Customer Reviews

Two Pigs and a Chicken (Erindale Tale #1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A compulsively good man, Gael does a good deed that will transform his quiet plodding life. It just goes to show that being kind can have far reaching and complicated consequences.

I had a little trouble with the artifical barrier about age, but enjoyed the transformation of the two main characters.

I thought the title of this book was a bit odd at first glimpse. Once I started reading the story it all made perfect sense.

Gael and Mia are the main characters and are so very likable and so well described that I had no trouble picturing them in my mind.

The story pulled me in from the very beginning. There was no skimming/skipping pages.

The peaceful and happy romance Gael and Mia share spans several years in this book.

I did look for the second book-'Maiden All Forlorn' in ebook format. Unfortunately, it is not available for the Kindle.

Moira's story -- The Maiden All Forlorn -- previously intended as a 2005 sequel to Two Pigs and a Chicken, has been considerably altered and expanded, and is now planned as the first and third entries in a series of Erindale Tales. The first volume, still titled The Maiden All Forlorn, will be published in late 2007, and subsequent titles should appear at intervals of eight to twelve months. (Working titles for books whose plots are essentially complete are An Unsuitable Suit, A Change of Heart, Just Jamie, Poor Emily, and Blind Man's Bluff.)

I would like to thank the many readers who have sent such kind comments about my novel, "Two Pigs and a Chicken", and to let them know that in response to their requests, a sequel -- "The Maiden All Forlorn" -- will be published around the end of 2005.

I would also like to answer the many questions that I have been asked about the novel's setting. I was deliberately vague about that, stating only that it takes place in "a land which exists not in ordinary space and time, but only in our collective imaginations," because I felt that it was the characters and their story which were important, not the setting.

Despite that, many readers have told me with some certainty exactly where the novel must have taken place. Suggestions have ranged from Ireland or Wales, to Pennsylvania or Ohio, and even the American West. And in my mind, any of these places could have been the setting, depending upon the time frame, as the novel was meant to be a timeless story of love and friendship that could have been set almost anywhere, if it were set in the real world. But it is not set in the real world. It is set in that place where we keep our dreams, and the hope that those dreams will be fulfilled.

The setting is the imaginary land of Erindale, and the Erindale Valley, which is not meant to resemble any specific place, but is inevitably similar to any number of real places. In "Two Pigs and a Chicken", there was no need to reveal any of the local geography, save for the low hill which lies between Gael's farm, and Ryan's farm. In the sequels, more of the landscape will be revealed, so that the reader has some idea how far apart different places are, and the sort of terrain which lies between them; but the geography is not of any importance. It is the people who live in Erindale, and what they are like, and what they do, that is the basis of the stories. So, please feel free to imagine Erindale anywhere, and any way, that you would like it to be.

as Jim Ostach once remarked, Two Pigs and a Chicken is "a remarkable story, endearing characters, and a wonderful ending." Jim couldn't have been more right. This enchanting tale of blue collared romance amidst chaotic domestica is filled with bathos peppered with hubris. Seligman massages romantic ideals like a husky Vietnamese Jane Austen. He is truly a master in command of such dazzling literary devices such as chiasmus. As a former student of Seligman's I can proudly assert that Seligman deftly blends assonance, alliteration and astronomy into a higher school of thought. His book goes where The Color Purple never could and where The Grapes of Wrath blundered. It's a dust bowl ballad for lovers of all civil war battles, from Shiloh to Bull Run and Antietam to Vicksburg. No conisseur is left behind. Seligman blessed with a fiery mane propels his passion for the universal plight of love in Two Pigs. This book is deceptively simple, tricking us to thinking it's comparable to the county fair and before you know it you're trapped inside a bonnet and chaps. It's like the strength of Orion, mighty and bold disappearing only to leave us waiting for more (Three Pigs and a Coop?????)

The story itself is interesting and deserves 4 stars. I only gave it 3 stars because of the HORRIBLE punctuation. Actually, if Amazon allowed us to rate various aspects of a book separately, I would give the punctuation a negative 2. The author's incessant, unnecessary, use of, commas throughout the story, is so distracting, that I almost put, the book down about, 25% of the, way through, it. I wish someone, would have proofread, this book, for the author, and, told her that, commas are not, required each time, the word, "and" is used, in a sentence. She also, needs to be, told that, you don't need to, put random, commas in sentences, just because, they have more than, six, or seven, words in, them.

Again, a decent story if you can ignore the atrocious comma usage.

This is the story of an innocent young girl who falls in love and lust with an "old" man. In the story the old man is only 41 or 42 but is presented as an old fat man. The young girl is 18 and in a day she falls in love with him because he is very kind to her.

The situation is not really plausible and the dialogues seemed forced to me.

I continued reading, because I forced myself to do it, about 75% of the book but I couldn't continue with it.

Gael is a really nice man but please, to make us believe that an 18 year old girl will fall in love with him so fast and not only in love but in lust (she wanted to "really" be his wife) the narrator should have given us something more, more time or more drama or something.

And I am not the kind of person who needs fiction to be "real" but it has to be plausible in the situation of the book, the plot, the time line, again something.

I bought this book because of the title and the sample but was very disappointed.

I gave it two stars and not one only because the book has some good points, the atmosphere, the idea of the plot.