Book Review: Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home: a Memoir, by Lise Funderburg

Most of us have parents or guardians whom we eventually begin to parent and take care of, entering into a dance of ever-shifting rules, negotiations, new demands, new ways of communicating, new tides of control. The person we might have always seen as ragingly robust, invincible, our protector, provider, and, at times, oppressor, becomes vulnerable, physically and emotionally fragile, frightened, dependant, and often angry. The strength we knew in them before morphs into a concrete stubbornness against which the adult daughter or son develops an array of defenses in multiple forms: humor, patience, a sharp tongue (probably genetic), or simply staying away.

Pig Candy not only flawlessly portrays all of these complexities, a story most of humanity knows well.  Lise Funderburg takes us into her father's deep emotional attachment to rural Georgia - once a source of great strife during the Segregation years, yet to which he now returns as a place that brings him comfort during the final stages of a terminal illness. Funderburg masterfully brings a small Southern community to life through not only her father's eyes but hers as well - northern eyes, informed and perhaps prejudiced by the painful experiences of an older generation, yet curious and open to fully seeing what it is about the people, culture (food plays a major role, as the title promises) and environment that soothes her father so.

This book undoubtedly resonated with me in a deeply personal way due to my similar cultural background and age to Ms. Funderburg's, and the fact that I moved from the Deep North to the Deep South (and have fallen in love with Georgia's long, luxurious growing season, to which Ms. Funderburg devotes many elegiac words).  But for readers from other worlds as well, this remains an outstandingly (rarely) well-written book (Funderburg teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania), completely honest yet loving, observant, not self-indulgent, and riddled with brilliant moments of wit.  This all coalesces into a truly beautiful portrayal of a daughter's unconditional love for an at times utterly maddening father, and the challenges of losing a parent - especially a parent with whom the relationship has been anything but simple.

This is an educational romp, a joy to read.

Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home: a Memoir

by Lise Funderburg (author of Black, White, Other)

Free Press, 2008