The Milk Chicken Bomb

by Andrew Wedderburn

The kid sells lemonade. Not a lot of people buy lemonade, especially now that it's winter, but the kid makes good lemonade, even if his friend Mullen thinks it ought to be sweeter.

They don't talk much with the other ten-year-olds - most of the others are Dead Kids anyway. Except for Jenny Tierney, but she's busy breaking kids' faces with her math book. Besides, the Russians from the meat-packing plant are a lot cooler, and they always win at curling.

But in small-town Alberta, there are just too many roman-candle fights, bonspiels, retaliatory river diversions, black-market submarines, exploding boilers, meat-packing-plant suicides and recess-time lightning strikes for one lonely kid to get any attention. He might as well go to Kazakhstan. Then the adults in his life start disappearing down tunnels and into rendering vats. Being ten is hard enough without all that, especially when your best friend is ruining the lemonade.

But the Milk Chicken Bomb should change everything.

Frenetic, hilarious and gently heartrending, "The Milk Chicken Bomb" takes us inside the mind of a troubled ten-year-old who is just beginning to understand that the adults around him are as lonely and bewildered as he is in the face of the slapstick demands of the world.

Genres: Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2003

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

John K. Samson blurbs the book, and that was good enough for me to give it a try. At times there are lines that have the same feeling of Samson's lyrics, and maybe it's just Canadian melancholy, or the longing of living in the big wide open spaces of the central plains. At other times the feeling of growing up in the 80's is captured really well, or for me. The boredom of living in a small town, but which is imbued with 'secret' places that the cool kids don't give a shit about and adults probably just overlook them. Unfortunately the book doesn't really develop, a story happens, but there is something missing in the cohesiveness of everything going on. The author I think sees this happening and in the last twenty pages or so gives a few hints at things about the characters and situations that would make everything come together, but they are given more as an aside than as part of the story. Not a great book but good enough that I'd give the author another chance if he writes another one.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story a lot. The only thing I had trouble with, which caused me to take a really long time to finish this, was how characters didn't have quotation marks for when they were speaking and it all jumbled together.
Great stuff, though!

[christopherdrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second read-through of this; the first time, I was all excited because hey somone I know wrote a book, it's got letters and words and everything, y'know? Years later, (years? oh man, yeah, years) I read The Crash Palace, and thought, man, I gotta reread The Milk Chicken Bomb. I'm so glad I did.

I had this friend throughout high school, we'd get up to some pretty dumb shit; like, stand out in the alleyway at midnight with lit candles, because we thought some of those stars looked suspicious, and we thought maybe we could communicate with them. I know how it sounds. One time, we spent half an hour at a bus stop pretending to hitchhike; we'd put our thumbs out as cars would drive by, and when they wouldn't stop, we'd give them the finger. We did this until my Dad just happened to drive by, stopping to give us a lift. This was when he worked for a courier company called The Pixies. Great name for a band, weird name for a courier company. I don't think he saw us giving the finger, because, man, I would've heard about it.

That's got nothing to do with The Milk Chicken Bomb. It's just what comes to mind when I read this book: dumb shit I did as a kid, dumb shit I still do today. I mean, I don't give unsuspecting drivers the finger at bus stops, but I think you know what I mean. Anyway: I am so happy with Andrew's writing, and I want him to write at least seven more books like this. 10/10 would definitely eat here again, as long as they put in a new furnace.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is full of observations about small town life and small town people/children. I did find it funny quite often and the Russians are particularly amusing if slightly stereotypical. The plot is tenuous and the ending was dissatisfying for me. Maybe at heart I like more linear stories, but nevertheless it’s worth reading if you come across it.

[Emmet Matheson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayne Arthurson recommended this to me. Wedderburn led the great Calgary indie band Hot Little Rocket.
It's the story of a small town in Alberta, not far from Okotoks, narrated by a nameless 10yr-old who wants to get away. All kinds of small town hijinx ensues and it's a really wonderfully written book that rings true to this prairie kid but still surprises and moves the reader.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back cover and the blurb here on Goodreads both call this book hilarious, but I really didn't find that accurate. (I couldn't even see the black humour in it, personally.) The publisher's website notes that its plot is virtually irrelevant; I agree 100%. I would not suggest reading this book if you can't handle those two facts (especially the latter) and wish I'd known them ahead of time, since I'm sure my enjoyment would have been higher if I did, because ultimately, it is a good book.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compelling, but bleak. Characters tantalizing, but not real for me.