It’s a Page Turner
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I once read a book – I have no idea what the title was or who wrote it – where the reader learned early on that SOMETHING MAJOR HAPPENED. Usually with a book like that, one needs to read and read until the exact halfway point in order to get the scoop. But instead with that particular book, just a page or two later, the author spilled the beans! He/she shared the secret! Right there in the opening pages! And then went on and did other things with the plot from there. It was astounding!
I thought of that as I read Piglet, where the book opens 98 days before Piglet and Kit’s wedding. The chapters count down irregularly from there to the big event. Between chapters there are short journal-like entries where some hunk of personal information is shared. Thus as we leap from the first chapter to the second – which takes us from 98 days to 20 days before the wedding – we read this: “He would tell her thirteen days before their wedding, and she would feel his words lodge like a shard of bone between her ribs.”
But enquiring minds want to know: What did he tell her? Well…I guess enquiring minds need to keep reading.
A glance at the table of contents proves we need to make it through the chapters called 20 Days, 16 Days, and 14 Days before we get to the fateful one that is 13 days before the wedding. Actually, keeping the suspense going, it is in the journal-like entry AFTER the chapter in which Kit leaned over Piglet in bed and said, “I have to tell you something.” And he does tell HER, but the author does not tell US! His question at the end of the entry is “Do you still want to get married?” This is on page 75.
What is so awful that they might call off the wedding? Oh yea, it was like a shard of bone between her ribs, but what was it?
As I kept reading and reading and reading and got to page 201 out of 309 pages, Piglet told her best friend what happened. And Piglet told her father what happened. Likewise, Kit told his parents what happened. But neither Piglet nor Kit manage to tell the reader what happened.
At that point, it looked like the author might never tell and I wrote a note to myself that such a game plan would be just as astounding as the book I mentioned at the start of this review!
But guess what? Now I’m the one who is not going to tell. You have to read the book if you want to know what Kit did – or how the author avoided sharing that information for 309 pages.
Basically, getting an answer to that question is what caused me to continue reading the book. Without a desire to solve that mystery, I may have chucked the novel because I was very uncomfortable with many choices Piglet made.
I often had to take breaks from reading because the story was anxiety provoking. Some parts were outright cringe worthy – like her bridal gown fitting. Others were just painful, like her decision to make a very elaborate cake for her wedding, a croquembouche. It would have three towers of pastry that needed to be made the morning of the wedding. Huh? What kind of craziness is that? And as we read all about the cake-making in great detail, it did get crazy. So much went wrong I was reminded of the candy factory episode of I Love Lucy.
But beyond all that, I wanted Piglet to take some kind of stand with her family about her name. It takes until the end of the book for us to learn that her name is really Pippa. This means that Piglet is her pet name. Literally, right? Adding horror to the nickname is that the shortened form – which should be a term of endearment – is even worse, it’s Pig!
As I said, I was often uncomfortable reading this book.
However, I’d recommend it to a book club!
If indeed we learn what Kit did, it would be juicy to dissect his actions and discuss what we would do hearing such a thing from our fiancé thirteen days before the wedding. If on the other hand, the author never tells, it would be intriguing to talk about how she pulled off such a feat and to think about other techniques authors have used to create page turners. Because in spite of things I did not like about the book, that’s indeed what Piglet was, a page turner.
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Click here to learn more about Piglet by Lettie Hazell.
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