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Pigs
A dark, dystopian novel from the author of City of Ghosts. Four children live on an island that serves as the repository for all the world’s garbage. Trash arrives, the children sort it, and then they feed it to a herd of insatiable a perfect system. But when a barrel washes ashore with a boy inside, the children must decide whether he is more of the world’s detritus, meant to be fed to the pigs, or whether he is one of them. Written in exquisitely wrought prose, Pigs asks questions about community, environmental responsibility, and the possibility of innocence.Featured on TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, as recommended by Read With Jenna book club author Megha Majumdar “A lyrical, enthralling, and dark-inflected allegory, equal parts Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, and Lord of the Flies.” —Jonathan Lethem, award-winning author of The Arrest “Powerful, metaphorical, as fantastical as it is true . . . a masterpiece. Stoberock scrutinizes mankind’s failure to tend to our planet, our children, and our fellow man, and the result is a terrifying, tremendous book, its darkness lit in unpredictable ways by campfires of compassion and hope. What a wise, searing novel for the twenty-first century.” —Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra “Pigs looks unflinchingly at some of the scariest parts of our world—a changing climate, an ocean full of garbage, and us, the fragile animals. Yet within this, there is tremendous beauty and grace—Johanna Stoberock has written a kind of love song to survival, to life itself.”—Ramona Ausubel, author of Awayland
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2019
45 people are currently reading
1355 people want to read
About the author
Johanna Stoberock
2 books44 followersJohanna Stoberock is the author of the novels Pigs (Red Hen Press) and City of Ghosts (W.W. Norton). The 2019 Artist Trust/Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award recipient, 2016 Runner Up for the Italo Calvino Prize for Fiction, and a 2012 Jack Straw Fellow, Johanna has received residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Millay Colony. She lives in Walla Walla, Washington, and teaches at Whitman College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
December 25, 2019
This novel is consistently well-written and imaginative but there was something missing for me. I think the missing something was “humanity.” Even an allegory, or maybe especially and allegory, needs to keep a connection with human feeling. I’m trying to think of an example now of what I mean and what came to mind was the story of Boxer the horse in Animal Farm. Every time I get to Boxer’s death in Animal Farm, I cry. An allegorical story doesn’t need to make me cry, but I guess I do want the allegory to work not just on a symbolic level, but also on a felt level. The author’s decision here to make the child protagonists devoid of emotion—they don’t even seem to feel physical pain appropriately—left me distanced from the story, and disinterested in its allegorical implications.
November 21, 2019
3.5 stars Thanks to Edelweiss and Red Hen Press for allowing me to read and review this Book. Published October 1, 2019
Strange little book ~~
There were two tribes in this story - an adult tribe and a child tribe. Both resided on the same island. The adult tribe abused the child tribe. The adults were lazy, gorged on food and finery - lived well. The children slept in huts on the floor, worked daily, ate seldom and virtually had no protection.
This island is where all the worlds garbage ended up. A large ship would be seen in the distance and shortly thereafter garbage of all kinds would pile up on the shore. Then the children were taxed with feeding the garbage to the 6 humongous pigs on the island.
Then two interruptions appear - one is a boy in a barrel who floats onto the shore. The second is a man who is found on another section of the island. Both of these new people create problems - each in their own way.
This story deals heavily in community and responsibility. What each means and how each can be bent to mean what we want them to mean. The gluttony of adults and the innocence of children is also relevant.
A strange little book ~ that reveals so much.
Strange little book ~~
There were two tribes in this story - an adult tribe and a child tribe. Both resided on the same island. The adult tribe abused the child tribe. The adults were lazy, gorged on food and finery - lived well. The children slept in huts on the floor, worked daily, ate seldom and virtually had no protection.
This island is where all the worlds garbage ended up. A large ship would be seen in the distance and shortly thereafter garbage of all kinds would pile up on the shore. Then the children were taxed with feeding the garbage to the 6 humongous pigs on the island.
Then two interruptions appear - one is a boy in a barrel who floats onto the shore. The second is a man who is found on another section of the island. Both of these new people create problems - each in their own way.
This story deals heavily in community and responsibility. What each means and how each can be bent to mean what we want them to mean. The gluttony of adults and the innocence of children is also relevant.
A strange little book ~ that reveals so much.
December 26, 2020
Pigs is the incredibly captivating story of four young children who are stuck on an island that appears to be the drop off point for all of the world's garbage. The children feed everything that washes up on the shore to six excessively large, incredibly hungry pigs. And I mean literally EVERYthing. The children also hide from the island's grown-ups, who tease and torment the children. While it's not the most pleasant of cirmcumstances, it's the only existence they know and they've come to thrive within it... until the boy in the barrel appears. Their decision not to throw him to the pigs tosses their lives into a new kind of chaos, and they soon discover a shipwrecked adult surviving on an unexplored corner of the beach. Is one of the grown-ups trying to trick them? Do they learn their lesson and decide to toss HIM to the pigs? What if he was sent to the island to save them?
OMG you guys. In parts dark fairy tale and cli-fi centric, Pigs is deliciously dystopian with a strong lord of the flies feeling, only in this universe, it's the adults who are evil and malicious and conniving. Really glad I cracked this one open!
OMG you guys. In parts dark fairy tale and cli-fi centric, Pigs is deliciously dystopian with a strong lord of the flies feeling, only in this universe, it's the adults who are evil and malicious and conniving. Really glad I cracked this one open!
December 24, 2019
What a strange book! Four children are trapped on an island where all the world’s garbage lands. They feed it to the pigs. The “grown-ups” on the island abuse them. I feel that this book is an allegory for the way financially stronger people in the world use the weaker ones, as well as for the way consumer culture drives climate change and pollution. The writing was fine, but too much seemed left out and the story felt too superficial.
December 27, 2019
I would give this book ten stars if I could. It's EASILY the best book I read all year, maybe in the last five years or more. I can't tell you what the author intended it to be, but for me, it was a parable about grief over the state of humanity and the world. I don't remember the last time a book made me cry the way this one did. I cried not because of the actual events in the novel (which were indeed cry-worthy), but because of what the story touched deep inside me. Feelings of grief—over mistakes in parenting, in relationships, in life—and also the deep desire to find some golden thread of beauty that runs through all of the loss and regret and overwhelm and failure that's inherent in life, and in being human. A stunning literary achievement. A new all-time favorite. I'm going to read this novel over and over again, for years to come.
February 15, 2021
The weirdest novel I've read since Bunny. Definitely an interesting allegory, but part of what keeps me from giving it five stars was I felt it a bit devoid of emotion that may have made me identify with more of the characters. Listening to the thoughts in their heads and their speech made them seem to run together to me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this novel.
September 20, 2019
Pigs, a new book by Johanna Stoberock, is surely intended to be considered in relation to that other book about feral children on an island with pigs. There are four children on the island with six pigs and all the trash of the world floating ashore day after day after day. There are feckless, bored adults who entertain themselves by hunting the children to capture them and make them clean. There is one rule, every bit of trash is fed to the pigs. So what happens when the cuurent delivers another child and later another adult?
I thought the differences between Pigs and “The Lord of the Flies” are most interesting. The boys in Golding’s book resist work and want to play. These kids work hard. In Golding’s book, Piggy’s glasses are broken when he is beaten up. Here Luisa struggles with myopia all the time until a pair of glasses was ashore and she sees what she is missing for the first time. However, even though no one knows about the glasses, after enjoying with wonder the beauty she has never seen, Luisa throws the glasses to the pigs herself. That sacrifice makes her more implacable when the trash delivers Eddie, who is believed to be her twin. In Golding’s book, the adults represent rescue and in Pig, the adults are the worst danger.
Pigs left me puzzled. I know it would be great for a book group because I talked about it repeatedly. It is deeply strange and Stoberock has no interest in making it easy for you. This is a show book, you infer the rules of the road and there is no effort to explain what the children do not know. Their knowledge is yours, but nothing else. So, since they don’t know why they are the world’s trash cleaners or why the adults are all inhuman, and neither do we.
Pigs will be released on October 1st. I received an e-galley from the publishers through Edelweiss.
Pigs at Red Hen Press
Johanna Stoberock author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
I thought the differences between Pigs and “The Lord of the Flies” are most interesting. The boys in Golding’s book resist work and want to play. These kids work hard. In Golding’s book, Piggy’s glasses are broken when he is beaten up. Here Luisa struggles with myopia all the time until a pair of glasses was ashore and she sees what she is missing for the first time. However, even though no one knows about the glasses, after enjoying with wonder the beauty she has never seen, Luisa throws the glasses to the pigs herself. That sacrifice makes her more implacable when the trash delivers Eddie, who is believed to be her twin. In Golding’s book, the adults represent rescue and in Pig, the adults are the worst danger.
Pigs left me puzzled. I know it would be great for a book group because I talked about it repeatedly. It is deeply strange and Stoberock has no interest in making it easy for you. This is a show book, you infer the rules of the road and there is no effort to explain what the children do not know. Their knowledge is yours, but nothing else. So, since they don’t know why they are the world’s trash cleaners or why the adults are all inhuman, and neither do we.
Pigs will be released on October 1st. I received an e-galley from the publishers through Edelweiss.
Pigs at Red Hen Press
Johanna Stoberock author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
January 16, 2022
- Bir ada təsəvvür edin... Quraq iqlimi olan... adada ağılda altı nəhəng donuz saxlanılır... Adanın ətrafını, anladığım qədər, çirklənmiş sular əhatə edir... Və bu suların gətirdiyi dünyanın tullantıları...
Adada balaca bir evdə 4 uşaq yaşayır... Bu uşaqlar sahilə vuran tullantıları daşıyıb donuzları yemləyirlər... Adada uşaqları bu işə məcbur edən, günü eyş-işrətdə keçən bir dəstə yetkin də yaşayır...
- Donuzlar hər şeyi yeyirlər... Hətta xəyalları belə... Bir uşaq ovucuna dolan işığı belə... sahilə vuran miqrantları, kimsəsizləri, qocaları belə... Və uşaqlar sahilə gələn hər bir şeyi bir qayda olaraq donuzlara yedirmədirlər...
- Bir gün dalğalar sahilə çəlləkdə bir oğlan uşağını gətirir... Və beləcə rutin həyat dəyişiməyə başlayır... Ardınca da bir yetkin, gəmi qəzasından sağ çıxan bir kişi gəlir... Uşaqlar oğlanı donuzlara atmırlar... Çünki uşaqlardan birinin əkizi çıxır...
- Burda kollara ilişən bir göyərçin də var... Uşaqlar təhlükəyə düşəndə sığındıqları mağara da (Platonun mağarası yadıma düşür), kölgələr də... Qısası bu alleqorik romandır... Başlamadan əvvəl buna hazır olmaq lazımdı... Mən deyildim... amma yenə də maraqla oxudum... Düzdür nəyin nəyi təmsil etdiyini hərfiyyən çözə bilmədim... amma yaxşı müzakirəlik kitabdır... mənim ağlım bütün bunları çözməyə kifayət etmədi... Düşünürəm ki, ədəbiyyat təhsili alanlar daha çox zövq alaraq oxuyar...
Adada balaca bir evdə 4 uşaq yaşayır... Bu uşaqlar sahilə vuran tullantıları daşıyıb donuzları yemləyirlər... Adada uşaqları bu işə məcbur edən, günü eyş-işrətdə keçən bir dəstə yetkin də yaşayır...
- Donuzlar hər şeyi yeyirlər... Hətta xəyalları belə... Bir uşaq ovucuna dolan işığı belə... sahilə vuran miqrantları, kimsəsizləri, qocaları belə... Və uşaqlar sahilə gələn hər bir şeyi bir qayda olaraq donuzlara yedirmədirlər...
- Bir gün dalğalar sahilə çəlləkdə bir oğlan uşağını gətirir... Və beləcə rutin həyat dəyişiməyə başlayır... Ardınca da bir yetkin, gəmi qəzasından sağ çıxan bir kişi gəlir... Uşaqlar oğlanı donuzlara atmırlar... Çünki uşaqlardan birinin əkizi çıxır...
- Burda kollara ilişən bir göyərçin də var... Uşaqlar təhlükəyə düşəndə sığındıqları mağara da (Platonun mağarası yadıma düşür), kölgələr də... Qısası bu alleqorik romandır... Başlamadan əvvəl buna hazır olmaq lazımdı... Mən deyildim... amma yenə də maraqla oxudum... Düzdür nəyin nəyi təmsil etdiyini hərfiyyən çözə bilmədim... amma yaxşı müzakirəlik kitabdır... mənim ağlım bütün bunları çözməyə kifayət etmədi... Düşünürəm ki, ədəbiyyat təhsili alanlar daha çox zövq alaraq oxuyar...
July 5, 2019
Here is the island: there are four children, six pigs, a pack of ravenously cruel adults, and all the trash in the world. The kids work, the adults party, the pigs eat the garbage that’s fed to them. What is to be done when a boy washes ashore? What about a man who is unaware of the strange and visceral order of the island, its dangerous waters, its animalistic inhabitants? Pigs asks the ethical questions of our generation while maintaining a surreal beauty. A hidden gem and an instant classic, this novel will be spoken of for years to come.
April 30, 2021
The book is an allegory about effects of over consumerism on our environment. It has moments that are redolent of Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm but have none of their literary grace. The prose is insipid and tedious. The story is drawn-out. I wonder if it would've worked better as short story one-fifth it's current size.
November 13, 2020
I didn't see the point of this book. People are mostly terrible. Garbage is bad. I don't really need a book to tell me that.
And what happened to Natasha?
And what happened to Natasha?
March 26, 2020
Esse livro foi uma daquelas descobertas totalmente aleatórias. Alguém aqui do meu feed leu, apareceu pra mim, li a sinopse rapidamente e curti. Daí não quis ler nada mais sobre ele, porque parecia que o fator surpresa era algo importante para seu melhor aproveitamento. O livro é diferente, surpreendente, cruel e capaz de te deixar pensando sobre ele cada vez que você interrompe a leitura. Mesmo sendo em inglês, dá pra perceber claramente a preocupação da autora com a escrita, tanto que você acaba pegando muitas palavras pelo contexto. Devo ter perdido algumas referências, subtextos, etc, mas pra mim fica claro as três principais influências no campo da ficção (o livro é de 2019): Lost (Série), Senhor das Moscas (livro) e Onde vivem os monstros (livro infantil). Sem falar na conexão óbvia com temas atuais como descaso com os recursos naturais, a linha tênue que separa as crianças dos adultos (adultos infantilizados e crianças tendo que amadurecer rápido) e, finalmente, a solidão. O livro vai subindo a tensão aos poucos, mas me parece que tem um desfecho meio apressado. Tal qual uma das suas matrizes citadas - Lost -, ele deixa algumas explicações no ar, talvez propositais, mas que me deixaram um pouco frustrado...
April 28, 2021
It’s a grim fable, richly written and triggering thoughts on consumption, nature, and more. I still don’t know what the allegories where for sure, but the fact that I’m still thinking about it drew the 4 from me.
June 22, 2024
The reviews for this book kind of depress me. Or infuriate me. Or both. I can't tell.
First, this book is not "Some kind of allegory." It is not an allegory at all. The book literally SPELLS OUT the message. Over and over and over again. It beats you over the head with the message. Like, it is boring. It is reptitive. It is tiresome. As for the genre, I don't know that I would call it magical realism (probably because I generally like magical realism and it feels like I'm giving this book an unwarranted compliment by calling it magical realism), but it's much more like magical realism than anything else.
Now, another thing: If you read a lot of my reviews (and I'm not recommending you do. They are often filled with typos 'cause I'm blind as a bat and have fat fingers, and like any standard Karen, I usually only write a review when I dislike or hate something), you'll know I often couch my dislike for books by acknowledging that, most of the time, the reason I dislike a book is simply because I'm not part of the intended audience. Even when I'm writing about a book I hate, I think it's only fair to mention that the reason I hate it is because it wasn't written with me in mind.
But here is the thing: I SHOULD have been the intended audience for this book. I SHOULD have loved this book. A dystopian-magical-realism-novel-with-lots-of-cruel-characters-and-an-anti-consumerist-message? YES PLEASE. Except...not....this.
This book was just freaking boring. I finished it cause it was a short audiobook, but every 20 minutes or so I kept thinking....."Am I really doing this? Am I really finishing this? There are millions of books in this world, and I'm wasting my time on THIS one?"
The whole setting was too "mediocre author tries to update Lord of the Flies" for me to dig it.
Look, this book is just not that deep. Magical pigs eat the worlds trash. Also like. CAN PEOPLE WHOSE DREAMS/LIFE PURPOSE ARE GONE BE TRASH???? WOW WHAT IF THEY AREN'T TRASH. WHAT MAKES A PERSON ANYWAY. CAN YOU BE A GOOD PERSON IF YOU DO BAD THINGS.
Yawn.
First, this book is not "Some kind of allegory." It is not an allegory at all. The book literally SPELLS OUT the message. Over and over and over again. It beats you over the head with the message. Like, it is boring. It is reptitive. It is tiresome. As for the genre, I don't know that I would call it magical realism (probably because I generally like magical realism and it feels like I'm giving this book an unwarranted compliment by calling it magical realism), but it's much more like magical realism than anything else.
Now, another thing: If you read a lot of my reviews (and I'm not recommending you do. They are often filled with typos 'cause I'm blind as a bat and have fat fingers, and like any standard Karen, I usually only write a review when I dislike or hate something), you'll know I often couch my dislike for books by acknowledging that, most of the time, the reason I dislike a book is simply because I'm not part of the intended audience. Even when I'm writing about a book I hate, I think it's only fair to mention that the reason I hate it is because it wasn't written with me in mind.
But here is the thing: I SHOULD have been the intended audience for this book. I SHOULD have loved this book. A dystopian-magical-realism-novel-with-lots-of-cruel-characters-and-an-anti-consumerist-message? YES PLEASE. Except...not....this.
This book was just freaking boring. I finished it cause it was a short audiobook, but every 20 minutes or so I kept thinking....."Am I really doing this? Am I really finishing this? There are millions of books in this world, and I'm wasting my time on THIS one?"
The whole setting was too "mediocre author tries to update Lord of the Flies" for me to dig it.
Look, this book is just not that deep. Magical pigs eat the worlds trash. Also like. CAN PEOPLE WHOSE DREAMS/LIFE PURPOSE ARE GONE BE TRASH???? WOW WHAT IF THEY AREN'T TRASH. WHAT MAKES A PERSON ANYWAY. CAN YOU BE A GOOD PERSON IF YOU DO BAD THINGS.
Yawn.
November 22, 2019
PIGS takes place on an island on which all the Earth's trash washes ashore. Four children must collect the trash (plastic, uneaten food, nuclear waste, unwanted advise, ect.) and feed it to six monstrous pigs. This cycle has seemingly been going on forever. Oh yeah, on the island there are also adults whose sole purpose seems to be just to torment the children. Everything on the island gets thrown off kilter when a child and a man wash ashore. Are they trash? Are the new residents of the island? Weird enough for ya?! Trust me, the story is stranger and more grotesque than you can imagine!
PIGS is clearly an allegory about pollution, the waste of consumer culture, the excesses of the modern world. But beyond that I just didn't understand the story! The motives of the characters were unexplained and many events in the story seem to be important but those meanings were opaque to me. Though a short book and a quick read, I came away with tons of questions; I probably would have gotten more out of it if I read it with a bookclub/buddy read!
Stoberock's prose was beautiful and the story was inventive and totally crazy, but it just wasn't for me. This book is getting great reviews and buzz so try it out for yourself!
**Red Hen Press provided the book for honest review
PIGS is clearly an allegory about pollution, the waste of consumer culture, the excesses of the modern world. But beyond that I just didn't understand the story! The motives of the characters were unexplained and many events in the story seem to be important but those meanings were opaque to me. Though a short book and a quick read, I came away with tons of questions; I probably would have gotten more out of it if I read it with a bookclub/buddy read!
Stoberock's prose was beautiful and the story was inventive and totally crazy, but it just wasn't for me. This book is getting great reviews and buzz so try it out for yourself!
**Red Hen Press provided the book for honest review
May 9, 2023
This book had no point whatsoever. I kept waiting for some sort of analogy to emerge and if it was there you couldn't tell because of all the details that were so tedious. In that regard the details were written very well however, there were just too many details. Towards the end a yogurt cup description is discussed, and thoughts about someone throwing away yogurt and why someone would throw it away. Then memories about yogurt that had been made from goats milk and how it was sour and what had gone wrong and the body's reaction to it, and on and on. It probably took a whole page just for one yogurt cup and the results of it. The whole book was that way. I thought some details about how it all came to be and started in the first place would have been nice but, no. The whole book went on and on and on and absolutely nothing made any sense in the end. No plot, no point, no "mystery solved". So annoying to read. Sorry, I usually like details but there wasn't a story to attach them too. You may think I didn't get what the book was pointing to, world trash, excess, dominion, entitlement, and so forth, but it wasn't moving or beautiful to me at all
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2022
Great concept and layout, but disappointingly too long for it's premise.
May 27, 2023
Take it for what it’s worth, allegory is not for me. Besides that, is anything really there there. In my mind,a failed attempt to make a point, neither clever nor successful. Can’t win ‘‘em all!
December 23, 2019
Honestly, one of the oddest books I’ve read. Not sure I like it, but not sure I dislike it? It’s very well written. The style is simple, straightforward, but done so consistently and so well. The allegory aspect of it, I don’t know that it ever quite landed on me. As a reader, I definitely have a hard time when an author asks me to let so many things be true that seem so unlikely or impossible to be true, all at the same time. But I respect that she makes no fuss about all of the suspension of disbelief. I don’t know. A very well written, very odd book. Glad I read it, just not sure how to describe how reading it made me feel.
December 28, 2019
DNF @ 33.3333333333333333333333%
I just never figured out what this book was trying to accomplish. There ae plenty of reviews that go on about "Lord of the Flies" and "Animal Farm" and "1984" and dystopia and social commentary and, well, you see, those are only loosely connected ideas/books, aren't they?
Maybe things gathered themselves into a plot or a statement or a meaningful message or genre-fied the text somehow in the pages I didn't/won't read. I don't care enough to finish.
Pretty cover at though. And not-awful writing. Huh.
I just never figured out what this book was trying to accomplish. There ae plenty of reviews that go on about "Lord of the Flies" and "Animal Farm" and "1984" and dystopia and social commentary and, well, you see, those are only loosely connected ideas/books, aren't they?
Maybe things gathered themselves into a plot or a statement or a meaningful message or genre-fied the text somehow in the pages I didn't/won't read. I don't care enough to finish.
Pretty cover at though. And not-awful writing. Huh.
July 1, 2023
I saw this author on Jeopardy and she mentioned that she had written a book.
I looked for her and reserved "Pigs" from the library. It arrived at an opportune time, and I sat down to start it.
And, then, I couldn't put it down. A small book, 258 pages, written exquisitely and fascinatingly.
I felt pieces of "Lord of the Flies" and "The Hunger Games." Not to mention topics that many of us mull over with great frequency.
High ratings and a recommendation as a good book for a book club and discussion.
I looked for her and reserved "Pigs" from the library. It arrived at an opportune time, and I sat down to start it.
And, then, I couldn't put it down. A small book, 258 pages, written exquisitely and fascinatingly.
I felt pieces of "Lord of the Flies" and "The Hunger Games." Not to mention topics that many of us mull over with great frequency.
High ratings and a recommendation as a good book for a book club and discussion.
October 1, 2019
I loved it! It's a beautiful, brutal, sad, yet ultimately uplifting allegory of what the human race has allowed to happen to our world, ourselves, and our children. In addition to being riveted by the story, I was often surprised and enlightened by insights seamlessly incorporated into the narrative that I hadn't thought of before.
May 16, 2021
Weird little book with a Lord of the Flies vibe. Well written and an enjoyable read but the ending was not what I expected (or hoped for). Enjoyed the descriptions of what was considered "garbage". An unusual read.
February 19, 2021
This was a strange book. I liked the narrrator on the audio version but the story made me felt like I was missing so many things or big ideas. I felt like I needed a PH.D to read this book and understand the meaning within it.
October 1, 2019
Great writing and an important message. This is a wonderful novel.
January 21, 2020
a meditation on garbage, on loss, on the generation gap being less important than humanity, on rescue, who everyone wants to rescue & save the world, but how so few can...
November 24, 2020
dismal. delightful. dreadful.
"...[you're] going to come back and do the work [you're] supposed to do until another shipment of children arrives. Then we'll feed you all to the pigs. You've done a terrible job, but you're going to keep doing it. Move faster."
At work, the staff restroom has a laminated placard warning of baby wipes, paper towels, and sanitary napkins--Don't flush them down. Don't ever flush down hopes and dreams. That's the worst.
In PIGS, Johanna Stoberock goes deep and shows us that everything has the potential to be "garbage"--nail clippings, toxic waste, half-eaten pieces of birthday cake, certainly hopes and dreams, certainly humans. Instead of to the toilet bowl, everything goes to the pigs.
PIGS for me was a wonderful fever dream, fable, fairytale, nightmare, an awakening to new land, new territory. Itchy, bemoaning, lucid. Children and adults alike as fops and fools, furious, delirious, grotesque.
Even the ocean is angry and causes welts.
But those pigs, those girls, in them resides a certain perseverance, a certain aptitude for grace. Hunger. Outright singleness of purpose. Living on memories and the slant of light, pirouetting even. I wanted to scratch their snouts...but chomp! chomp! there goes the pointer, there goes the pinky finger.
The book is a song. It loops and laments. It held me enthralled.
"...[you're] going to come back and do the work [you're] supposed to do until another shipment of children arrives. Then we'll feed you all to the pigs. You've done a terrible job, but you're going to keep doing it. Move faster."
At work, the staff restroom has a laminated placard warning of baby wipes, paper towels, and sanitary napkins--Don't flush them down. Don't ever flush down hopes and dreams. That's the worst.
In PIGS, Johanna Stoberock goes deep and shows us that everything has the potential to be "garbage"--nail clippings, toxic waste, half-eaten pieces of birthday cake, certainly hopes and dreams, certainly humans. Instead of to the toilet bowl, everything goes to the pigs.
PIGS for me was a wonderful fever dream, fable, fairytale, nightmare, an awakening to new land, new territory. Itchy, bemoaning, lucid. Children and adults alike as fops and fools, furious, delirious, grotesque.
Even the ocean is angry and causes welts.
But those pigs, those girls, in them resides a certain perseverance, a certain aptitude for grace. Hunger. Outright singleness of purpose. Living on memories and the slant of light, pirouetting even. I wanted to scratch their snouts...but chomp! chomp! there goes the pointer, there goes the pinky finger.
The book is a song. It loops and laments. It held me enthralled.
October 22, 2020
I read the first half of this one about as quickly as I could (maybe in one day?) but then it tailed off for me. It's a fable, and best read with that in mind, but nothing quite coheres for me. I think a shorter work with fewer elements (though it's already quite brief) would have made the same point; expanding it to novel length would have required fuller development of the characters. As it is, there's enough realism that I want characters to have motives, but not enough character to sustain it for its length. Stoberock writes plot well -- as long as things are moving, she writes well. She struggles more with interiority. Most of the characters don't have much of it, and when she studies one of them (Otis) it bogs down. 2.5/5
April 17, 2020
a new 1984
April 23, 2020
This is a fascinating book--a reflection on modern consumerism, childhood, and our longstanding fascination with desert island narratives. Highly recommended!!
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