Pigs Can't Swim
“Narrator Renee Raudman is engaging…Raudman affects a voice full of wonder for Peppe’s childhood self, an impatient and disapproving tone for her harried mother, and a subtly wheedling tone for an older man with a prurient interest in the preteen Helen. These vocal characterizations help to distinguish the various characters.”
AudioFile
With everything happening on Helen Peppe's backwoods Maine farm-ferocious sibling rivalry, rock-bottom poverty, feral male chauvinism, sex in the hayloft-life was out of control, even for the animals. Despite the chaos, 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 Jeannette Walls or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own.
Praise