Pig Boy

J. C. Burke (author)

Woolshed Press, Australia: May 2011; 322pp

ISBN: 9781741663129

Genres: realistic fiction, young adult

Issues: bullying, crime, community, family, identity, justice

When Damon Styles is expelled from school on his 18th birthday, six weeks before his HSC exams, he realises that he really cannot trust anybody. A lock on his wardrobe, renewing his firearms licence, a job with the Pigman. These are all part of Damon's plans for survival.

Abandoned as a child by his aggressive father, bullied for years at school, gentle of heart but with a short fuse, Damon is a born victim. Only by playing violent computer games and making endless lists and plans can he control his rampant anxiety and be sure that he is protecting himself and his mother from the community that has rejected them. Small town Australia: gossip, prejudice, favours and bribes. How is Damon, a square peg in a round hole, supposed to defend himself from accusations based on assumptions?

J. C. Burke's novel The Story of Tom Brennan won the 2006 CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers and Pig Boy has a similar stomach-churning intensity. Damon's first person account ensures that the reader sees the turbulent, unstable internal world that is his reality. It is only as the narrative gradually unfolds that the reader is encouraged to consider how Damon's behaviour must appear to others, including his mother. Pig Boy explores the tendency of any community to select someone as the 'outsider' or 'other' – the one who is not part of the group – for persecution and blame. Burke demonstrates that doing this enables humans to ignore the very real problems and injustices that are on their doorstep and thus avoid responsibility for their own actions and choices. There is an echo of Lord of the Flies in Pig Boy, a similar mob mentality, where individuals lose their own values and principles to the louder and more persuasive voices in the group. Such is the terrifying chemistry behind lynchings, where the rule of law is overwhelmed by an angry community's desire for blood.

Pig Boy is at times a bleak and rather terrifying novel, powerfully written to convey the sense of despair and desperation felt by Damon as he struggles to deal with the consequences of his inept decisions and find out who he really is. The personality of the Pigman is perhaps the most remarkable, even in this unusual ensemble of character, all of whom are drawn in great detail and depth. The Pigman recognises in Damon a fellow isolate; recognises his suffering and the fear that drives his choices. That 'the mad Yugo' (who is in fact a Serb), rejected by the Strathven community, is the only one who can see the truth in Damon, gives this darkly disturbing novel a finely drawn irony that will appeal to those who live with daily concerns about society's tendency to discard those it does not understand. In the end the Pigman has become an almost luminous character, the still, calm centre for Damon whilst the self-righteous community find themselves cast in the role of 'other'. This shifting perspective is designed to challenge readers to look more closely at their own judgements and perceptions, to question their own certainties and blind beliefs.

Some readers may find the inconclusive resolution dissatisfying but it is in complete harmony with Damon's life, where everything is about the journey, the experience, the lessons learnt, rather than the events themselves.

An extraordinarily disturbing novel, Pig Boy is one for class study and group discussion.