CHICKEN: SELF-PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN FOR RENT
Synopsis:
Chicken (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, 2002) is the funny, touching story of a sweet, wide-eyed son of Seventies Suburbia who spends a year as a teenage sex worker servicing rich, lonely women in Beverly Hills. After being sexually assaulted his first night in Hollywood, David meets Sunny, the manager of Hollywood Fried Chicken, who teaches him all about chicken: how to fry one, and how to be one. But even as he revels in the wild adventures and the mad money, he is sucked into the seedy seamy side of Hollywood: the blank-eyed women, the Fall-of-Rome the orgies, and the drugs. With a mix of breathtaking honesty, comedy, tenderness, and a wide-eyed fascination for the characters and bizarre world he enters, Sterry creates a narrative that is fresh, smart, and unexpectedly uplifting. Chicken is a book like no other—a playful, gripping story that explores what it means to suffer through the underbelly of the American Dream. And make it out alive.
Book Excerpt:
I walk all the way up Hollywood Boulevard to Grauman’s Chinese Theater: past turistas snapping shots; wanna-be starlets sparkling by in mini-skirts with head shots in their hands and moondust in their eyes; rowdy cowboys drinking with drunken Indians; black businessmen bustling by briskly in crisp suits; ladies who do not lunch with nylons rolled up below the knee pushing shopping carts full of everything they own; Mustangs rubbing up against muscular Mercedes and Hell’s Angels hogs.
It’s a sick twisted Wonderland, and I am Alice.
Topics/Categories:
DAVID HENRY STERRY MEMOIR HOLLYWOOD SEX PROSTITUTION TEEN TEENAGERS
Best Sellers:
San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller
Type of Work:
Publishers:
Original Publish Date:
2001-12-02
Publishing Notes:
“Poignant, humorous…a rare pleasure…funny, moving and original…an exceptional, comically idiosyncratic and revealingly honest look at life in difficult times…Much of the material in the 85-minute one-act is hilarious…Sterry is a sharp comic, using his limber body and versatile voice to create memorably funny portraits of the hungry, lonely, wealthy women who employ his services…Sterry needs no other prop than a wooden bench to get full comic mileage out of the ludicrousness of sex in some wonderfully varied and graphic guises. But what sets “Chicken” apart and gives it depth is the hard, sad reality beneath its Rabelaisian humor…[“Chicken”] is richly entertaining and thought-provoking… [It] speaks cleverly and provocatively to anyone who's ever been or had a child.”
—Robert Hurwitt, Head Theater Critic to The San Francisco Chronicle
“Finger-licking good… A master storyteller.”
-Richard Dodds, Bay Area Reporter
“Experiencing [Sterry’s] natural ear for rhythm and timing, we are reminded of what a rare pleasure it is to see a writer perform his own work. Sterry’s carefully crafted, simple language infuses mundane situations with dream-like profundity…Sterry’s portrayal of his 17-year-old self is immediately honest and believable. In fact, the character’s insecure teenage naiveté juxtaposed with Sterry’s masterful control of poetic dialogue is what balances the show.”
—Emily Klein, The San Francisco Examiner
“Refreshingly affectionate…Sterry expertly and economically brings the parade of pimps, nuns, debutantes, rapists, and sexual deviants who populate his past to life.”
—The San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Sterry tells a sad and harrowing story with humor, energy, and a sharp eye for the sort of characters an ‘industrial sex technician’ might meet in the weird aftermath of the ‘60s.”
—Michael Scott Moore, The San Francisco Weekly
“Graced with insight and empathy—Sterry finds a literary rhythm as fluid and alluring as the strut of his ‘nuthugging elephantbells. A sense of humor as bright and ridiculous as a ‘blood-engorged wangdangdoodle- hammer, and you have material that is ideal for stage and screen.”
—Silke Tudor, The San Francisco Weekly (House of Tudor column)
“A tour-de force.” —San Francisco Bay Times
“Sextacular.” - Beth Lisick, San Francisco Gate
“A funny, poignant story that examines issues both hard-hitting and universal.”
-Time Out San Francisco
www.davidhenrysterry.com
If you see only one show about a real life teenage gigolo, make it Chicken
CHICKEN: THE BOOK
“Sterry writes with comic brio… [he] honed a vibrant outrageous writing style and turned out this studiously wild souvenir of a checkered past.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times
“A compelling work.” -Steve Jelbert, London Times
“A beautiful book… a real work of literature… wonderfully written.” - Vanessa Feltz, BBC
“Priceless material…” -Details Magazine
“Humorous and charming… Outrageous and entertaining…” – Michael Williams, BBC 1
“A breezy read, pleasingly free of self-pity… very funny.” -The Observer
“Jawdropping… A carefully crafted piece of work… -Benedicte Page, Book News, UK
“A 1-night read. Should be mandatory reading for parents and kids.” -Bert Lee, Talk of the Town
“Few rites-of-passage tales can match up to this one.” -The Scotsman
“Hilarious.” -The Guardian (London)
“Alternately sexy and terrifying… Chicken is a hot walk on the wild side of Hollywood’s fleshy underbelly. A coming-of-age classic that’s colorful, riveting, and strangely beautiful. David Henry Sterry is the real thing.” – Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight
“A standup comic's sensibility, tone and timing. I read the book from cover to cover in one night, unable to put it down.” -- Eliza Thomas, Places Magazine
“Farcical… sad… perceptive… Reality porn for the sophisticated reader.” - The Sunday Herald
“Chicken is both funny and disturbing.” - RTE TV Ireland
“Compulsively readable and very funny. Rarely has the mentality of sex been so scrupulously observed and reproducped. Sterry clearly possesses the storyteller’s art.” – Phillip Lopate, author of Portrait of My Body
“Impossible to put down… A fast-paced jazzy writing style… a great read.” -Hallmemoirs
“Full of truth, horror, and riotous humor.” - The Latest Books
“Filled with wit… expertly told escapades… A really good, enlightening, read.” –Leeds Guide
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