Pigs Can’t Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)

Growing up on a farm is a far from easy life. But for certain it’s full of chaos and fun and reality. With humor we get to see what that life might be like in Pigs Can’t Swim. Author Helen Peppe breaks down snippets of farm living into chapters covering everything from ghosts, riding unruly, untrained stubborn horses, dealing with the pecking order in a house full of siblings all older than oneself, the life and death of farm animals and chickens running around with their heads cut off, and so much more. Some of her humor cuts through to uncomfortable reality at times. We learn of Helen’s struggles, following in the footsteps of her older siblings, to school, where all the teachers have dealt with those older siblings, and some have no more patience to deal with one more Peppe child. We find that Helen’s parents balanced working a farm and raising all those children with jobs working for the Postal Service.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Some chapters are hard to follow. There just seems to be so much going on in some of them. At times her humor feels real and infectious. Other times it feels like she is trying very hard. Too hard.