When Pigs Fly by Bob Sanchez
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: November 2006
- 320pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: November 2006
- Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
- Format: Paperback, 320pp
- ISBN-13: 9780595407705
- ISBN: 0595407706
Synopsis
Retired cop Mack Durgin used to bust perpetrators in Massachusetts, but now he’s widowed and living in Arizona. When a FedEx driver drops off an urn filled with his friend’s ashes at his front door, Mack reluctantly knows he must fulfill George Ashe’s final wish: to have his remains spread over the Grand Canyon. But Mack has no clue what lies hidden within the urn besides his friend’s ashes. On his journey through the desert, Mack meets the entrancing Calliope Vrattos, a former waitress in a bar that holds Elvis impersonation contests. Diet Cola is an ex-con who loves greasy food, but more than anything else, he desperately wants what he hid in the urn. Cola hooks up with a pair of loony housebreakers, a bald Elvis impersonator, and a dopehead with an outline of his brain tattooed on his skull. With a bit of luck and a lot of junk food, they trace Mack to the little town of Pincushion, Arizona. George Ashe may not be alive, but his remains are having the adventure of a lifetime. As Mack encounters one crazed character after another in his quest to fulfill his friend’s last wish, he realizes that life is a gamble and that pigs really do fly.
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When Pigs Flyby Anonymous
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July 23, 2008: Although others have compared Bob Sanchez? first novel with the movie, Pulp Fiction, the parallels for me were more in line with Raising Arizona. This book is crammed with imaginative characters and thoughtful plotting, bringing images of several movies into the reader?s consciousness. The fast pacing of the action in this quick summer read could be likened to Into the Night, in which Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer are chased by crazy crooks as they develop their own new relationship. That movie even featured an Elvis impersonator, too. A more modern movie similarity can be seen in The Whole Nine Yards, in which you never know if the unpredictable nature of the characters is going to explode into violence or benign monkey business. Bob Sanchez has had a long career in the field of technical writing, but When Pigs Fly is his first novel. The author?s extensive experience shows through the taut editing and careful plot construction of When Pigs Fly. My only complaint is that the book is too short: double line spacing in the dialogue and the many chapter breaks make the book a somewhat shorter read than the page count would otherwise indicate. There is little doubt that When Pigs Fly is a fun book to read!
When Pigs Flyby Anonymous
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July 18, 2008: After retiring from the Lowell, Massachusetts police force, Mack Durgin has moved to Pincushion, Arizona where he is leading a mundane, shapeless, boring existence, largely due to the loss of Mary, his beloved wife of 30 years. Meanwhile back in Massachusetts, Diet Cola, an unreformed and dangerous ex-con, goes looking for a winning lottery ticket that lay hidden in an urn containing the ashes of George Ashe, a former colleague of Mack?s. During Diet Cola?s 11 months in prison, the ticket remained undisturbed in the home of Mack?s parents, Carrick and Brodie Durgin that is, until they mailed George?s remains to their son so that he could scatter them in the Grand Canyon. Diet Cola and two thieves, Frosty and Ace, as well Calliope Vrattos, a beautiful waitress, and the Elvis impersonator who is stalking her, are all headed in Mack?s direction where they will hook up with Juanita, an unfortunate choice for Mack?s first sexual encounter after his wife?s death, and her jealous boyfriend, Zippy, so named for the zipper he has tattooed on his bald head. The cast is complete when Brodie, Mack?s mother, who is in the early stages of dementia, and her loving husband, Carrick, whose primary role is to keep his wife safe and happy, arrive in Arizona to visit their son. If When Pigs Fly were a movie, it would be a 1930s screwball comedy. Zippy is after Mack because of his one-night stand with his girlfriend Elvis is after Calliope Diet Cola, Frosty and Ace are after Mack?s ticket, which is complicated by the arrival of Mack?s parents. Mack knows nothing of the ticket in the urn. He has been asked to spread his friend?s ashes in the Grand Canyon, and that?s what he?s going to do. All of this is played out against the beautiful Arizona landscape. Amidst all the chaos created in the pursuit of the lottery ticket are two charming stories. Carrick Durgin knows that his wife?s dementia is only going to get worse. He wants to make the most of the time left to them, and so they go to Las Vegas with a side trip to see Mack. Brodie, who?s brain has apparently deleted the fear mechanism that keeps human beings safe, finds herself in the company of Diet Cola and Zippy. Instead of being afraid of these two hoodlums, she chastises them for their bad behavior. All Carrick can do is hope and pray that his wife will not come to any harm. And then there is Mack and Calliope. Mack is a handsome, kind, thoughtful person who is trying to figure out how to live in a world no longer inhabited by his wife. Although he is attracted to Calliope, he feels that if he became involved with the former waitress it would be the same as cheating on his wife. For her own reasons, Calliope is reluctant to commit to a relationship with Mack. Calliope and Mack are like two people who see each other across a crowded dance hall. They know that the attraction is there, and step by step, they move to the center for that first slow dance. This is a laugh-out-loud type of book with some of the funniest writing I have read in years. The dialog sparkles and the characters are funny and believable. And did I mention a javelina named Poindexter?
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