Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Zindel, Paul (Vol. 26) - Peter Fanning

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

PETER FANNING

It seems that a good story will not lie down; and there are not that many around. After The Pigman, The Pigman's Legacy (followed, I suppose by The Pigman's Return), several titles and 11 years later, Paul Zindel picks up John and Lorraine. He finds them almost as fresh and eccentric as they were just before the Pigman died….

[The Pigman's Legacy has] a much simpler plot. All the old man does is die; and all the children do is make his final days a little easier. The cycle of birth, infatuation and death is heavily scored in the final chapters. But if the moral tone is just a little more sententious, the hijinks more hollow and the Overwhelming Question a lot more overwhelming, The Pigman's Legacy emerges as a serious sequel rather than a souped up rerun of a book that launched a thousand imitations.

Peter Fanning, "Nasties in the Woodshed," in The Times Educational Supplement (© Times...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Diane Farrell
3. Zena Sutherland
4. The Times Literary Supplement
5. Marilyn R. Singer
6. John Rowe Townsend
7. Diane Gersoni-Edelman
8. The Times Literary Supplement
9. Mary Silva Cosgrave
10. Zena Sutherland
11. BEVERLY A. HALEY and KENNETH L. DONELSON
12. Isabel Quigly
13. Zena Sutherland
14. Isabel Quigly
15. Stanley Hoffman
16. Joyce Milton
17. Maxine Fisher
18. Jack Forman
19. Cyrisse Jaffee
20. Sally Holmes Holtze
21. Peter Fanning
22. David Rees
23. Paxton Davis
24. Judith N. Mitchell
25. Margery Fisher
26. A. Thatcher
27. Copyright

1. Paul Zindel