About
Author: Robert Menasse (Austria)
Genre: Socio-Political
Setting
Place: Brussels, Mutiple places across Europe
Time: 2010s
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 3
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 2.35
Introduction
A pig is running through The Capital – Brussels in Robert Menasse’s book. Or it may well be a horde of pigs? No one is quite really sure. In the meantime, the authorities continue the search for a pig which might as well not be there.
While the chase is going on – several citizens of Europe are navigating the Brussels bureaucracy and other very European developments – with at least two of them being concerned, at various levels of passion, with the European pig trade with China. The novel revolves around these individuals as their lives almost collides often.
Review
“The pig as a universal metaphor”. In daily articles he wrote about the range of things the pig had been made to act as symbol for: good and evil, fortune and disaster, sentimental love, contempt and deep – seated hatred, eroticism and wickedness. It was the only animal which as a metaphor covered the entire breadth of human emotions and philosophies, from the pig in clover to the filthy pig, from being “piggy in the middle” to “a greedy piglet”. He even ventured into the political realm and discussed the concepts of the “Jewish pig” and “Nazi swine”, before moving on to the pig as forbidden meat in some religions and the much – loved Babe, Peppa Pig and the Three Little Pigs.
As soon as I completed this novel – I did two things:
- Googled if ‘a wild pig’s chase’ is some sort of metaphor
- List down all the several characters in the novel – to see if their story arc somehow follows this metaphor
‘A wild pig’s chase’ unfortunately wasn’t any metaphor. But as I listed down the tens of characters, and after giving up trying to group them as protagonist or supporting casts, I sought to find a discernible pattern which might allow me to perhaps define the metaphor for myself.
Most characters in the novel – had an arguably unremarkable life – and they are trying to achieve a not-too-important objective during the novel – be it then preparing for a jubilee celebration, lobbying for suitable pig trade policy, rising up the bureaucratic corporate ladder, or not-investigating a murder. None of them really achieve their said objectives – but end at a sort-of inflexion point during their journey – either moderately hopeful or moderately hopeless.
So, I couldn’t really come up with a solid metaphor – perhaps the helter-skelter structure of the novel itself speaks to the metaphor. Characters come and disappear for stretches long enough for the readers to forget about them for a while, only to remember being invested in their story. The book remains interesting throughout – but doesn’t really leave much of an impression. It is difficult to imagine how a wild pig’s chase would be something similar – it might be interesting, it will definitely be helter-skelter, but I am sure it will also leave an impression. Thankfully, the novel was quite fun, certainly more than what any real wild pig chase would be.
