This, Mason's second book of verse devoted
to the porcine erotic, chart's the transgulfant migrosis of Swilly Jim, a four
hundred pound quasi-civilized hog, against whose ponderous charms a succession
of intriguing, brilliant, shatteringly sensuous women, find they have no defence.
Equally entranced and defenseless, Mason's readers must count themselves among
Swilly Jim's slop and mud encrusted conquests.
In the delirious stench of the sty, the
hideous but compelling swagger of Mason's porcine casanova, one seems to
approach the appreciation of a world enticingly similar to our own. "She
felt the pig's gelatinous flesh slosh against her own/and all the world an
avalanche/ a landslide of mud revealing the nakedness/ the vanity of
resistance." Awash with filth, scarred by the restraint of desire, the
reader emerges from the sty and sees with Mason's masterful eyes, views a world
in which the conflicts which plague our society have been set to rest. HOG'S
BREATH is indeed a poetic triumph.
"HOG'S BREATH soars with
porcine abandon, taking the reader on an unforgettable ride through the
farmyards and parlours of the south. Whether subduing men with devastating,
darkly philosophical ripostes over a glass of sherry, or subduing fascinating
women with his indomitable bulk, Swilly Jim carries all before him."
"Mason's
poetry sings and swaggers with delicately clustered bravado. HOG'S BREATH
like LORD OF THE MANOR before it, is both a delight to read, and a
challenge to its reader. In his bulging charm, and flatulent insight, Swilly Jim
seems to ask his readers what holds them back from embracing life with all the
fetid gusto of a four hundred pound pig."
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