Not murdered him.

Recently on substack someone asked about books we read when we were younger which have stuck with us for reasons which we could not explain. I didn’t have to think about it for a moment: the answer was The Pigman by Paul Zindel. I discovered it in the discard sale at the library, probably lured by the strange title, and it has never left my mind since. The fact that I have not visited it in the life of the blog is baffling.

It opens simply, with two bored teenager (John and Lorraine) who have created a game involving telephone booths. They dial a random number in their town and would take it in turns to see who could keep a stranger talking for the longest time. And then they found Mr. Pignati, a lonely widower who loved to talk and had no one to talk to. When Lorraine identifies herself as being a charity worker for the “L&J Fund”, Mr. Pignatti cheerfully volunteers to pay $10 if they are able to pick up the money directly. So begins a fascinating friendship and a troubled period in their lives.

John and Lorraine find Mr. Pignatti entertaining company, as he’s full of little games himself — like personality quizzes embedded inside stories. After a few visits the kids confess their lie to Mr. Pignatti, but he has been hiding something himself: his wife Conchetta isn’t away on vacation, she’s passed on. The Pigman is happy to keep entertaining the kids, as they to the zoo and visit a department store that sells exotic snacks like chocolate-covered aunts. Mr. Pignatti, despite his age and sadness, reveals to have a freer spirit inside, and revels in roller-skating with the kids. Only…it turns out old men with serious wine habits should take physical activity easy, and things take progressively sadder turns.

When I read this for the first time, I was rather young and not prepared for the more serious themes: it was in fact the first book that ever made the old eyeballs leak a little. John and Lorraine enjoy being treated like adults in the Pigman’s house, but adulthood is not merely drinking wine and eating ants: it comes with losses, responsibility, and the heavy weight of consequences.

I’m glad I went back and revisited this: if not for SciFiMonth2026 I’d be sorely tempted to read Zindel’s direct sequel and his book The Pigman and Me, which was about the inspiration for the story. I remember it as being thought-provoking when I found it back in the day.