Lui - Listen to the Squawking Chicken: when mother knows best, whats a daughter to do?: A memoir (sort of)

PRAISE FOR

LISTEN TO THE SQUAWKING CHICKEN

I devoured this book in one sitting alternately cheering, laughing, cringing and gasping in horror. Lui captures the complexity of a mother-daughter relationship that is both complicated and beautiful, poignant with a bare honesty that may make you think (and rethink) your own relationships. JENNY LAWSON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lets Pretend This Never Happened

What an incredible character is the Squawking Chickenshes a movie, an Amy Tan novel, and a sitcom all rolled into one. Fans of Elaine Luis website, LaineyGossip.com, have long wondered where that smart, exacting, hilarious, opinionated, and highly moral (though never moralistic) voice came from. Lui answers this question herself with her beautifully written and fiercely funny book, giving all the credit to her mother, the indomitable Squawking Chicken. By turns deeply moving, shocking and hilarious, this is a story of atypical parenting, cultural complexities and one daughters capacity for forgiveness, compassion and love. I didnt want it to end. LISA GABRIELE , author and TV producer

Elaine Lui has written one remarkable and dangerous book. It had me laughing till I rolled off the bed, rearranging my living room furniture in a panic at 3:00 a.m. to achieve proper feng shui, and calling my mother out of pure guilt. The Squawking Chicken could eat any Tiger Mom for lunch. KEVIN KWAN , author of Crazy Rich Asians

Bold and fresh, Elaine Luis writing took me on a journey filled with bittersweet verve and breathtaking grace. Forget what you think you know about life, and enter the world of the Squawking Chicken. This is a love story you wont soon forget. AMI M C KAY, author of The Birth House and The Virgin Cure

I learned more about Chinese culture from this book than I did in all the time I was in Hong Kong and all I have read about it. If you have ever puzzled over feng shui, or any other ancient practice that has made it into modern Chinese culture, you will get a cogent explanation here. The Squawking Chicken is not by a long shot a perfect mother, yet she is a totally memorable character. The beauty of the book is the daughters unconditional love for her mother, which by the end of the book, the reader shares. CATHERINE GILDINER , author of Too Close to the Falls and After the Falls

At first glance, Elaine Lui may seem like the perfect Tiger Daughter. But shes so much more. She writes about her beloved Squawking Chicken with both clarity and compassionnot only as a mother, but as a whole person, vexing, loving, guarded, open, and one of the most fascinating characters youll encounter in memoir. JOHANNA SCHNELLER , columnist, The Globe and Mail

Once I started reading, I couldnt stop. I read it compulsively, wide-eyed and devouring: Luis writing is sharp, humorous, and deliciously readable, like a long, insightful letter from your best friend. Listen to the Squawking Chicken asks you to reflect on what you think about loyalty, shame, pride and lovethemes that all mothers and daughters know deeply. This book made me reconsider what it means to be a daughter. I loved it. I cant wait to give it to my mother. SARAH SELECKY , author of This Cake Is for the Party

When I fell in love with The Glass Castle it struck me with some satisfaction that Jeanette Walls, a gossip columnist, after all those years of writing about the biggest narcissists in town had such a profound story to tell about herself. Elaine Lainey Luis Listen to the Squawking Chicken is a very different mother-daughter memoir, but, to me, just as fascinating, written in its own kind of snappy poetry, with an abundance of love and economy of language that could make it an instant pop culture classic. EMMA FORREST , author of Your Voice in My Head

Wise and funny and poignant, Listen to the Squawking Chicken is an unflinching look at the enduring bond between mother and daughter. I read this book in one sitting, fascinated by Elaine Luis stories of her motherand most of all, by the Squawking Chicken herself. Every woman can identify with the experiences of a daughter who grew up feeling awed and inspired by a mother who loves her daughter enough to reveal both the harsh truth and the unexpected magic in life. I am so jealous that I cannot sit down with Laineys mom and have tea, get my ass kicked at mah-jong, and get some advice about how to better attract luck as a Dragon. I want a Squawking Chicken of my own! BETH KENDRICK , author of The Week Before the Wedding

PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CANADA
Copyright 2014 Elaine Lui

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2014 by Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada, Toronto, and simultaneously in the United States of America by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Putnam, a division of Penguin Random House. Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited.

www.randomhouse.ca

Random House Canada and colophon are registered trademarks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Lui, Elaine, 1973, author
Listen to the squawking chicken : when mother knows best, whats a daughter to do? A memoir (sort-of) / Elaine Lui.

ISBN 978-0-345-81347-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-345-81349-7

1. Lui, Elaine, 1973 Childhood and youth. 2. Mothers and daughters. 3. Gossip columnistsCanadaBiography. 4. Television personalitiesCanadaBiography. I. Title.

PN4913.L85A3 2014 070.92 C2013-905743-9

Cover design: Kelly Hill
Cover images: (chick) Eric Delmar/Getty Images, (pattern) tairen/Shutterstock.com, (burst) MNI/Shutterstock.com

v3.1

For Dad and Jacek, who get squawked at too

T hats what my ma, the Chinese Squawking Chicken, tells me when she thinks I look like shit on television. Monkeys are skinny. A poorly moisturized monkey is not only skinny but brittle. No one wants to look like dried monkey flakes. Most people think Im exaggerating at first when I talk about the Squawking Chicken. But once they actually do spend some time with her, they understand. They get it. Right away. Shes Chinese, she squawks like a chicken, she is totally nuts, and I am totally dependent on her. If she says I look like dried monkey flakes, even if everyone else thinks Im camera-ready, I believe that I look like dried monkey flakes.

This is how its been for me my whole life: every thought has been shaped by the Squawking Chicken; every opinion I have is informed by the Squawking Chicken; everything I do is in consultation with the Squawking Chicken. I navigate my life according to the subliminal map shes purposefully programmed into my head so that I cant tell the difference anymore whether its my own choice, or her choice. And that was probably her objective all along.