First in the Irish Pig Trilogy
By Joseph Caldwell
Delphinium Books
April 29, 2009 / ISBN: 978-1883285340
Literature & Fiction / Comic
Amazon
Reviewed
by Beth E. McKenzie
Aaron McCloud is crushed when his chosen love interest doesn't
return his overtures with gratitude; in fact, she is confused as
to why he is even speaking to her. He runs away from the reality
and gloom of New York to a land of faerie at the Irish seaside where
his Aunt Kitty keeps the family home in County Kerry. On the last
leg of his journey the bus trip is interrupted by pigs blocking
the road. The swineherd captures his heart with her smile and laughter
so the whiny victim of Phila's apathy becomes the Cuchulain of myth.
His labor takes him over a hill and across the verge but in the
end he detains the most recalcitrant of the pigs. The triumphant
hero returns with the prisoner to find the bus gone, the swineherd
gone, and all the pigs are gone.
The story gets easier from there, Aaron and the pig get a ride from
Kieran Sweeney, who is in a 4-century old family blood feud with
the McClouds and fears for his life from the gods of the sea. Sweeney
identifies the swineherd as Lolly McKeever. Lolly and Aunt Kitty
were rivals for the affections of itinerant thatcher, Declan Tovey;
and each accuse the other of driving him away with her excessive
physical demands, except the pig just dug up his bones and tools
in the cabbage patch. What follows is a farcical tribute to the
ancient Cycles repeated by Bards through the ages with romance,
revenge, and mysterious intervention.
Maybe it is because I am older now, but I am enjoying postmodern
literature more and more. The style of The Pig reminds me of the
Coen Brother's movie, O
Brother, Where Art Thou? in that the language addresses
older and deeper subjects than the plot describes and is sufficiently
formal for the occasion. The Pig Did It gave me the chuckle-ha-ha
I like to find in books and a little treasure hunt through Irish
Mythology that was most satisfying to unravel.
Other Reviews in Trilogy:
#1-
The Pig Did It [review]
#2 - The Pig Comes to Dinner [review]
#3 - The Pig Goes to Hog Heaven [review]
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