 at 9:27 pm

      I'm not much on memoirs, but this one sounds delightful!

      Reply
    10. naida
      06/07/2010 at 7:56 pm

      I like memoirs too and this does sound like a good one. Great review :)
      lol about Little Miss Shake-N-Bake, thats a cute nick-name.
      http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

      Reply
    11. Kathleen
      06/07/2010 at 7:12 pm

      I agree with you. I'm so sick of reading memoirs of people whose childhoods were damaged. It is nice to think that there are some out there that have something else to offer us as readers. On another note, I can't imagine taking on the task of farming, even on a small scale.

      Reply
    12. Together We Save
      06/07/2010 at 6:08 pm

      Sounds like a good read!!

      Reply
    13. bermudaonion
      06/07/2010 at 12:48 pm

      I love memoirs too! I always romanticize living on a farm in my mind and I like to read books like this from time to time to remind me of how hard farm life really is!

      Reply
    14. ....Petty Witter
      06/07/2010 at 8:22 am

      I know just what you mean about memoirs – there also seems to be a disturbing trend towards tales of child abuse and domestic violence as well.

      This sounds like a nice refreshing change though and I love the cover – I straight away thought of an updated version of Little House On The Prairie, it has that sort of look to it.

      Reply
    15. caite
      06/07/2010 at 7:08 am

      wait! a memoir without substance abuse? is that really possible?

      Reply
    16. rhapsodyinbooks
      06/07/2010 at 3:19 am

      You're so right about most memoirs, which are usually more in the Augusten Burroughs vein. I don't know if I could handle a happy family – I'd keep waiting for the bomb to drop!

      Reply
    17. trish
      06/07/2010 at 2:04 am

      Oh my goodness. Little Miss Shake-n-Bake?? I've GOT to remember that for when I have laying chickens. *dies laughing*

      I'm glad you enjoyed the book! I think one reason I'm put off of memoirs is because they're so dark! And usually someone has gotten themselves in a terrible position…it's just not fun to read about. This book sounds like a lot of fun!

      Reply

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