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The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
by Sy Montgomery
Book Reviewed by:When Sy Montgomery opened her heart to a sick piglet she had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish. The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire, where his boundless zest for life and his large, loving heart made him absolute monarch.
“Christopher
Hogwood came home on my lap in a shoebox. He was a creature who would prove in
many ways to be more human than I am.”
–from The Good Good Pig
A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures
in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals
than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been
crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no
inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only
survive but flourish–and she soon found herself engaged with her small-town
community in ways she had never dreamed possible. Unexpectedly, Christopher
provided this peripatetic traveler with something she had sought all her life:
an anchor (eventually weighing 750 pounds) to family and home.
The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his
inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire, where his boundless
zest for life and his large, loving heart made him absolute monarch over a
(mostly) peaceable kingdom. At first, his domain included only Sy’s cosseted
hens and her beautiful border collie, Tess. Then the neighbors began fetching
Christopher home from his unauthorized jaunts, the little girls next door
started giving him warm, soapy baths, and the villagers brought him delicious
leftovers. His intelligence and fame increased along with his girth. He was
featured in USA Today and on several National Public Radio environmental
programs. On election day, some voters even wrote in Christopher’s name on their
ballots.
But as this enchanting book describes, Christopher Hogwood’s influence extended
far beyond celebrity; for he was, as a friend said, a great big Buddha master.
Sy reveals what she and others learned from this generous soul who just so
happened to be a pig–lessons about self-acceptance, the meaning of family, the
value of community, and the pleasures of the sweet green Earth. The Good Good
Pig provides proof that with love, almost anything is possible.
Chapter 1
Runthood
Christopher Hogwood came home on my lap in a shoe box.
On a rain-drenched April evening, so cold the frogs were silent, so gray we
could hardly see our barn, my husband drove our rusting Subaru over mud roads
sodden with melted snow. Pig manure caked on our boots. The smell of a sick
animal hung heavy in our clothes.
It did not seem an auspicious time to make the life- changing choice of adopting
a pig.
That whole spring, in fact, had been terrible. My father, an Army general, a
hero I so adored that I had confessed in Sunday school that I loved him more
than Jesus, was dying painfully, gruesomely of lung cancer. He had survived the
Bataan Death March. He had survived three years of Japanese prison camps. In the
last months of my father’s life, my glamorous, slender mother—still as crazy
about him as the day they’d met forty years before—resisted getting a chairlift,
a wheelchair, a hospice nurse. She believed he ...
Moderately treacly at times, but overall, a charming book about a charmingly boorish pig. Fans of Gerald Durrell and James Herriot, plus any of the multitude who've made Marley & Me a bestseller are likely to enjoy The Good, Good Pig...continued
Full Review
(411 words)
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Sy Montgomery is a naturalist,
author, documentary scriptwriter, and
radio commentator who writes for
children as well as adults. Among her
books are Journey of the Pink
Dolphins, Spell of the Tiger, and
Search for the Golden Moon Bear. She
lives in New Hampshire with her husband,
author Howard Mansfield. More about
them at their
website.
Pigs in Literature
Christopher Hogwood follows a star
studded cast of previous famous pigs -
albeit most have been of the fictional
variety. How many literary pigs can you
think of?&#...
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The only completely consistent people are the dead
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