Classic Retread: The Pigman

Published:  2005 (first published in 1968)

The Pigman (The Pigman #1)

By: Paul Zindel

HarperTeen

ISBN-13:  9780060757353

When sophmores John and Lorraine played a practical joke a few months ago on a stranger named Angelo Pignati, they had no idea what they were starting.  Virtually overnight, almost against their will, the two befriended the lonely old man; it wasn't long before they were more comfortable in his house than their own.  But now Mr. Pignati is dead.  And for John and Lorraine, the only way to find peace is to write down their friend's story - the story of the Pigman.

Review

     John and Lorraine are both sophmores at the same school and became friends entirely by chance.  Neither one feels very wanted at home for one reason or another, and the two of them love to get into rebellious mischief with each other.  They have a game with some of the other kids to see who can call a stranger and keep them on the phone the longest.  One day they call Mr. Angelo Pignati pretending to be charity workers looking for donations and are surprised by how sorry they feel.  They go to his house to "pick up" a donation, and end up striking up a friendship with this lost man, who seems alone in the world.  But how far can things go and how much can John and Lorraine take advantage of him before harmful consequences are visited upon them?

     This definitely is a little bit dated, owing mostly to the after-school special dialogue and the movie of the week premise to it.  Plus, a book doesn't get read almost fifty-six years later and stay completely current.  The changing narrative between John and Lorraine was a fairly seamless trade-off and their specific personalities were very believable.  If I had read this as a teenager, or a younger kid, I'd probably sympathize most with John and Lorraine.  But now, somewhere in the middle of my twenties, I'm able to see both sides of the coin.  The behavior of the two of them, including it's destructive trend towards Mr. Pignati, isn't okay even when he seems to be encouraging it.  As a teenager from a screwed up family life though, I can understand having issues with limits when no one around you is setting them in ways that make sense, or is giving you what you need to not be a nutcase or juvenile delinquent.

     John's parents are uptight, and from an older generation (I think he said his Dad is in his early sixties?) and he's constantly being compared to his perfect older brother.  Combine that with a creative, intelligent mind and overabundance of imagination and it equals trouble!  Lorraine's Mom is a man-hating bitch, who basically let her own bad relationships sour her on the whole gender.  She's become bitter, steals from her home healthcare clients, and works Lorraine like a servant - while constantly telling her how ugly she is and overall useless.  So, yeah, not completely casting stones, but they know what they're doing isn't right either.  Lorraine talks about omens throughout her narrative and Zindel makes use of foreshadowing with the detioriorating health of the baboon, Bobo, that Mr. Pignati visits at the zoo (i.e. old, broken down like him, etc.) and as a reader you can see it coming.  The ending wasn't any real shock.  Overall a book that makes you think, but the humor was my favorite part.  The whole first chapter where John talks about his stint as the Bathroom Bomber of his freshmen class was pure gold!

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

We Think Patty Means Well...

Published:  February 27th, 2009 (First Published in 1911)

Just Patty (Patty #2)

By: Jean Webster

Project Gutenberg

ASIN:  B001U3ZCSG

Patty and her two roommates from last year are back in school. And they're upset School administration is trying to break up their dream team

"It's a shame " says Priscilla.

"It's an outrage " says Conny.

"It's an insult " says Patty.

"To separate us now after we've been together three years --"

"And it isn't as though we were "awfully" bad last year. Lots of girls had more demerits."

"Only our badness was sort of conspicuous," Patty admitted.

"But we were "very" good the last three weeks," reminded Conny.

Don't worry, they'll work around it. And raise more heck this year than ever before. . .

Review

     Patty and her two best friends Conny and Priscilla are appalled when they find out they've been separated as roommates for their senior year at Saint Ursula's boarding school.  Patty will not let it stand and the girls come up with schemes to go back to rooming with one another.  The book follows Conny, Priscilla, Patty and their schoolmates (but mostly Patty) through their senior year.  It's a series of vignettes about friendship, mischief and growing up in the early 1900s.

     When I downloaded this for my Kindle (it's free on Amazon as part of Project Gutenberg), I had already read  Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy.  Jean Webster has a pretty sharp sense of humor and writes wonderfully relatable heroines, that put me in mind of L.M. Montgomery (only with some extra snarkiness, versus dreaminess) and her Anne series.  I thought about reading When Patty Goes to College first since it was written before this one, but decided to go in chronological order by the actual setting of the book.  I normally am not a huge fan of books told in short story/vignette form, but this one really was a pretty good book when it comes down to it.

     Patty is an absolute lightning rod for mischief and makes it a habit to deliberately misinterpret things that people say to her or instruct her to do - with mostly hilarious results.  The other two girls are in the mischief with her, but Patty is most definitely the ringleader!  There were some that were almost entirely humorous, like the incident where Patty and the girls strike for better/more equal treatment in Latin class, and the incident with one of the girls having a fake beau (boyfriend) to hurt another girl's feelings (Patty takes care of that one with some pretty funny antics).  But there were also stories like the one where Patty is stuck at school for Christmas and decides to help a lonely and out of place student who feels abandoned have a meaningful holiday.  Also, the incident with the prank where Patty accidentally encounters a real burglar and finds him a job when she goes trespassing on a grumpy, reclusive millionaire's property.  Patty always means well, even when she's trying to get around doing things that she should (like studying to make up an exam that she misses).

     Overall I was impressed with this book and felt like the overall tone to it avoided the malicious spirit that books centered around pranks and boarding schools tend to have on occasion (whether by accident or design, things do move in that direction quite often).  I am only sorry that Jean Webster died at such a young age, with so much potential to be a classic children's writer in the collective consciousness instead of nearly forgotten, as I feel she is in our present day.  Also interesting to note is that Jean Webster was Mark Twain's grandniece.  Who knows maybe his famous snark is some of the reason she manages mischief so admirably in her own novels!  I highly recommend this one, especially for fans of classic books along the lines of Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, or the Betsy-Tacy series.  My only real complaint is that I wish there were more to this book.  It felt far too short, especially with the story Webster chose to end on.

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available mostly  in used bookstores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**