Delicate Edible Birds is a short story collection written by Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:She graduated from Amherst College and from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an MFA in fiction....

. Groff was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York, home of American writers James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...

 and W.W. Lord. Several of the stories take place in Upstate New York

Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

. Groff is also the author of the best-selling novel The Monsters of Templeton

The Monsters of Templeton

The Monsters of Templeton is a dramatic novel written by Lauren Groff. Groff was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York. The name Templeton draws from the name devised for the town by James Fenimore Cooper, Cooperstown's most renowned author, known for The Leatherstocking Tales...

.

Summary

The anthology comprises nine dramatic stories, taken together, spanning a century. In each story, a slice of life of various American women is revealed.

• "Lucky Chow Fun" takes place in the mythical Templeton (Cooperstown, New York
  Cooperstown, New York
  Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
  
  ), the setting of her first novel. In this tale, Seventeen-year-old Lollie hopes to leave for college without looking back, but sinister events end up causing her to fear for the safety of her little sister and the future of her once-safe little town.
• "L. Debard and Aliette" is a crafty re-telling of the story of Abelard and Héloïse
  Heloise
  Heloise may refer to:* Heloise , medieval author, wife of Abelard* Heloise , advice columnist* Heloise , a main cartoon character from the show Jimmy Two-Shoes...
  
   in New York amidst the 1918 flu pandemic.
• "Majorette" is a story of a young woman's personal growth in Hershey, Pennsylvania
  Hershey, Pennsylvania
  Hershey is a census-designated place in Derry Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The community is located 14 miles east of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hershey has no legal status as an incorporated municipality...
  
   and the events that make her more worldy and the father and grandfather that always hold their little girl in deep affection.
• "Blythe" is the story of a bored, introverted Philadelphia attorney who has turned into a stay-at-home mom whose life changes when she takes a night class and meets an extroverted and eccentric woman who draws her out.
• "The Wife of the Dictator" is a character study of a simple American girl who marries a Latin American Dictator. Her fate is inexorably bound up with his.
• "Sir Fleeting" is a story where a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina
  Argentina
  Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
  
   falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy.
• "Watershed" is a tragedy, between a husband and a wife, which proves the maxim "don't say things you'll later regret".
• "Delicate Edible Birds" takes place during the fall of France. A disparate, but close group of War correspondents are held against their will by an evil French Farmer who exacts a steep price in exchange for not turning them over to the Nazis.

Main characters

• Lollie, in "Lucky Chow Fun", is a seventeen year old high school senior hoping to leave for college without fear or regret, but suddenly finds her quaint small town to be a sinister place.

• Aliette, in "L. Debard and Aliette", is a young woman, temporarily felled by polio, who falls in love with the older L.Debard.

• Bern, in "Delicate Edible Birds", is a daring, attractive, female war correspondent, whose loss of personal honor in the name of the survival of others is allegory
  Allegory
  Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
  
  for France herself.

Reviews

• DELICATE EDIBLE BIRDS By Lauren Groff Book Review by Claire Hopely, Washington Times, February 22, 2009

• Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories" Book Review, Publisher's Weekly, December 12, 2008

Accolades

• The title story Delicate Edible Birds was chosen for the Best American Short Stories 2010 anthology.
• "L. Debard and Aliette" was a chosen for the Best American Short Stories 2007 anthology and was an O'Henry Recommended Story
• "Lucky Chow Fun" won the Pushcart Prize in 2008