by Purvis McGrew
Make Believe Books, 147 pages
Reviewed by Sally Putterman
In case you haven’t read it—and I hope you haven’t—the
narrative focuses on a small farm populated by talking livestock. Life on the
farm is just dandy until a lead of foxes moves into the area and an ideological
schism forms. Naturally, all the chickens and pigs and things are afraid of the
newly-arrived predators, but, under the banner of “fairness and balance,” the
foxes set up their own television news network called—you guessed it—Fox News.
Through constant media saturation they are able to convince the other animals
that they are not trying to eat anyone, and are, in fact, looking out for
everyone's best interest.
Life on the farm appears to go back to normal until one day
a hen notices her batch of eggs is missing. Instantly, Fox News is running
coverage of the story, and soon they are brandishing photos of two suspects, a
rooster from Chicago named Barnyard O’Brahma and another chicken named Harry
“Rhode Island” Reid. Not only are Reid and O’Brahma egg thieves, the foxes
claim, but, along with their fellow chickens, they secretly plan to convert the
farm to socialism.
A few of the animals are skeptical, especially a Holstein
named Rachel Madcow and the farm watchdog, Keith Doberman, but they don’t stand
a chance against the foxes, especially after they enlist the support of two
pigs, Rush Limhog and his manic depressive little buddy, Swine Beck. Beck and
Limhog soon command legions of mindless sheep trained to chant,
“Fox good. Chickens liberal.”
The animals at Fox News soon grow rich and fat selling
commercials for genetically modified chicken feed and a new form of hog slop
that allegedly cures impotence. Meanwhile, their inept rivals over at The
Chicken Channel are reduced to mindless clucking and focusing on the
entertainment industry.
By now, the nature of Mr. McGrew’s allegory should be quite
plain. Obviously, Fox News is a send-up of the William Randolph Hearst news
organization of the 1920s and 30s. Naturally, Rhode Island Reid and Barnyard
O’Brahma are meant to represent Hearst rivals, New York Governor Al Smith and
William Jennings Bryan respectively. Most likely, Rachel Madcow is meant to be
the famous political cartoonist, Lou Rogers, while Keith Doberman could only be
the famous writer and Hearst critic, Upton Sinclair. Surely, Rush Limhog is a
blatant stand-in for Orson Welles.
Why then, is Mr. McGrew so intent on satirizing Mr. Hearst
and company? Haven’t these people suffered enough, especially considering the
fact that they are dead? Why does Mr. McGrew insist on adding insult to death?
If all this wasn’t bad enough, Mr. McGrew also repeatedly
insults the intelligence of his readers. I hate to break it to you, Mr. McGrew,
but animals can’t talk and they don’t watch television. Any child can tell you
this, but just to be sure this reviewer spent three weeks living in a chicken
coop. After literally thousands of interviews, I can assure you that chickens
don’t have the slightest interest in news or politics. Also, they stink.
I can honestly say I haven’t read anything as preposterous
as Foxes and Chickens since I read another book about talking farm animals back
in 1984. I forget what it was called.
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