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Title: Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation (New Press International Fiction Series) by Marie Darrieussecq, Linda Coverdale ISBN: 1-56584-361-4 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Decadence at its most piggish: 3.5 stars
Comment: The debut novel by Marie Darrieussecq, who later published another short novel UNDERCURRENTS, is a fantasy about a part-time perfume employee who finds herself transformed bit by bit into a luxurious pig the men go wild for. Her flesh grows rosy and firmly "pneumatic," and the men cannot keep their greedy hands off her. She revels in their attention. However, what makes her desirable at first eventually exacts its cost. When she meets a werewolf lover who understands the complexity of being part human, part animal - and even, at times, all animal - she finds an odd redemption.
This book is less scandalous than its subtitle suggests, with the opening quote about a pig being slaughtered the most distressing moment of this short, allegorical story. Darrieussecq's sensual language of greed and lust carries this book beyond its thin premise, but ultimately, the novel ends up being not much more than an beautifully worded exercise in imagination.
Readers of contemporary French literature in translation will be keenly interested in this fantasy that took the country by storm in 1996. It can easily be read in an afternoon, though understanding the psyche behind it is much more difficult.
Rating: 2
Summary: Slop Stories
Comment: Read this 4 or 5 years ago. Didn't get "it". Way beyond my capacity to interpolate from reality to suspended disbelief. The characters are not intelligent, appealing, or funny. On the other hand, I found War and Peace to be just another Harlequin Romance. Not particularly fond of unfounded theories based on authors' fantasized insight...unless they are my own. I give this book kudos for being only slightly longer than this critique.
Rating: 4
Summary: Young author worth following
Comment: 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.
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Title: Letters of Mistress Henley Published by Her Friend (Text and Translations. Translations, No 1) by Isabelle De Charriere ISBN: 0873527763 Publisher: Modern Language Association Pub. Date: 01 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: Letters from a Peruvian Woman (Texts and Translations : Translations, No 2) by Francoise De Graffigny, David Kornacker ISBN: 087352778X Publisher: Modern Language Association Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir ISBN: 0060903511 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 29 June, 1974 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Indiana (Oxford World's Classics) by George Sand, Sylvia Raphael ISBN: 0192837974 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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