Weird little book with a Lord of the Flies vibe. Well written and enjoyable but the ending was not what I expected (or hoped for). Loved the descriptions of what was considered "garbage". Memorable. ( )

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. ( )

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.wordpress.com/2019/09/20/9781597090445/ ( )