Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe
Schedule Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe is among the priceless worth that will make you consistently rich. It will certainly not suggest as abundant as the money give you. When some individuals have lack to encounter the life, individuals with numerous e-books often will certainly be wiser in doing the life. Why should be book Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe It is really not implied that publication Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe will certainly offer you power to reach everything. The publication is to read and exactly what we meant is guide that is read. You could likewise view how guide qualifies Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe as well as varieties of book collections are supplying below.
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe
Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe. Offer us 5 minutes as well as we will certainly show you the very best book to read today. This is it, the Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe that will be your best option for much better reading book. Your five times will certainly not invest squandered by reading this web site. You could take guide as a resource to make far better principle. Referring guides Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe that can be positioned with your demands is sometime tough. Yet here, this is so very easy. You could discover the very best point of book Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe that you can check out.
Getting guides Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe now is not type of difficult means. You can not only choosing book shop or collection or borrowing from your buddies to read them. This is an extremely easy means to precisely get the book by online. This on the internet e-book Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe could be among the alternatives to accompany you when having spare time. It will certainly not waste your time. Think me, the publication will reveal you new point to check out. Simply invest little time to open this on the internet book Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe as well as read them any place you are now.
Sooner you get guide Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe, sooner you can appreciate checking out guide. It will be your resort to maintain downloading the publication Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe in offered link. By doing this, you can actually choose that is offered to obtain your very own publication online. Below, be the first to get the e-book qualified Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe as well as be the first to understand just how the writer indicates the notification and understanding for you.
It will have no doubt when you are visiting pick this publication. This inspiring Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe e-book can be read entirely in particular time relying on how frequently you open and also review them. One to remember is that every publication has their very own manufacturing to obtain by each visitor. So, be the excellent viewers and be a far better individual after reading this publication Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), By Helen Peppe
An outrageous, hilarious, and touching memoir by the youngest of nine children in a hardscrabble, beyond-eccentric Maine family.
With everything happening on Helen Peppe’s backwoods Maine farm, life was wild--and not just for the animals. Sibling rivalry, rock-bottom poverty, feral male chauvinism, sex in the hayloft: everything seemed--and was--out of control. In telling her wayward family tale, Peppe manages deadpan humor, an unerring eye for the absurd, and poignant compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candor will inevitably remind readers of Jeannette Walls or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own. As Richard Hoffman, the author of Half the House: A Memoir puts it: "Pigs Can't Swim is an unruly, joyous troublemaker of a book."
- Sales Rank: #2981052 in Books
- Published on: 2016-01-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x .70" w x 5.50" l, .84 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
From Booklist
Escape. That’s the goal of a young Peppe’s life, recounted in her debut memoir. An animal lover on a Maine farm where the meals often come from the livestock, Peppe recounts a harrowing childhood as the youngest of nine children, by turns ignored, reprimanded, or bullied. Time has not blunted the hard edge of her anger and fear toward her family, but her brief attempts to understand their perspectives prevent this from being merely a reckoning of past wrongs. Instead her recollections make for vivid, powerful stories. They are told one by one without a larger connecting narrative, but as they are pieced together, they present a striking picture of ignorance and neglect. She declines to name nearly everyone in the book, instead relying on shorthand based on their characteristics (for example, the blustery and favored brother), to mixed effect—while distracting, it also lends an everyman quality to the story. Peppe’s past, like the book itself, is raw and brutally depicted from the perspective of a child trying to make sense of the world and her place in it. --Bridget Thoreson
Review
Kirkus Reviews, 12/15/13
“A writer and photographer’s wry but poignant account of her hardscrabble childhood and adolescence in rural New England…Unsentimental in its character portrayals and forthright yet humorous in its depiction of devastated innocence and family dysfunction, Peppe’s book is a celebration of difference, resilience and the healing power of love.”
Booklist, 1/1/2014
“[Peppe’s] recollections make for vivid, powerful stories”
Portland Press Herald1/26/14
“Much of this book is laugh-out-loud funny, but there are poignant, sad moments as well…Peppe takes the reader on an up-close tour of what life was like in rural parts of Maine a few decades ago.”
Bookreporter, 2/4/14
“In telling her family’s story, Peppe manages deadpan humor, an unerring eye for the absurd, and a touching compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candor will inevitably remind readers of Jeanette Wall or Mary Karr, Peppe’s wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own.”
The HIPPO, 2/20/2014
“The book tells with exquisite and excruciating detail of her life growing up on a rural Maine farm as the youngest of nine siblings.”
Down East Magazine, March 2014
“An elegant, honest collection of anecdotes about growing up…Rich sensory details and deadpan humor complement Peppe’s head-on dive into her childhood dreams and realities…Peppe captures the wonderment and confusion of childhood, weaving an image of Maine that is dark, magical, and unquestionably memorable.”
DailyCandy Boston, 3/4/14
“Pigs Can’t Swim pulled us in. Not that Helen Peppe’s memoir didn’t already have us in its grip, with its pity-free mix of pathos, humor, and four-legged obsession…the author’s greatest trick is threading the needle of pain and laughter as she relays difficult tales…wrenching, funny, and uplifting memoir.”
Times Record, 3/30/14
“Alternately funny, poignant, and painful, Pigs Can’t Swim is a snapshot of life in Maine, the way no one believes it should ever be, and the true story of a young girl’s coming of age, despite all odds.”
Maine Living, 4/10/2014
“Helen Peppe’s story dives into the deep end of the pool and paints with startling clarity, a picture of a family … Rooting for her at the turn of every page, I laughed and cried… I was left craving more…I recommend this tale to those who feast on well-written literature, rich descriptions, and wry humor found in the most unlikely places. Many times I was reminded of the memoirs of Mary Karr as I read about a gritty life that is portrayed as sad, hilarious, and insane, all at the same time. Pigs Can’t Swim does more than entertain. It gives hope; hope that anyone can rise above her circumstances in life; and that indeed, pigs can swim after all.”
Maine Sunday Telegram, Bestseller 4/27/14
Maine Sunday Telegram Bestseller, 5/18/14
Shortlisted for the New England Book Award
About the Author
Helen Peppe, a professional photographer specializing in horses and dogs, lives near Portland, Maine, with her husband, Eric, her children, four dogs, four rescued rabbits, four guinea pigs, and two destructive kittens.
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
This one will stick with me a long, long time.
By D. Blankenship
When I read a book; any book really, of any genre, there are certain elements I look for – elements that make the read either pleasing to me or not. First, the author must be a good “story teller.” It does not matter if the work being read is history or fiction or even a boring tech manual – it must tell a good tale. Secondly, I like good writing; extremely descriptive writing and writing that flows; flows to the point I really don’t have to think but merely read and absorb. Thirdly, I must be taken into the tale, taken away from the world I presently reside and into the world the author is offering me. I want to feel that I have become a part of the story; feel as if I was actually there. Finally, I want and almost demand that what ever piece I am reading stirs some emotion in be weather it be good or bad – I want to feel emotion!
Well I must tell you truthfully that Helen Peppe has accomplished all the above for me and then some. A memoir written by an adult is a difficult task at best, and depending upon the circumstances, it can be absolutely gut wrenching at worse. To do your own story justice you must look under rocks best left unturned and then have the will to share your findings with others. Again, Peppe has accomplished this in spades.
Raised at the poverty level on a hardscrabble farm in Maine the author tells of her coming of age with her parents, three brothers and five sisters. By the time the book is completed the reader will feel that he or she not only know the author, but her entire family including the many farm animals which pass through their lives. I must admit that I have never been in Maine but can tell you that being raised in the rural area of the Ozark Mountains that life and the people that make up life are much the same from coast to coast it would seem. I most certainly could relate to this young lady.
Now this is not always a pretty story; no, far from it, but the author’s ability to view life via a very quirky sense of humor gives even the “bad times” a rather strange twist as she shares her thoughts and feels over a wide variety of issues from sex to animals to family dynamics. The author pretty well tells it as it is, all of it; the good, the bad and the ugly. At times you wonder how this child can possibly grow to be a normally functioning adult and it, at times, is extremely sad. On the other hand I found much hope in this story on quite a number of levels. I can say for sure that this will be one book that will stay with me for a long, long time.
I strongly suspect that we will be seeing much more from this author in the near future. She most certainly has all the skills that go into the writing process. I recommend this read highly.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Growing up in a large family, on a farm in rural Maine
By Corinne H. Smith
"If not for books and animals, I'd die from boredom." (p. 76) Looking back, Helen Peppe dares to share with us her memories: not only as the youngest of nine kids, but also as an animal lover living on a working farm where creatures are offed, eaten, or sold on a regular basis. It doesn't take long for us to get sucked into her world of childhood misery. We all have had some of these feelings, or at least we imagined that we did. Helen's are magnified by a factor of nine (or really, more than eleven, if you count her parents and the ever-present household hanger-on). No wonder she continually begs for time to move faster so that she can become an adult and can lead her life the way she really wants to.
This is not your Tourist's Maine. This is not the place of picturesque rocky beaches or thick green pine forests. This is the hardscrabble interior, living past where the paved road ends, visiting the City-of-the-Library and the City-over-the-Bridge only for grocery shopping and occasional visits to the doctor. And Helen portrays it authentically, as she does with her family members. In her words, her siblings include: the blustery-and-favored brother, the holier-than-thou brother, the brother-I-barely-knew, the tough-yet-admirable sister, the hair-twirling-pretty sister, the sad-tittering sister, the sister-of-poor-choices, and the sister-who-holds-grudges-longer-than-God. This is Helen's story, after all. She doesn't have to name names.
With the wisdom of hindsight, the author can be downright practical and humorous in considering the highlights of her past. Perhaps she looks back now to puzzle out how she became the woman she is today. Here the younger Helen compensates with her difficult or eccentric circumstances by losing herself in Stephen King novels, loving the animals she can, becoming a vegetarian, and dreaming of a different grown-up life. We turn pages and keep up with her, also anticipating that day.
When I first read the summary and decided to read and review this book, I warned myself that animal deaths would be probably be part of the narrative. I was right. I steeled myself, but I wasn't quite prepared to be hit with so many. Helen Peppe is a compelling writer, however; and the fact that I didn't skip a word says a lot about her craft and talent. Fellow animal lovers need not dismiss this book, but they may anticipate a possible need to pass over some passages. (I considered giving it 4 stars instead, because of the horror. But Helen's excellent writing overshadows the bad stuff. It also helps to know that today she's a photographer of horses.)
We read memoirs in order to find out what other folks were doing while we were simultaneously growing up elsewhere, involved with our own daily dramas. This tale ends with another beginning, as Helen and her boyfriend Eric head toward high school graduation. She leaves us wanting more, to keep hearing the news from Maine. "Pigs Can't Swim" will appeal to and will entertain a wide variety of readers, as well it should. As for the title itself -- Ah, but it turns out that they CAN.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Humorous Pognant Coming of Age in the 1970s
By D_shrink
Let me begin by saying that all the events described in this memoir seem very plausible and in keeping with growing up in a family with 3 brothers and 5 sisters of working class parents in rural Maine.
To avoid further dissension among siblings the author never gives actual names to her siblings but merely describes them by personality characteristics as she sees them. They are in no particular order:
1. The blustery and favored brother
2. The holier than thou brother
3. The BS artist-ass-Skipper brother
4. Tough yet admirable sister
5. Hair-twirling pretty sister
6. Sad tittering sister
7. Sister who holds grudges longer than God
8. Sister of poor choices
The author's self deprecating humor was delightful throughout as when she says, "I was a nosy child, peering often into cars that didn't belong to me, on the lookout for a dog, a candy bar, a soda, a better life." [p22] Please note that this review is from a proof copy and page numbers cited may be different in the final edition. She also offers a cute rejoinder to parents perpetual admonition about waiting for sixty minutes after eating before going swimming. "[I]f drowning was such a risk, it might still be a possibility at sixty one minutes." [p29] Another cute childhood memory revealed was when the girls all went ice skating on the pond near the house and forgot to watch a lamb stew heating in the pressure cooker, which numerous coats of paint could not conceal from its effects on the cupboards and kitchen ceiling.
As a vegetarian and animal lover, the author comments on her parent consumptions of farm animals by saying, "A heartburn was my father's constant complaint, indigestion my mother's , the consequence of eating pets, I would think." [p131] :-)
Regarding sex during her teen years she comments, "A minute is a long time. Teenage boys can get aroused, ejaculate, and zip their pants in the time it takes a car to navigate a half mile."
[p139]
Highly recommended to all who have navigated this period of life and are still around to muse about it.
See all 90 customer reviews...
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe PDF
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe EPub
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Doc
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe iBooks
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe rtf
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Mobipocket
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Kindle
^^ Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Doc
^^ Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Doc
^^ Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Doc
^^ Download Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book), by Helen Peppe Doc
