the good good pig
If you're looking for an enjoyable read, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood, by Sy Montgomery (Ballantine '06). I picked it up off a bookstore's featured shelf a few years ago, and could hardly put it down over the following days.
The Good Good Pig does in fact tell the story of a fine pig, dubbed Christopher Hogwood after the conductor and musicologist by the same name. Christopher was born a sickly and tiny runt, and was spared an early death by a kind farmer who couldn't bring himself to do the deed: "George would take him out to the manure pile, intending to dispatch him quickly with a blow to the head from his shovel. But George would watch the little piglet-his soulful eyes, his big floppy ears, his admirable will to live-and just couldn't do it" (pg. 9).
Well, Christopher ended up the pampered guest of Sy and her husband, and quickly came to be the affable ruler of his territory, growing to a venerable fourteen years and 750 pounds. He oozed a hefty amount of personality and joie de vivre in return for the delicacy-laden slops, baths, and general love which was lavished on him by his owners and an entire community which gathered around him, including a hurting single mother and two girls who lived next door. The story of Sy's border collie Tess woven throughout, the survivor of a horrific car accident and the world's most serious frisbee participant, adds even more to the story.
As a reader, I felt like I was part of that community, and it was a very warm feeling. And I admit, it was that much harder to eat pork going forward! Sy weaves an excellent tale throughout, and brings it to an inevitable but highly dignified close. Her perspective on life and faith is more broadly spiritual than specifically Christian, which may raise a believing reader's eyebrow from time to time. But on the whole, The Good Good Pig is a must read for any animal lover, and communicates a message about the individual wonder and dignity of animal existence, not to mention the possibilities for animal-human bonding (and healing), which is perfectly consistent with our faith.
(originally posted 7/1/08)
January 12, 2012
Reader Comments (4)
My friend, Renee, told me about your site. I love it! Plus, I am definitely going to have to read this book because I love books about animals, especially animals that didn't seem to have a chance.
"The Good, Good Pig" sounds irresistable! (Shades of Charlottes' Web.) The photos were wonderfully heart-warming. I think I need to get this book! :)
Thanks, Amy, and mom! I couldn't recommend it more highly, especially as a light (but very meaningful) Summer read ...
Thanks for the tip on this one, Ben. I hadn't heard of it. Often, stories such as these can do as much or more for our cause than the very best scholarly arguments, since they begin with a common sense premise that many human beings, especially children, find intuitively irresistible, namely that animals are unique individuals with personalities who are capable of deeply meaningful, mutually stimulating relationships across the species barrier. For people who have experienced relationships of this kind for themselves, it seems almost perverse to think that one would need an argument to justify its authenticity, any more than one would need an argument, for instance, that our human friends and family members are unique individuals. This is not to posit "equality" between animals and human beings (whatever that might mean), mind you, but simply to say that the default position of people who have experienced animals as companions and friends is to assume the obvious: that animals are not just objects *in* the world, but subjects *aware* that they are in the world--that animals are not "whats" but "whos".