or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
60 used & new from $0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: three bears, last chicken, The Last Chicken, Ellen Litman, Squirrel Hill (more...)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

List Price: $23.95
Price: $4.46 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $19.49 (81%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
29 new from $1.95 29 used from $0.01 2 collectible from $40.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, September 16, 2007 $4.46 $1.95 $0.01
  Paperback, September 16, 2008 $11.16 $2.44 $0.01

Frequently Bought Together

The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories + Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories + I'm Not Scared
Price For All Three: $23.27

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories by Ellen Litman

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories by Lore Segal

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Special Offers and Product Promotions


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

I'm Not Scared

I'm Not Scared

by Niccolo Ammaniti
4.0 out of 5 stars (39)  $8.64
Petropolis

Petropolis

by Anya Ulinich
4.7 out of 5 stars (17)  $5.60
Space Walk (Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award)

Space Walk (Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award)

by Tom Sleigh
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $15.32
Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds: Poems

Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds: Poems

by Eleanor Lerman
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $13.25
A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry

A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry

by Czeslaw Milosz
4.6 out of 5 stars (17)  $10.20
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Russian immigrants settle in Pittsburgh and attempt to assimilate in this linked set from Litman, who emigrated from Moscow in 1992. Masha, a lonely dreamer, is a vulnerable teen desperate to distinguish herself from the other Russians in town. As she struggles to help her obstinate parents settle down, she finds comfort in Alick, a friendly exchange student from Moscow who gives Masha her first lesson in love. Subsequent stories introduce a plethora of characters: Tanya, a repressed housewife, longs to escape her loveless marriage, while single mother Natasha has a set of friends who insist on setting her up, and widower Kamyshinskiy attempts to start over. Throughout, Litman deploys a style that's a perfect mix of sophistication and bewilderment, as her often highly educated characters cope with various forms of underemployment, with American buoyancy and with their own sometimes suffocating subculture. While Masha is a focal point, each of the stories has its own arc, and the community never comes into focus as a whole. The result is less like a novel than a coherent set of mostly first-person character studies by a very promising writer. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Bookmarks Magazine

Having emigrated from Moscow as a teenager in 1992, Ellen Litman has lived the life she so vividly describes in her debut, and she adroitly depicts the stress, underemployment, isolation, and sense of loss commonly suffered by new immigrants. Though English is her second language, Litman’s writing style is graceful and clever. She paints a colorful portrait of a vibrant community, and Masha makes a charming, observant narrator whose subtle appreciation of the ironies of the American Dream provides a cohesive filament throughout the book. A few of the stories read "less like fiction than like notes for a longer work" (New York Times Book Review), but critics unanimously praised this collection of fresh and engaging stories from a promising new writer.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393065111
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393065114
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #782,081 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #76 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

More About the Author

Ellen Litman
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Ellen Litman Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories
86% buy the item featured on this page:
The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories 4.1 out of 5 stars (21)
$4.46
Petropolis
5% buy
Petropolis 4.7 out of 5 stars (17)
$5.60
The Book of Ralph: A Novel
3% buy
The Book of Ralph: A Novel 4.6 out of 5 stars (27)
$11.70
Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories
3% buy
Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories 4.2 out of 5 stars (11)
$10.17

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than just another "immigrant book", September 24, 2007
By Jane Roper (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It's ironic that one reviewer here complained that the subjects of the stories in this collection aren't unique to immigrant life, since that very fact is one of the book's strengths: 'The Last Chicken' may be about a very specific immigrant community, but its stories explore themes that are universal to the human experience -- love, death, marriage, aging, jealousy, illness, struggle, joy. This, along with Litman's beautifully clean prose, subtle humor and empathy for her characters, is why the "The Last Chicken" is such a satisfying read.

To the Squirrel Hill residents who have come to vent their anger here: I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the fact that you find Litman's stories to be such an accurate depiction of the realities of your lives is the best possible endorsement you could give the book.

Naturally Litman has drawn on real people and situations to create her characters and stories; all fiction writers do. Ironically, the fictionalized portraits she has painted of Squirrel Hill's residents in her book are far more subtle and sympathetic than the portraits they've painted of their (non-fictional) selves here.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious, moving & uplifting, September 15, 2007
"The Last Chicken," is the best novel-in-stories I've read in years. Like her fellow immigrant-authors Jhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan and Gary Shteyngart, Ellen Litman first and foremost tells a great story. When I read the stories in "The Last Chicken," I feel like I'm in Squirrel Hill, along with the characters, in their houses, eating the various Russian foods, having breakfast conversations over scratchy wooden tables. I worried for the people in the town. I wanted the men to win their wives back, to convince the IRS not to arrest them, to get the promotion they'd been scheming after; and for the women to finally meet a decent guy. The book immersed me in a different world--as cliched as it sounds, I feel like I learned something about another culture. The stories are so funny, smart, and wry, that they're worth reading again and again. And the visceral descriptions and the close perspective--the way the book subtly allows us to know what the characters are thinking and feeling--is masterful.
I'm not sure what that other reviewer was talking about. I thought the characters were smart, funny, and hot. I'd be flattered to be one of them. And who knows whether the book's "fiction" or not? Isn't it all "fiction?"
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A plus debut novel, September 16, 2007
Ellen Litman's linked stories are filled with unforgettable characters who stuck in my head, days after I finished reading. So instead of picking up that crusty copy of The Idiot, I recommend picking up this wonderful book by a new, very talented russian writer.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Not interesting to me
I really didn't like the book even though I am from Pittsburgh.

It seemed too disconnected and jumped around too much.... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Elizabeth

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest, well-written, and extremely accurate
I loved the book and enjoyed each story, particularly "Charity", "Dancers", "The Last Chicken in America", and "Russian Club". Read more
Published 13 months ago by Pied Piper

5.0 out of 5 stars Atleechnah! Agromnayah spasseba Ellen Litman ('excellent, huge thanks' pah russky)
Ellen Litman is a wonderful new writer and I can't recommend this collection of stories too much (many are connected like threads in a novel). Read more
Published 13 months ago by Gina R. Morvay

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Kuznetsky Meets Forbes Avenue
I have been having trouble getting through fiction lately. This book cured me of that. A novel made of twelve stories. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Leo Griffin

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Chicken in America
This is a great book about my hometown Pittsburgh. It is a peek into Squirrel Hill, one of the great Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Suzanne M. Titus

5.0 out of 5 stars The best chicken in America
In this debut piece of literature, Ellen Litman demonstrates herself to be the true twenty-first century heir to Sherwood Anderson. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Kirk Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for Your Mother and Your Best Friends -- and for Yourself
I've been reading Ellen Litman for almost a year, have eagerly awaited this book. It's marvelous -- get it, read it and re-read it. Read more
Published on October 15, 2007 by Tennessee Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars compassion
I found a lot to love in these funny and poignant stories. Above all, what makes them work is Litman's compassion for her characters.
Published on October 1, 2007 by A. Lee

5.0 out of 5 stars Ellen Litman ROCKS my world
I LOVED this book! To all you narrow-minded haters out there: these are stories about love and forgiveness. They are beautiful. Read more
Published on September 25, 2007 by Steven B. Almond

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Reading!
One thing I love about this book is the interconnectedness of the characters. Rather than reading like a regular novel, it reads like a study of a community in a particular time... Read more
Published on September 22, 2007 by A Reader

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.