Josh Malerman
On This, The Day Of The Pig ISBN 978-1-58767-687-1
from Cemetery Dance
My book review
You’ve been manipulated before by animals. Your pet has gotten you to share your bed, your food, your reading space. They’re called ‘sad puppy eyes’ for a reason. Other animals have gotten us to raise our arms in the air and yell like a maniac or run like Hell. Some have even gotten us to change our leisure plans. Sharks in the water, spider web across the porch? Nope! That last one isn’t even the creature itself and there you go, back inside. Now imagine a creature that might be smarter than yourself. A vindictive and manipulative being. Pearl.
I’m sure someone’s to bound to mention, Pearls Before Swine, but in this case I believe it’s Pearl before everyone.
Pearl watched his mama die, along with countless others. When it’s his turn on the axing stump the farmer just can’t do it. Why? Because Pearl tells him not to. This isn’t a cute story about talking pigs like Charlotte’s Web or Olivia. This pig gets in your head. He makes you think you want to do things, his things. There’s no restriction on ages either. He’s got mind control going on seventh grader, Jeff as well as a trio of teenagers, a couple of cops and the chauvinist (pig), Bob Buck.
Jeff is not the first of the Koppel family to succumb to Pearl’s wily ways. Grandpa let the pig out of the pen years ago. Pearl sits on his ass like a person absorbing information from the farmer. One of the best quotes from the book, “The farmer taught the pig about rumors. About how they could affect somebody’s mind, change their opinion on someone they didn’t even know, could bring a person to believe that an unoriginal thought was, indeed their own”, demonstrates Pearl’s powers. Jeff beheads a pig at Pearl’s bidding. When his family questions him he has no answer but, to himself he admits, “Pearl made me want to do it”.
When caged together, pigs will eat each other’s tails. I have it on authority that when you slaughter a pig in the pen, the others will fight to lick the blood off the ground. Pearl is not above coersing his fellow animals into action. Unlike the Machiavellian tones of Animal Farm, it’s all for Pearl. “Sing for Pearl”.
Three teenagers hear about the beheading via a commandeered school intercom and decide to check it out. Two of them are goofy potheads, Mitch and Jerry. The other is the schools hottie, Susan Marx; she of the possibly inappropriate day dreams of a cop.
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You’ll notice from the gnarly book cover that Pearls seems to be missing an eye. When you read the book you will wish he was. The eye in question was maimed by the too wealthy, Bob Buck. He’s the big man for the little town of Chowder. His philosophy is, “A made up truth, but true all the same”. Bob’s truth. He had a hand in the creation of Pearl and has felt the pig’s lurking presence since that abysmal meeting. Would a powerful businessman let a pig get in his way? He’s got an idea about that. “He paused and felt his knees and realized his pants were torn and he laughed because it was funny to wear a pink suit on your way to gutting a pig”.
The farmer had taught the pig well, but Bob wasn’t concerned. Aaron, Jeff’s big brother, was concerned. “Jeff! Get up! Dad’s crawling headfirst down the side of the house!”. The two boys were on their own. Mama had her own way of coping with this awake-mare. She hid her fears in her ‘mind-bag’, a mental catch all for the most horrific of ideas. Ideas like, Pearl listening to her thoughts, were tucked away until today. Mom was at Kopple farm entertaining her demons.
Man in blue, who’s side are you on anyway? “Sing for Pearl”.
There’s humanity in the pig’s eye, more than the farmer would like to see. Still, he teaches the pig. He teaches Pearl about strategy, about revolt. He wants to teach the pig. Doesn’t he?
The last paragraph on page 151 can be employed on human emotions as well.. I’ll leave that for you to wrangle in yourself.
This is a good book. It is not over the top in descriptive horror. There’s no perversions beyond suspended belief. In other words, I feel it is appropriate for younger ages. It has enough creep to make you wonder what the dog next door is saying, but it won’t keep you peeking behind the shower curtain.
Josh Malerman is on a solid career path. I hope he keeps both jobs (writing) going, assuming the High Strung is his night gig.
At 286 pages with no intro, you should be able to move through this book quite quickly, then on to his next novel “Inspection” coming this April.
I’m leaving you with this final image,
“A burning throne and upon the throne, Pearl.
‘This is Hell.’ Susan thought.
And so it was.”
