Squashed Chickens - Jeff Horne

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Résumé :
A traumatic boyhood experience on his parent's farm, when an incident between him and a mother hen results in 'squashed chickens', becomes the backdrop for the author's deeply-moving, personal life story. After devastating experiences in the Vietnam War, he returns home to a newly-hostile society, rejection and humiliation. Mentally scarred, he tries to cope with the responsibilities but it proves too much. He goes back to the countryside, starts a farm and tries to make sense of the world while fighting his demons with the support of medical professionals, his wife and children. Jeff describes his torment as he offloads his confusion about religion, racism, society and life, all the time finding new 'squashed chickens' along the way.

Biographie:
Jeff Horne was born in Gympie, Queensland. His family farmed dairy, beef, pork and small crops. Poultry were raised for household eggs and meat. He was educated in small country schools, leaving after Junior. He moved three hours away to Brisbane to work as a clerk for the Queensland Government. He was conscripted into the army and served nearly a year in Vietnam. He returned, got married then worked for the Forestry Department for over twenty years. His failing health caused him to try farming. After struggling with mental illness for most of those years, he put pen to paper.