I had been recommended this short story by
a writing acquaintance of mine. As someone who possesses a dark sense of humour
and is an enormous fan of witty satire this story was right up my street.
In an eggshell, this story is about a pig
called Pig who’s gone through a rather strange transformation, along with some
of his other farm yard friends, that takes an abstract and slightly grotesque
spin on the concept of the ‘farm to table’ process.
As one of those rare variety of vegetarian, you know, the one that
possess a sense of humour (my love of free rage eggs is the only reason I can’t
qualify to skip into that empty box labelled ‘angry vegan’) I did find this
book catered very well to both my fascination with the grotesque and my stance
as an animal lover.
Some might compare this book to Animal Farm
by George Orwell, and the only similarities are the fact both are brilliantly
written (despite a typing error in one), based on a farm and there is a pecking
order going on. But that’s about it.
Our porktagonist is not someone cute and
cuddly, and often in narratives where attention is trying to be drawn towards
an important subject, we are given the option of shying away from our human
impact in important matters. This tail doesn’t sugar-coat things but it does
horrify. I’m not naïve enough to think it’s strong enough to convince everyone
to become a vegan (unfortunately pigs can’t fly yet), but I know that this
short story is enough to leave you seeing your food very differently.
I loved this take on anthropomorphism because it is so disturbing. This book is not sueted for the faint of heart or for anyone with a weak stomach.
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