Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What's a Daughter To Do? A Memoir (Sort Of)

Here we find the encyclopedia of the Mother-Daughter relationship in the Lui dynasty. Is it un-cool to envy the author for being able to get it out in the open? The unspoken rituals, the timeless truths and the customs that no longer make sense are presented in such a way that the reader feels Elaine's pain as the events of her upbringing unfold. This book is a treasure. I was compelled to re-examine my relationship with my mother, the look that could condemn you to hell, the pinch on the shoulder if you flinched in church, the cluck of the tongue if the skirt or the heels were too high. Mine was not squawky, but you knew where you fell on the guilty chart. I enjoyed Lui's humor and her passion for storytelling. I am going to have to do show more some serious reflecting to come up with the lesson list from my Mom's teachings, now that Ms. Lui has set the bar at nine. My thanks to Penguin's First To Read program and the author for a complimentary pre-release copy of this book. show less

Delightful and funny, funny! Elaine Lui writes about her mother's influence on her throughout her life and even now. There's so much personality in this book, and Lui's mother is a stitch! Most of us can pick out some quirks in our mothers, but Elaine's mother is a colorful character with a strong personality. She duly schools her daughter in the ways of the old country -- China. The reader can almost hear her mother's accent through these pages, and see her doling out advice loudly and embarrassingly.

Some chapter titles: Walk Like an Elephant, Squawk Like a Chicken; Never Bring Home an Umbrella off the Street; Why Are You Dating a Triangle-Head? The Introduction begins: "You look like dried monkey flakes", a quote from the mother to show more the daughter, who has a job on television.

Some of the book is a fascinating and hilarious look into the lives of Chinese immigrants, with plenty of mah-jong.

The book can be read in a day or two and is unique. Elaine, my mother was just as good as yours at embarrassing me, but she was colorful in different ways. Just experiencing two languages growing up is special. I'm glad you wrote the book, a fun tribute to Ma. show less

Canadian entertainment blogger, Elaine Lui, relates the story of the life lessons she learned from her inimitable mother, the Chinese Squawking Chicken. Raised in equal measure on “Chinese fortune-telling, feng shui blackmail, good old-fashioned ghost stories, and shame and embarrassment,” there is nothing conventional – either Eastern or Western – about the Squawking Chicken’s parenting style. But the mother-daughter bond which resulted is undeniable; Listen to the Squawking Chicken is Lui’s tribute to her mother. She writes:

“Most people think I’m exaggerating at first when I talk about the Chinese Squawking Chicken. But once they actually spend some time with her, they understand. They get it. Right away. She’s show more Chinese, she squawks like a chicken, she is totally nuts, and I am totally dependent on her.”

A quick, easy, entertaining read in well-written, straight-to-the-point prose. I think it is safe to say you won’t encounter a mother-daughter relationship like this one anywhere else. show less

I hope that this book was written generally tongue in cheek as it exalts a mother/daughter co-dependent relationship of the highest order. The mother (Squawking Chicken) controls her daughter's life (and her poor husband) through what she believes is her vast knowledge of feng shui and a never ending supply of Asian superstitions. Even the minutest decisions have to go through the filter of mom's vast knowledge. (She is always right.) How to arrange furniture for instance. If I had a mother like this I would have flown the coop years ago. (pun intended). What will happen when mom is no longer around. Mom is a control freak that want to manipulate all around her and I say I am glad this is not my life.

Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What's a Daughter To Do? A Memoir by Elaine Lui

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of The Squawking Chicken by Elaine Lui in return for an honest review. I gave this book 2 Stars because it was very well written. That's all I thought it had going for it.

Elaine Lui has a very unusual mother who has a very unusual background. The mother is the Squawking Chicken about whom Lui has managed to put together enough material to cover a whole book. The Squawking Chicken sees no need to filter anything she says. That others may have sensitive feelings is of no concern to her since she feels justified in speaking her mind whenever and wherever she pleases. As a result, most of the time show more she comes off as a rotten little brat who never learned the lesson that children should be seen but not heard. However, she's not a child, and she has lived long enough to have learned a few lessons in socially acceptable behavior. It seems to me she simply chooses to ignore any rules of behavior that mean she has to curtail her loud mouth and her disruptive announcements. According to Lui, it isn't that her mother is unaware of how her behavior affects others; she simply believes that she's right in whatever situation she finds herself where criticism would be in order. Lui goes through some convoluted explanations why what her mother says and does is acceptable. If she believes that, I doubt any time spent with a psychiatrist would ever be enough for her to work through the insecurities and lack of self-esteem her mother has managed to pass along.

I did not enjoy reading this book. It was a little bit like having to sit and watch someone pick the wings off flies. It's distasteful and uncomfortable, but I requested this book, so I feel an obligation to finish it no matter how much I dislike what I'm learning. Part of my problem with the book is that I had a mother like The Squawking Chicken. She wasn't Asian, she was Pennsylvania Dutch, and she did not sound like a squawking chicken when she spoke; she sounded more like a Stampeding Pissed-Off Elephant in Heat. There was no wisdom in her edicts; everything in this world revolved around her and others existed only in ways in which she could benefit from them. These women are not the ones we need to read about outside of the horror genre. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Frankly, it's just too pathetic.



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This book was a fun read. Being of Chinese descent, I can relate to the author to a certain extent i.e. Feng Shui, tradition, filial piety etc. However Elaine Lui's mother is an intimidating but hilarious character and her daughter is trying to justify all of her outrageous behaviour. The last quarter of the memoir is quite repetitive and it seemed like the author had no more to write about and was just trying to fill up the book.

I didn't love this book. It was interesting to learn about mother/daughter culture in China but I bristled at the 'mother knows best' theme that ran through the book.