Porky (novel) - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Porky, is the fifth novel by English author Deborah Moggach, first published in 1983 by Jonathan Cape and recommended in OUP's Good Fiction Guide.

Plot introduction

'Porky' is Heather's nickname because her father keeps pigs in a field at their ramshackle bungalow just off the A4 near Heathrow Airport. Heather is eleven when her mother has an extended stay in hospital over the birth of her second child; leaving Heather alone with her father at home. A sexual relationship starts between them. As Heather grows up her abuse ends up poisoning everything in her life...

Reception

An 'extraordinarily skilful account of a childhood blasted by what is now acknowledged to be a more widespread offence than was previously recognised: incest', Anita Brookner, London Review of Books.

'Deborah Moggach conveys with chilling skill the process by which a fundamentally bright, decent child becomes infested by corruption.', The Spectator

Gay Firth writing in The Times warns 'readers of despairing disposition or dainty susceptibilities will pass by on the other side, shuddering' but goes on to praise the author for 'sustaining a first-person register so level in its tone of quiet desperation, so careful to avoid blatant shock, as to hold back the tidal wave of revulsion and pity which threatens, but never quite engulfs the reader'.

References

Porky (novel) Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

Plot introduction

Reception

References