THE FACTS:
Title: The Pigman
Author: Paul Zindel
Publication Date: 1968
Pages: 149
Round of applause: Horn Book Award Honor Book, New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book
SUMMARY:
The Pigman is narrated by two friends, John and Lorraine, who trade off chapters as the novel progresses. John and Lorraine, two high school sophomores with less than perfect home lives, vow to report the facts of their experiences with “the Pigman.” The Pigman is an older gentleman that John and Lorraine randomly prank call one day. Lonely and eager for continued conversation with the two young adults claiming to work for a charity fund, the Pigman invites John and Lorraine to his house the next day to collect the check. Lorraine is hesitant about visiting the old man, but inevitably she and John pay him a visit. The old man’s name is Mr. Pignati and, after he shows John and Lorraine his collection of pigs, the two start referring to him as the Pigman. The Pigman is old but childlike and eager to please. He loves spending time and money with John and Lorraine. Eventually they find themselves spending a part of every day with the Pigman. One day however, the Pigman’s physical age trumps his youthful sprit; he has a heart attack and is admitted to the hospital. John and Lorraine are worried about the Pigman, but, when he entrusts them with the keys to his house, childish spirits prove too much for these high schoolers to resist. They screw up. Big time. …you’ll have to read that part… Even trying to make up for it goes poorly and ends in the Pigman’s death (oh cool it… you know he dies just from reading the back cover). The only way John and Lorraine can figure to cope with it is to write it down. Hence… the novel.
E’s 2 CENTS:
I enjoy this book, but it generates in me almost the same sense of anxiety that perks up whenever I watch movies like The Hangover or Meet the Parents. I would never presume to put this seminal YA work in the same category as summer blockbusters, but there is something about the tragically inevitable outcomes of preventable stupidity that make my “future mom” reflexes go berserk. I suppose I can’t go too far into detail without spoiling the specifics of the characters’ poor decision making, but I should clarify that no matter how annoying I find John and Lorraine’s choices, I do think such choices serve the purposes of the novel. John and Lorraine try to act older than their maturity can support just as the Pigman tries to act younger than his body can support. Both have unfortunate—if not tragic—outcomes.
The language is a bit dated (this is one of the first YA books….1968), but the themes remain supported. Personally, I think Zindel’s autobiography The Pigman and Me is a more engaging read—or at any rate enhances one’s understanding of The Pigman. All in all though, The Pigman is worth a read.
--E
