A cute book. Not much knowledge to be oinked about, but it does place some learned names into their milieu, such as Robert Burns, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Anna Seward, and Sarah Siddons.

Great gift for those who collect inanimate pigs, but might turn off the appetites of those addicted to pork. Perhaps a good book for one's local Congressman? ( )

Pyg, by Russell Potter, promises much and delivers little. For a book that is supposedly the "memoir of a learned pig," a subject which sounds at first inclination to have the potential to be most amusing, the actual narrative is very dry and lacking in much plot development. Essentially, Toby the pig is rescued from the slaughter, learns to spell as part of a performing act, and when it is recognized that he can actually read and understand the words in front of him, he gets the chance to become more educated. Nothing else of interest takes place that is not articulated in the cover description. Pyg is neither a comedy nor is it a social commentary in the style of Animal Farm. It is simply a matter-of-fact narrative that, had its protagonist been human rather than animal, would have no interest to readers whatsoever. As it stands, Pyg might be more interesting to advanced middle grade readers, providing that they have the necessary vocabulary and sufficient patience to wade through this text. ( )

Was there really a pig who could read and write English? Reading this finely-crafted narrative is like watching an expert magician perform. Deep down you know it couldn't be real, yet from the first page onward, there is a nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, it might have really happened.

The book begins with an Editor's Note (Potter credits himself as the book's Editor, not its author), which in scholarly language states that the present volume is based on Toby the Pig's original published memoir of 1809. There was indeed a "miraculous sapient pig" named Toby, who toured the fairs and performing halls of late 18th Century England and Wales.

As he tells it, Toby begins life on a farm, has a narrow escape from the slaughterhouse, and ends up in the care of a traveling entertainer with his troupe of performing animals. His linguistic skills are developed subtly, from first hints of understanding to training in card tricks and onward to...well, no plot spoilers here. Toby's travels through England and Ireland are depicted with nicely drawn details of places, clothing and transport.

But this is not a cute, archaic "Babe the Pig". More like Charlotte's Web meets Stromboli's Circus in Pinocchio. The relationships between Toby and his human caretakers, and the portrait of the cruel world of late 18th Century traveling circuses, are touching, funny, sad and gut-wrenching, and often terrifying.

The real joy of Pyg is the language. At first the slightly archaic terms and spelling might seem off-putting, but by the second page they meld into the rich and sonorous voice of Toby, which sweeps you along for the next 230 pages.

The book ends with a generous section of historical notes. It turns out that most (or all) of the people and places which appear in the narrative actually existed. As did a short book published in 1805, entitled The Life and Adventures of Toby, the Sapient Pig.

At the end you'll feel happy at having just enjoyed a well-told, unique and eccentric story, and you'll be scratching your head wondering just how much of it was true.

Finally, if you can get your hands on the original British hardcover edition, you won't regret it. Rarely do you find books these days with so much craft put into the design. From the exquisite, tactile cover to the slightly yellowed paper to the typeface, which mimics the look of 18th Century metal type, the book is a treasure to hold and look at. ( )

http://wineandabook.com/2013/02/19/review-pyg-the-memoirs-of-toby-the-learned-pi...

Premise: The author, Russell Potter, assumes the persona of “editor” is this novel, the (obviously) fictitious “found memoirs” of a sapient pig named Toby, the porcine embodiment of the phrase “knowledge is power.” The story itself is very sweet and follows Toby from his piglet-hood to adulthood. With the help of his human companion, Sam, Toby narrowly avoids the slaughterhouse and finds himself the main attraction of an animal circus where he is accidentally, then intentionally, taught to read. Over the course of his life, he trods the boards in London, studies at Oxford, and encounters luminaries such as Samuel Johnson, William Blake and Robert Burns. Not bad for a pig…I wish the “editor” himself were nearly as successful.

To really convey a sense of time and place, Potter appropriates the construct of historical diary. As I was reading, I kept having flashbacks to high school readings of The Dairy of Samuel Pepys…which was part of the problem. Historical diaries aren’t written to be read as novels; in Pepys’ diary, there are lots of entries that consist of events and descriptions of the day to day, which aren’t exactly the most riveting to read. Interesting: yes. Exciting: no. And unfortunately, Potters’ piece consists of a lot of listing of events, mostly of traveling. You know how there are entire passages of the Bible that read like “and ________ begat __________, who in turn begat ______ and _________”? I feel like there were entire stretches of the narrative that read like “from thence we traveled to __________ via _________, whence we happened upon the __________ Inn, and four miles hence is ____________, where we played but a fortnight ago.” I get it, Potter. You researched. You know stuff about English history. A little bit of that is fine to establish a sense of historical setting, but gets a tad tiresome after fifty pages or so. It became what the book was ABOUT, and the book was supposed to be about an intellectually curious pig.

And then there was the Random Capitalization. Once and a while, the Author, would choose to Capitalize important Nouns and Verbs, with the occasional Italics thrown in for good Measure. It felt real Schtick-y, real Quick.

Finally, the themes that Potter references are not new (what it means to be intelligent, man’s inhumanity toward man and nature, the danger of ignorance and assumption, etc). Which would be fine, if Potter had anything new or unique or particularly compelling to add to the subject. Unfortunately, he does not. I requested to read and review this book because, as a former teacher myself, I saw in the premise a lot of potential for classroom use in maybe 5th or 6th grade…it seemed like the type of piece that may serve as a side door into history, a piece that might complement some of the established classics. Alas, Potter has explored nothing in this book that Charlotte’s Web or Animal Farm hasn’t already tackled, and tackled FAR better. It felt to me like Potter got so caught up in the Style of the narrative that Substance suffered.

In all, I feel like he really just scratched the surface of the story he meant to write. Toby, as a character, was flat. Underneath all the name-dropping, the Ye Olde English-y font, and the excessive historical referencing, and damned TRAVELING, there really wasn’t much Story there.

Rubric rating: 3.5. ( )

I'm more than a little confused by this book. I understand there were "learned" animals touring Europe in the early 19th century, but beyond that, I'm not sure how much is fact and how much is fiction.

By that, I mean that I've found some reference to an autobiography of Toby the pig and his opinions on men and manners, but a Wikipedia entry does not a fact make. I found other references as well, but I can't determine if they're just clever seeds sown by the author or a publicist, or if there was indeed a purported "autobiography" written nearly two centuries ago. To be clear, I don't believe a pig wrote an autobiography at any time, but I'm wondering if someone pushed a purported autobiography out to the public way back and inspired this book. I guess the backstory is more fascinating.

Regardless, the book seems true to what an account written by a celebrity of the time might provide - a little dry, almost exciting, maybe worth a quiet chuckle or two. I liked it just well enough not to dislike it, but that's about as far as it went. Of course, it fails in some ways in authenticity. . . I didn't bother to check dates to names, but there were many famous people from way-back-when making appearances in the book. I'm not sure if the timeframe is correct for all of them - but then, I didn't care enough to figure it out. Also, the style of writing is definitely modern, I think the author fell a little short in that effort as well. ( )