Pigs Can't Swim by Helen Peppe

Pigs Can't Swim by Helen Peppe

An outrageous, hilarious, and touching memoir by the youngest of nine children in a hardscrabble, beyond-eccentric Maine family. With everything happening on Helen Peppe's backwoods Maine farm, life was wild- and not just for the animals. Sibling rivalry, rock-bottom poverty, feral male chauvinism, sex in the hayloft: everything seemed- and was- out of control. In telling her wayward family tale, Peppe manages deadpan humour, an unerring eye for the absurd, and poignant compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candour will inevitably remind readers of Jeannette Walls or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own. As Richard Hoffman, the author of Half the House: A Memoir puts it: " Pigs Can't Swim is an unruly, joyous troublemaker of a book."

Kirkus Reviews, 12/15/13 "A writer and photographer's wry but poignant account of her hardscrabble childhood and adolescence in rural New England..Unsentimental in its character portrayals and forthright yet humorous in its depiction of devastated innocence and family dysfunction, Peppe's book is a celebration of difference, resilience and the healing power of love." Booklist, 1/1/2014 "[Peppe's] recollections make for vivid, powerful stories" Portland Press Herald1/26/14 "Much of this book is laugh-out-loud funny, but there are poignant, sad moments as well...Peppe takes the reader on an up-close tour of what life was like in rural parts of Maine a few decades ago." Bookreporter, 2/4/14 "In telling her family's story, Peppe manages deadpan humor, an unerring eye for the absurd, and a touching compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candor will inevitably remind readers of Jeanette Wall or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own." The HIPPO, 2/20/2014 "The book tells with exquisite and excruciating detail of her life growing up on a rural Maine farm as the youngest of nine siblings." Down East Magazine, March 2014 "An elegant, honest collection of anecdotes about growing up...Rich sensory details and deadpan humor complement Peppe's head-on dive into her childhood dreams and realities...Peppe captures the wonderment and confusion of childhood, weaving an image of Maine that is dark, magical, and unquestionably memorable." DailyCandy Boston, 3/4/14 "Pigs Can't Swim pulled us in. Not that Helen Peppe's memoir didn't already have us in its grip, with its pity-free mix of pathos, humor, and four-legged obsession...the author's greatest trick is threading the needle of pain and laughter as she relays difficult tales...wrenching, funny, and uplifting memoir." Times Record, 3/30/14 "Alternately funny, poignant, and painful, Pigs Can't Swim is a snapshot of life in Maine, the way no one believes it should ever be, and the true story of a young girl's coming of age, despite all odds."

Helen Peppe began writing stories, mostly about animals, on scraps of butcher paper when she was knee-high to a horse. (All of her furry characters lived happily ever after.) As a student, she wrote short stories and personal essays while working as a professional photographer specializing in horses and dogs. She lives near Portland, Maine, with her husband, Eric, her children, four dogs, four rescued rabbits, four guinea pigs, and two destructive kittens.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780306822728
ISBN 10	0306822725
Title	Pigs Can't Swim
Author	Helen Peppe
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Hachette Books
Year published	2014-02-04
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.