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She Named Him Michael
She Named Him Michael is an exploration of the true short and strange life of America's only living headless chicken, Miracle Mike (1945-1947). With cinematic quality of description, Rounds captivates the reader through the stark reality of an American farm to the bizarre reality of the traveling circus. Though the landscape changes, life is a spectacle.
World War II has ended and on a farm in the Great Valley of Colorado, the youngest son failed to return from Normandy, leaving the mother tucked in bed with grief and a ticking in her ear. In the fields, the velvetleaf weeds are encroaching on the sugar beets and the oldest son and the wife can barely keep up with the demand of the work. Life changes in a night, when the oldest son fails to cut the head clean off the dinner chicken. When the chicken survives the blow, the wife decides to name him Michael. Soon realizing the fortune that can come from a headless chicken, the oldest son and wife take off for life on the road with the travelling circus’ Tent of Nature’s Mistakes. The rest is history, a strange journey in a world where tigers have three legs and elephants have no ears and chickens have no heads.
"In fact, what distinguishes Rounds from the magic realism which must be her dearest cousin is that Michael’s story actually happened. There are records. There are Life magazine articles. There are receipts. And maybe it’s the reality of a true story and her skill in researching it that frees Rounds from having to self-consciously balance the concrete with the abstract. History gave her the plot points so that her work as an author is to create wonderful impressions and moods around the truth."
-- Barrett Warner in Entropy
“The wonder of the fair, the freaks, the road, what we don’t know or understand–none of these things last forever. Michael’s beginning ends, too.”
-- Rebekah Kirkman in Baltimore City Paper
World War II has ended and on a farm in the Great Valley of Colorado, the youngest son failed to return from Normandy, leaving the mother tucked in bed with grief and a ticking in her ear. In the fields, the velvetleaf weeds are encroaching on the sugar beets and the oldest son and the wife can barely keep up with the demand of the work. Life changes in a night, when the oldest son fails to cut the head clean off the dinner chicken. When the chicken survives the blow, the wife decides to name him Michael. Soon realizing the fortune that can come from a headless chicken, the oldest son and wife take off for life on the road with the travelling circus’ Tent of Nature’s Mistakes. The rest is history, a strange journey in a world where tigers have three legs and elephants have no ears and chickens have no heads.
"In fact, what distinguishes Rounds from the magic realism which must be her dearest cousin is that Michael’s story actually happened. There are records. There are Life magazine articles. There are receipts. And maybe it’s the reality of a true story and her skill in researching it that frees Rounds from having to self-consciously balance the concrete with the abstract. History gave her the plot points so that her work as an author is to create wonderful impressions and moods around the truth."
-- Barrett Warner in Entropy
“The wonder of the fair, the freaks, the road, what we don’t know or understand–none of these things last forever. Michael’s beginning ends, too.”
-- Rebekah Kirkman in Baltimore City Paper
Unknown Binding
Published May 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 4, 2017
This is a poetic, affecting, deeply strange book. What do we do when we have nothing and life hands us an undead chicken? What do we do when we need to be loved and something so weak is so dependent upon us, just as dependent as we are upon it? She Named Him Michael tells us, "This is what the living do. This is what the living do. This is what the living do."
And I suspect, Heather Rounds is saying, "Your beginning will end, too. You will end, too."
And I suspect, Heather Rounds is saying, "Your beginning will end, too. You will end, too."
July 20, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this small, poetic volume. Can't wait for more from this author.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews