The Pecking Order (Paperback)

by Jim Phelps (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Recipe for an unusual story:
1. Take a forlorn little city with nothing left but the memory of a glorious past.
2. Add a monumental bureaucratic blunder that brings the promise of a miraculous restoration if everyone in town will cooperate.
3. Stir in the bizarre requirement that all of the citizens must align themselves at the same hour on the same day along the city's streets in exact order of their importance.
4. Mix with natural human responses of pride, greed, selfishness, envy, devotion to duty and kindness.
5. Decorate with festoons of lunacy, ignorance and irony.
Presto! You have The Pecking Order!

About the Author
Jim Phelps is a novelist who writes stories of ironic humor masking thoughtful and deadly serious themes. A lawyer, histroian and former Air Force officer, Phelps understands some English and is fluent in all dilects of western Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado. He and his wife now reside in Pueblo, Colorado and Oaxaca, Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 363 pages
• Publisher: National Writers Press (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088100118X
• ISBN-13: 978-0881001181
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,850,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good read - Deadly humor with good characters, October 14, 2001

By	Thomas A Webb (Pueblo West, CO United States) - See all my reviews

Memorable characters and great story idea. An excellent satire for grown-ups.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quirky American town, December 27, 2001

By	Mary Jo Imholte (Clinton, CT) - See all my reviews

At once social satire, romping good farce, and touching human story, this novel satisfies on many levels. Set somewhere on the high plains of eastern Colorado, or perhaps the Texas or Oklahoma panhandle, or possibly western Kansas, this is a masterly portrait of a quirky American town, under very unusual circumstances. Whew, good stuff. Now I can't wait to see the movie.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Darn Good Yarn, December 17, 2001

By	Stan Gotlieb (Oaxaca, Mexico) - See all my reviews

Jim Phelps, who described himself to me as "America's foremost unpublished author" last year, as we were sunning ourselves in a sidewalk café in Oaxaca, Mexico, can no longer claim that distinction. About time, I say.

Jim, no ordinary "good old boy", is an extraordinary practitioner of a fine old folk art: telling a good yarn. "The Pecking Order" is not his first novel: just his first published novel. One hopes that it is not his last. His is an extraordinary voice, and we should hear more from him.

Stan Gotlieb, author
Oaxaca, Mexico: An Expatriate Life