Pig Tales

The subtitle of "A Novel of Lust and Transformation" caused me to hesitate before picking up this small volume. The subtitle is both accurate and a teaser - the novel never slips into crudeness even when presenting crude behaviour.The tale - a woman transforming into a pig and writing her story when she has accepted a pig life style - is a difficult story to successfully write. Darrieusseeq makes a few slips but clearly establishes herself as an author to be watched.The social message of the book is a little overbearing, a little "plastic". But the book as a whole is sufficiently interesting that the reader is willing to forgive the message.

After looking at the front and back covers I feared this might be yet another overhyped little novel about sex by an overhyped writer - a book that would start with a sprint and then run out of ideas after 40 pages. Although the novel sags half way through, it recovers well and exceeded expectations. Apart from the obvious winks at Orwell and Kafka, the book also reminded me of Zahavi's Dirty Weekend and Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. It's like a Will Self novel, except that it it has humour, heart, narrative skill...and truffles. Four Oinks.

That looks like if it wants to become a post world war III hieratical book, but leaves all of that behind, for laughing at the american globalized system as it is today right now. It's a political book that nothing has to envy to Mr. Knut Hamsun in describing the human destroy instinct as it was shown naked in the XX Century. Also the novel is an ironical and critical cartoon about the police states as they are raising in Europe now.

If I remember well, the book is supposed to be a fable, and the narrator speaks in a very naive (and self-centered, but that's normal I feel) way. It's not supposed to sound realistic, it just aims at making the reader smile from time to time and then realize there might be more to it than what he/she thought in the beginning.Looks like it was not a great hit in Texas! But the author was only 21 when she wrote the book, and the mere fact that at that age she wrote interesting fiction (instead of the usual mix of personal life and feelings) is interesting.A couple extra comments : 1) it was not short-listed for the Goncourt Prize 2) talking about Jerry Lewis and France is about as true and relevant as saying that Maurice Chevalier has been on top of the US charts for the last 70 years!

This book might seem a bit messy to understand, but it can help you understand what is happening in Latin America, a lot of changes prometed by governments and foreign investors. What is the price? Corruption everywhere, in every Latin American country, without any exceptions. Enjoy! From Argentina to Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and so on...