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454th out of 548 books
—
311 voters
Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation
""Animal Farm" meets "The Metamorphosis". . . . A very funny, intelligent book that can be read both for its politics and for its extraordinary depiction of a woman who revels in her bestial transformation."
Paperback, 151 pages
Published
April 1st 1998
by New Press, The
(first published 1996)
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141st out of 161 books
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49 voters
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I read this in a single sitting (okay, to be fair I had to finish the last 10 pages on the bus, so I guess technically it was two sittings but whatever). I picked this up from the bizarro-world remaindered bookstore that used to exist a mere block from my apartment that recently shut down based on the fact that Nathalie Sarraute praised it on the back, and upon looking it up on Amazon it appears it gets compared to Houellebecq a lot, so frankly I was excited to read it.
The first point of compari...more
The first point of compari...more
Despite the fact that I only read this due to it being on university module reading list, I still found it fairly enjoyable. However, I got the sense that in some scenes the author was almost revelling too much in the grotesque nature of the subject matter (a woman turning into a pig) which made it frequently unpleasant to read and the translation from the French was slightly clunky in places. Overall, I thought it was a good novel but I don't quite understand why it was an international best-se...more
Few books have touched me as this one has!
At the time of reading it, ten or so years ago, I actually got really scared and had a hard time sleeping for a couple of days. It's so bizarre but in a sense so realistic and true too human behavior that it far exceeded the horror of most I'd seen/read up too that point (and still today). The naive narrator and how she, from her perspective, focuses and draw the readers attention to what she thinks is important and how she hides things from herself or s...more
At the time of reading it, ten or so years ago, I actually got really scared and had a hard time sleeping for a couple of days. It's so bizarre but in a sense so realistic and true too human behavior that it far exceeded the horror of most I'd seen/read up too that point (and still today). The naive narrator and how she, from her perspective, focuses and draw the readers attention to what she thinks is important and how she hides things from herself or s...more
I picked this up in one of my new favorite reduced price bookshop bins, and having taken in that it was by a modern french girl I developed the hope that it would be artistically quirky and oddly humorous. I was surprised when I found it endlessly horrifying, and sometimes quite touching.
There were moments I wasn't sure if it was beneficial for my slightly impressionable and gentle psyche to be reading the atrocious events that unfold... but I managed to stay intrigued the whole time and did no...more
There were moments I wasn't sure if it was beneficial for my slightly impressionable and gentle psyche to be reading the atrocious events that unfold... but I managed to stay intrigued the whole time and did no...more
This novel is a short, dystopian romp in which a shop girl finds herself turning into a pig. The narrator takes a somewhat coy tone when describing this grotesque process, and makes vague references to her exploitation by a series of men. I appreciated the book as a reductio ad absurdum for the commoditisation of sexuality to further increase material consumption. It has a neat conceit and the narrative style is very readable, as well as darkly funny in places. Although the superficiality of the...more
Dec 30, 2007
elizabeth
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
piglets and perfume vendors of the future
an odd one. it saddened me that it became more obviously, extravagantly futuristic in its setting as it progressed, but this is less a fault of the author's than my own sense that a woman turning into a pig is an entirely possible event in a Parisian parfumarie. but i realize that not everyone has such a troubled relationship with skin conditions or the french.
3 likes
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You have this friend, she’s been out of work for months. Then she gets this gig at a perfume counter, which also involves being a prostitute. She is routinely abused by her “clients” who use her for increasingly perverse sexual practices. She is also, at that time, transforming into a sow. You keep calling to meet for a coffee, but all you get is the answer machine, oinking and grunting her absence. You hear she’s taken up with a politician who sweeps her into the dark sexual underbelly of Paris...more
9 likes
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This book is about a girl with an excellent work ethic who gets a job at a perfume shop/brothel and slowly transforms into a pig. Oh, she is just the most honest, hard working girl ever. The author pulls off one of the best tranformation sequences that I have read. Very worthwhile reading, albeit the ending is a little far fetched.
2 likes
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I don't like when women go overboard with their physical analysis adding feminism and irony. In this story a seductive woman became a pig and her lover became a wolf. And it was boring. Yes, I understand. Women are still seen as meat, men are still predators. I can handle that and I didn’t surround myself with people who think like this and professionally every job is a battle. Tough shit but unfortunately that's life. I hated Good in bed by Jennifer Weiner and although wtf! this is so not the s...more
1 like
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A wild ride into depravity; the tale of a young woman, who through her forays into dissolute and corrupt living, ends up changed into a pig. More to follow, since I am impervious to any sub-meanings so far, and the book will be analyzed during my graduate French class.
UPDATE: Aha! The light was lit by the incomparable Professor Claudine Fisher! We are dealing with the sexual and material exploitation of young females. The author ending up a sow nursing her young piglets in a stable at the end of...more
UPDATE: Aha! The light was lit by the incomparable Professor Claudine Fisher! We are dealing with the sexual and material exploitation of young females. The author ending up a sow nursing her young piglets in a stable at the end of...more
Jul 29, 2009
Emily
added it
Meh. I didn't like Ms. Darrieussecq's style much, but that may be the fault of the translator. It seemed like a very literal translation which made the english seem jerky to me. Short, staccato sentences that jumped from one thing to another. The main character was also fond of saying, "but you know what I mean", which I'm afraid I really didn't. However, the book sold well and apparently the French loved it, so what do I know?
Wow I didn't think a book about a woman transforming into a pig would be so, well, kind of blah.
I imagine the author's inspiration went something like this: "Hey, I think I'll write a novel about a prostitute who turns into a pig. Yeah, and then . . . uh . . . well. . . uh. I guess I don't really have any other ideas, so I'll just write about anything I want, as long as it involves a woman who turns into a pig.
I imagine the author's inspiration went something like this: "Hey, I think I'll write a novel about a prostitute who turns into a pig. Yeah, and then . . . uh . . . well. . . uh. I guess I don't really have any other ideas, so I'll just write about anything I want, as long as it involves a woman who turns into a pig.
i initially read this as research for a musical i was writing.... it ended up having nada to do with what thought- but its kind of genius... i guess godard wanted to make a film out of it- he shoulda done it.... with pamela anderson in a sensitive portrayal of a prostitute turned piggie...... anyways. it gets way better towards the end. i liked it. the transformation description was a little redundant, but it payed off for me in the end with tokens of wiser insight peppered in the final pages.
Mar 03, 2011
Susana Pereira
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
bookcrossing,
translation
Não fazia ideia do que tratava este livro e fiquei bastante surpreendida com o estranho desenrolar da história. Apetece compará-lo com a Metamorfose de Kafka, se bem que neste a parábola é levada mais além, a ponto de envolver toda a sociedade moderna, enquanto a história de Kafka é mais simples e focada no indíviduo que experiencia a transformação.
Já agora, achei interessante as diferentes opções na tradução do título: gostava de saber porque é se optou por traduzir o original francês "Truismes...more
Já agora, achei interessante as diferentes opções na tradução do título: gostava de saber porque é se optou por traduzir o original francês "Truismes...more
I love me some dark and dystopic books. This is Orwellian and Kafkian at the same time, what's more dystopic than that? I say it's about consumerism and what it's done to the human of the 21st Century...Si vous pouvez le lire en français, tant mieux
I read it on a train, as a teenager.
Even though the whole concept seemed kind of ingenious - a woman slowly and inevitably turning into a pig,
but still it remains the most yucky book I have ever read.
Even though the whole concept seemed kind of ingenious - a woman slowly and inevitably turning into a pig,
but still it remains the most yucky book I have ever read.
Lo más notable de este texto es que ondea. Cuando una la está leyendo, no se sabe si sentir lástima, risa, miedo, asco o excitación sexual. La personaje, de entrada, no fue provista de voluntad y, cuando experimenta algún impulso que la lleva a "moverse", este es equiparable al celo de los animales. No se puede establecer una identificación con ella, por lo tanto. Una se limita a hacer gestos conforme pasan las páginas, porque la protagonista ni siquiera es capaz de despertar compasión. Un acier...more
1 like
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Loved this, loved it, loved. Made me go re-read Animal Farm; reflected on how much more I adored Pig Tales. Fantastic for teaching grad students in a class or section on Metamorphosis. And sexy sexy.
Sharp, laugh-out-loud funny and disgusting by turns, a modern fable where it's almost as if Miss Piggy wandered into a world like Animal Farm. The real-world case of a French politician known to behave like a "rutting chimpanzee" adds a certain sense of reality to Darrieussecq's world.
Qué hermosa novela. Qué deliciosa narrativa la de Darrieussecq. Y qué desoladora historia, a mi ver, sobre las relaciones humanas, tan alejadas de lo supuestamente humano, tan mercantiles, de conveniencia —como la relación de Honoré con la narradora—. Qué frío y falto de empatía se ha vuelto el hombre.
Not for the faint-of-heart, and not to be taken literally. That being said, this short novel speaks to me, and is one of my all-time favorites.
After reading a third of the book last night I felt as though I needed a hot shower to clean myself. I will leave this one for others to read (21 translations)and will be very busy washing my hair when the movie is realeased.
Very odd book in which a woman turns into a pig at the same time as society falls apart. It's entertaining but just so strange. I'm sure that there is a philosophical point being made - I just don't see it.
I can't decide whether I love this book or despise it.
A woman starts slowly turning into a pig. I think I need to get my head round this before I write a proper review.
Weird, just weird.
A woman starts slowly turning into a pig. I think I need to get my head round this before I write a proper review.
Weird, just weird.
1 like
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it was gross.
for a while i thought i might be transforming into a pig as well.
reminds me of black swan. hmmm.
for a while i thought i might be transforming into a pig as well.
reminds me of black swan. hmmm.
1 like
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like
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Bizarre... Je vais lire les éloges pour essayer de comprendre ceux qui ont apprécié :-)
Korektno i zgodno. Niti poebno originalno niti zanimljivo, ali vrlo zgodno i kratko čitanje.
Her first novel. Interesting and challenging. What is identity? What about consciousness?
Has anyone else read this? Its sort of nuts, but it could be the fact that I am reading it in French....and well, I don't think I am picking up on all the nuances. I think I like it...but I am not entirely sure what it is getting at quite yet.....Also, no thanks to all the jerks on Good Reads who just write that she turns into a pig in their reviews. I would have liked to have figured that out for myself :P
...Ok, finished. Its more like a 2.5 than a 3. Some of the metaphors are a little too heav...more
...Ok, finished. Its more like a 2.5 than a 3. Some of the metaphors are a little too heav...more
Probably the kind of book you'd need to read a few times over really to know how you feel about it... Vraiment bizarre.
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Marie Darrieussecq was born on January 3, 1969. She was raised in a small village in the Basque Country.
While finishing her PhD in French literature, she wrote her first novel, Truismes (Pig Tales) which was published in September 1996 by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (POL), who have published all her subsequent novels as well. After the success of Truismes, Darrieussecq decided to quit her teaching po...more
More about Marie Darrieussecq...
While finishing her PhD in French literature, she wrote her first novel, Truismes (Pig Tales) which was published in September 1996 by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (POL), who have published all her subsequent novels as well. After the success of Truismes, Darrieussecq decided to quit her teaching po...more
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Mar 01, 2013 02:41pm