Chicken Story: a short novel, and other tales

Virgil Dawson is the only son of Jim Dawson, the self-described "King of American Chicken" and founder of Tasty Bird Farms. Jim expects his son to take over the business one day but Virgil, who abhors his father's treatment of both employees and birds, has no interest in doing so. Instead, he lets his younger sister, Samantha, take his place in the family pecking order. While Sam works her way up through the company ranks, Virgil attends the University of Tennessee, where he marches against the Vietnam War, smokes weed and tries without much success to join the Sexual Revolution. After graduation, Virgil becomes a newspaper reporter for the Nashville Banner and then a Union Organizer, positions which give him a bully pulpit for preaching against the horrible conditions inside the Tasty Bird slaughterhouse. His motives for that preaching, however, are unclear even to him. Is he trying to improve the employees' lot, especially that of Tatiana, the undocumented Mexican worker with whom he has fallen in love? Or, perhaps regretting his decision to exile himself from the family business, is he trying to force his way back into its story?