Good Good Pig (Montgomery)

The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
Sy Montgomery, 2006
Random House
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345496096

In Brief  
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.

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. (From the publisher.)

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About the Author 

• Birth—February 7, 1958
• Where—Frankfurt, Germany
• Education—3 B.A's., Syracuse University (USA)
• Currently—lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, USA

Known for her books that illuminate the wonders of nature for both children and adults, Sy Montgomery "is a modern miracle," says Book magazine, "bawdy, brave, inventive, prophetic, hellbent on loving this planet." (From the publisher.)

Montgomery writes the Boston Globe's nature column, and her articles have been collected into several books including The Wild Out Your Window and The Currious Naturalist. She has also scripted and been the subject for National Geographic films—including Explorer (her experiences writing The Spell of the Tiger) and Mother Bear Man. (From Authorwire.com.)

More
From an interview with Barnes & Noble editors:

• My companion pig, Christopher Hogwood, age 12, lost 60 pounds on his new diet and now weighs in at a trim 690 pounds."

• My first known act of Eco-Conscience: I was sent home from kindergarten for biting a little boy who had pulled the legs off a daddy longlegs. I would do it again today."

• When asked what book most influenced her career as a writer, she answered:

The Outermost House by Henry Beston. You will not find Henry Beston's 1928 classic in the "Spirituality" section of your bookstore. It is a chronicle of the naturalist's solitary year on a Cape Cod beach, observing the migrations of the alewives, listening to the music of the waves, feeling the hot sun on the dunes and smelling the keen, vivid reek of hot salt grass. It is a book about least terns nesting on the open beach; the flattened sharks called skates that sometimes wash up in the shallows; the character and poetry of September light on sand; and winter surf and shipwrecks.

But it is also a book of worship, one that helped me to define the prayer that is my life's work chronicling the natural world. It is a book that today continues to shape an emerging American consciousness of a spiritual connection to the land. It is a book that helps redefine spirituality itself.

(Interview from Barnes & Noble.)

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Critics Say . . . 
Montgomery's books on exotic wildlife (Journey of the Pink Dolphins, etc.) take her to the far corners of the world, but the story of her closest relationships with the animal kingdom plays out in her own New England backyard. When she adopts a sickly runt from a litter of pigs, naming him Christopher Hogwood after the symphony conductor, raising him for slaughter isn't an option: Montgomery's a vegetarian and her husband is Jewish. Refitting their barn to accommodate a (mostly) secure sty, they keep Christopher as a pet. As he swells to 750 pounds, he becomes a local celebrity, getting loose frequently enough that the local police officer knows to carry spare apples to lure him back home. The pig also bonds with Montgomery's neighbors, especially two children who come over to help feed him and rub his tummy. Montgomery's love for Christopher (and later for Tess, an adopted border collie) dominates the memoir's emotional space, but she's also demonstrably grateful for the friendships the pig sparks within her community. The humor with which she recounts Christopher's meticulous eating habits and love of digging up turf is sure to charm readers.
Publishers Weekly

"What is more jolly and uplifting than a pig?" asks nature writer Montgomery (Journey of the Pink Dolphins); judging by her book's charming cover of a black-and-white spotted pig, bushy eyebrows and all, peering flirtatiously at the camera, one can only agree. The subject is Christopher Hogwood, the sickly runt that the author and her husband adopted and raised to become a 750-pound local celebrity in their small New Hampshire town. As she recounts Christopher's adventures (his many escapes into neighbors' gardens, his picky delight in the slops offered to him by his many fans), Montgomery throws in fascinating tidbits of pig lore and natural history. All this is great fun to read, but when Montgomery talks about the "deep" life lessons she and her friends learned from Christopher, who lived to the ripe old age of 14, the book treads dangerously close to becoming sentimental hogwash, a porcine Tuesdays with Morrie or Marley & Me. People loved those aforementioned books, so there will be demand for Montgomery's latest; still, one wishes for a little less treacle and a lot more of Christopher. —Wilda Williams
Library Journal

(Adult/High School) For writer and world traveler Montgomery, the grounding force of her New Hampshire home was a 750-pound pig. This book is not merely a chronicle of her love for and life with Christopher Hogwood, but also a testament to the lessons learned through her 14-year relationship with him. Usually preferring the company of animals to most people, Montgomery developed an extensive network of friends who were willing to cache and freeze their food scraps for the always grateful, bottomless pig. In turn, these friends witnessed an enjoyment of life's bounty as only a pig can experience-with utter abandon. Montgomery's delightful anecdotes about Christopher's personality, neighborhood wanderings, and haute skin care la Pig Spa are entwined with biographical details about her family life and fascinating animal-research projects. Christopher was undoubtedly Montgomery's muse for this introspective account of personal growth and her underlying mantra of caring for all the Earth's creatures. He also helped her weather the pain of intractable parents who would not accept their Jewish son-in-law. Like Montgomery's earlier books, this title blends facts about animal behavior, natural history, geography, and culture with myths, legends, and a large helping of adventure. The color photographs of Christopher from runt to virtual behemoth are an added attraction. More importantly, the author's engaging writing style will captivate even the most uninspired teen readers. —Claudia C. Holland, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
School Library Jounal

Naturalist Montgomery describes her version of pig heaven. The author (Search for the Golden Moon Bear, 2002, etc.) and her husband rescued a runt covered with black and white spots and named him after Christopher Hogwood, a noted conductor, musicologist and exponent of early music. They took the pig home to their New Hampshire farm, fully expecting him to stay modest of proportion. Fat chance. Succored by the author's loving attention, Hogwood quickly put on 700 pounds and started to act like a pig, his musical affinities confined to a gamut of sonorous grunts. Montgomery reverently chronicles her charge's behavior. He is diabolically smart, notorious for his neighborhood trespasses. He works his snout like a force of nature; practically dissolves when his belly is rubbed; and is worthy of performance-artist status as an eater. In his exuberant passage through life, he sets a standard by which Montgomery can measure her own comportment. In particular, he teaches someone keen on animals and leery of people how to be comfortable in the presence of human beings. "Animals had always been my refuge, my avatars, my spirit twins," the author writes. When someone asks what she is going to do with her pig, she is tempted to inquire, "What are you going to do with your grandson?" While death haunts this book from start to finish, Montgomery learns a good deal from Hogwood about celebrating the evanescent pleasures of living. May well spark a stampede in porcine acquisitions, not as consumables, but as companions.
Kirkus Reviews

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Book Club Discussion Questions 

1. Did reading The Good Good Pig make you feel differently about your relationship to animals and the natural world? If you eat meat, for example, did it make you question that? Or question other aspects of your lifestyle?

2. Sy Montgomery writes about the extended interspecies family that coalesces around "The Good Good Pig," Christopher Hogwood. If you have a pet or pets, do you think of the animal as a central part of your family unit, or as a kind of appendage to it? In what ways does your pet affect the family dynamic?

3. Lavishing as much money and attention on any animal as the author did on Christopher Hogwood is wasteful when there are human beings in need of assistance. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?Why?

4. Do you think you would have enjoyed having Christopher Hogwood and Sy Montgomery for neighbors? Why or why not?

5. We humans seem to have a love-hate view of pigs. On the one hand, there are beloved and humorous fictional characters like Miss Piggy, Piglet, Porky, Babe, and Wilbur. Yet at the same time, in many religions pigs are considered to be unclean animals, and in common parlance, calling someone a "pig" is far from a term of endearment. What do you think accounts for this divergence of views?

6. Do you feel a special connection to any particular kind of animal? If you could be an animal for one day, which would you choose and why?

7. At the beginning of the previous century, most Americans still lived and worked on farms and had close relationships with a variety of animals, both wild and domesticated. Now only a minority of people in this country experiences a close relationship with animals other than dogs, cats, and other familiar pets. What affect do you think that has had on our sense of connection to the natural world, both individually and as a society? Is it important to have that kind of a connection? Why?

8. Consider this quote from St. Francis: "Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it." What might this service consist of? If St. Francis were alive today, how do you think he would react to the animal testing of drugs and other products, livestock farming practices, and the like?

9. What are your thoughts about the animal rights and animal welfare movements? Are they following the advice of St. Francis or taking matters too far? What can people do to make a difference in the way animals-pets, livestock, and wild-are treated in our society?

10. Do animals possess inherent rights that human beings are morally obligated to respect? If so, what is the source of these rights? Should animals have legal or civil rights beyond what is currently accorded them?

11. Do animals have souls?

12. Is the hunting and killing of wild animals an important part of human heritage that should be preserved?

13. The people of Sundarbans regard the local tiger population as manifestations of the divine, and thus do not hunt the animals even when they prey upon human beings. Montgomery finds much to admire in this attitude. Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

14. There are many anecdotes reflecting the extraordinary, even uncanny, sensitivity of animals toward the natural world and toward people. What examples can you give from your own experience, and how do you explain them?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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