Menu
Why Peacocks?: An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World’s Most Magnificent Bird
Maybe someday
37
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
24/100Critics
50/100Scholars
Author:
Sean Flynn
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Date:
May 11, 2021
Sean Flynn chronicles his first year as a peacock owner, from struggling to build a pen to assisting the local bird doctor in surgery to triumphantly watching a peahen lay her first egg. He also examines the global history of peacocks, from their appearance in the Garden of Eden to their befuddling Charles Darwin to their bewitching the likes of Flannery O'Connor and Martha Stewart.
What The Reviewers Say
There’s nothing like senseless violence to prompt a search for meaning, as promised in the subtitle. Through most of the book, though, it doesn’t feel as if Flynn is up to anything so profound.
... we can’t help rooting for [Flynn].
Have you ever thought, What my household needs is a few peacocks? Me neither. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying Sean Flynn’s Why Peacocks? An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World’s Most Magnificent Bird, which details what happened after his family took on some pet peacocks.
Flynn recognizes the privilege inherent in keeping peacocks; throughout the ages, the birds were esteemed for their beauty, and owning peacocks was a way to display wealth and power. The author also notes the downsides of living alongside peacocks, who are quite noisy.
