In the spirit of fairness I want to begin my review with a confession: I adore Dr. Flieger. In 2007 I took her graduate seminar on Tolkien at UMCP, and from the very beginning I admired her on several levels. Because of this my review may be partial, but my enjoyment of her novel is very real.

Pig Tale is a fairy tale of the classic sort, before the creation of childhood and the evolution of "age-appropriate" ideas for children's literature. It is dark and occasionally repulsive as it honestly presents some of the darker traits that come with small (and large) communities. The surreality of fairy tales and magic is limited, allowing Flieger's novel to function as a traditional folktale rather than a contemporary fantasy, dripping in mythology and tricks. The story carries a timeless and placeless quality that will allow it a kind of longevity, and the characters themselves are as real as they are ugly. The reader grows with Mokie, and the careful pacing of the novel allows for a high level of interest that is ultimately rewarded.

Technically, Pig Tale is published as a young adult novel, but I think it is worthy of a larger audience. I thoroughly enjoyed my own reading, and can't wait to read it to my boys. ( )

first line: "It feels like we've been here forever."

I'm not sure how well this works as a novel. The writing is simple but elegant, and the characters often sympathetic and grittily real. The book's major themes include both senses of scapegoating: the psychological tendency of people to blame outsiders for their troubles, as well as the folkloric/historical sense of ensuring the prosperity of a community through sacrifice (whether in the form of human or animal death, or simply the burning of the corn-god in effigy). The weightiness of these themes and the story's indeterminate conclusion make me think -- even more than the violent rape scene that takes place relatively early on in the novel -- that this isn't really a young adult novel. Rather, it's a beautifully-written fictional companion to The Golden Bough. ( )