Writing about Pig Tales

I usually pick up books at sales at random, usually based solely on the appeal of their cover. I picked up Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq just that way.

Here’s what the first line of the back cover says:

“…Pig Tales is the dark, comic and erotic story of a young woman who turns into a sow.”

Don’t know about you, but it straightaway reminded me of Kafka and Sade.

The book is small, dense, darkly-comic, and definitely not recommended if you’re prone to depression. I read it in fits and starts, and for such a small book at 135 pages, it sure took me the longest time to finish. I cannot quote a line from here or there, because the power of the writing does not lie in its sentences, but in the story itself. And this is not because of the translation, either. The book is dense and structured in a way that you need to read it fully appreciate its merit,

But at the end of the read, it was totally worth it. This French lady who published this book in 1996, at the age of 27, is definitely a powerful writer, and I feel sorry I did not find her before. Time I tracked down all her subsequent books.