A farcical yet endearing story of a family in
Indiana farm country
This Sherwood Anderson-award winning
farcical novel follows two teenage
boys living on a farm in rural Indiana. Their
father - a diminutive man and the laughingstock
of their small town - purchases
two boars in an attempt to impress his
neighbors and demonstrate, by proxy, his
masculinity. The boars, however, turn out
to be resolutely gay and deeply committed
to each other, setting off a ridiculous chain
of events that brings the spotlight and accompanying
media circus to Malloy.
In the midst of all of the madness is the
boys ongoing, and at once heartbreaking
and hilarious, quest to end their wayward
mother, told through a series of touching
and humorous flashbacks. Disappointed
in their pitiful father, the boys cling to an
unrealistic fantasy of their mother, who is
in actuality a promiscuous drifter.
Crandells depiction of the gay boars
provides much of the books humor and,
unexpectedly, its moral compass as he
weaves significant and subtly articulated
themes of animal rights and gay rights.
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