What do You think about The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life Of Christopher Hogwood (2007)?
Sy Montgomery lives and writes in Hanover, NH when she is not traveling the world searching for Pink Dolphins, man-eating tigers or Golden Moon bears. Christopher Hogwood came into her life as the runt of the runts much as Wilbur appeared in Fern's life in the celebrated "Charlotte's Web." But there the comparison ends for, though, Christopher does indeed talk, it is in pig language. And the people who love their farms and this particular pig are wonderful listeners. Christopher's charm and zest for the good things in life such gourmet slop from local eateries, Pig Spa, wherein neighborhood children wash, massage and lotion him while he expresses his appreciation with groans of delight, and his forays into the local countryside where he is apt to head unerringly toward the new lettuce all win him celebrity and love from many. This is an unexpectedly delectable book, a book that made me want to wallow in a hot bath while eating strawberries and chocolate cupcakes with green frosting. Treat yourself.
—Helen
This is one of those books you can sit down and read at one sitting and never get bored with it. A sweet story of the runtiest of runts who grew up to be big in more than the obvious pig-way. A loving pig who made an impact on many human and animal lives, a pig who helped the quiet author reach out to the new community around her and touch lives through sharing her pig. I loved this book.A wonderful combination of heartwarming, uplifting, good writing and even sobering at times; it will be one of this year's favorite memoirs.R.I.P. Christopher Hogwood, I cried when you left this earth and went to hog heaven.4.5 snoutfuls of goodness
—Judy
What a shame that this book wasn't better. The major problem I found with it was that I didn't care for the narrator/author. I had a hard time putting my finger on what about the book bugged me until about halfway through when I realized, oh, I don't like her-and I think it's just because I don't care for her voice and tone. She seemed very braggy about everything-animals just love her-she's just so awesome that animals are comfortable with her. And everything, I mean everything was about her. Which, it's her story, so of course things will relate back to her-but every event was all about her-not the pig, not her husband, not the people who came to love the pig, etc--there were far too many "I's" running through the tale about her pig. And, it felt like one giant advertisement for her other books. Her final 2 chapters were the first time I found I liked her, and then it was too little too late. Aside from her tone, it just wasn't well written-the tangents about her other books were slammed in, instead of just part of the story, the timelines weren't always clear, and she mixed in this flowery, trying to hard descriptions about home and love, etc in with facts about pigs and other animals. Which, works, if you know how to do it, and I don't think she knew how. I was bummed, too, that I didn't care for the pig-even though it was being shoved down my throat that he's the most wonderful pig ever that everyone loved just so much-without any reasons ever really supplied why-he was kind of a menace-but not endearingly so. I loved the dog, Tess, and the chickens, however, and they were mere side players in this book and their lives. Overall, it was an okay book at best-and sometimes, just a bad book.
—Molly Stewardson
