'Hogs Wild' showcases New Yorker writer Ian Frazier at his best
Ian Frazier is the neighbor who stops by for coffee and starts telling you stories. And you drop everything to listen. Hogs Wild, a new collection of Mr. Frazier鈥檚 reported pieces, makes you want to drop everything and start reading.
Frazier, a long-time New Yorker writer, tackles disparate topics. The book takes its name from his absorbing piece about feral pigs, which he calls 鈥渂ristled vacuum-cleaner bags attached to snouts...." Frazier explains that they have become a big problem: 鈥淥f all the domesticated animals, none become feral more readily, or survive better in the wild, than the hog.鈥� And that鈥檚 why there are millions of them, largest in number in states that voted for George W. Bush in 2004, Frazier observes.
Hogs do enormous damage 鈥� to both natural and man-made environments. For example, they 鈥渞oot up rare and diverse species of plants....鈥� Frazier鈥檚 visits to hog-heavy places in the South to trek deep into the woods with hog experts to see wild hogs are Jack-London exciting.
Frazier is admirably non-judgmental. He provides vivid, startlingly fresh, often humorous, descriptions 鈥� along with historical backstory. But he mostly lets readers form their own opinions. In the final pages about feral pigs Frazier describes going to a festival where, in an arena, dogs corner and hector captured hogs. Here he lets a little girl provide commentary. As two dogs, heavily protected against being gored, race to engage 鈥� spectators transfixed by the drama 鈥� she cries, 鈥淩un, pig!聽 Run!鈥� A woman nearby concurs. 鈥淪he鈥檚 right!聽 What are they doing!鈥� Frazier continues:聽 鈥淔or a moment we all hesitated, uneasy and off balance; then we returned to the business at hand.鈥�
By contrast, 鈥淭he Rap鈥� is totally urban. Frazier鈥檚 intrepid reporting here takes place in thoroughly dodgy sections of the New York boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, where he hangs with Derrick Parker, a sometime cop and now security specialist who focuses on crime in the 鈥渞ap and hip-hop world.鈥� Mr. Derrick, Frazier says, 鈥渃an tell you who shot Tupac Shakur and Jam Master Jay....聽 Just because a murder is unsolved doesn鈥檛 mean nobody knows who did it.鈥�
Frazier takes you places that make you grasp his book with white knuckles. He describes meeting the astonishingly congenial Derrick at a strip club in the Bronx. 鈥淭he club is in a low gray brick building with black security gates.... [T]he wider neighborhood offers auto junkyards of crashed vehicles with their air bags deployed, vast no-name warehouses ... [and] unmuffled cars and motorcycles....鈥� Frazier offers no grand insights about violence and rap music, no this-will-fix-it conclusions. But his matter-of-fact descriptions encapsulate a slice of American life, and provide self-knowledge that might somehow help.
Frazier鈥檚 unquenchable curiosity is remarkable. He will return again and again to the venue of his topic till he鈥檚 captured its essence. Perhaps the most extraordinary example of this is in his monumental book 鈥淭ravels in Siberia.鈥� Frazier makes a number of visits to this notoriously cold and remote place.聽 His gift to readers resulting from his willingness to endure remarkable hardships is not just vivid travelogue, but an illuminating view 鈥� the beginning of a deeper understanding of Russia, its land and its people.
Parts of 鈥淪iberia鈥� appeared in The New Yorker, which, along with other major magazines, was where 鈥淗ogs Wild鈥� pieces were first published.聽 Understandably, given that he lives near one of the world鈥檚 most dynamic cities, 鈥淭he Rap鈥� isn鈥檛 Frazier's only piece about New York.
鈥淭he Antidote鈥� exposes the achingly sad story behind the tragedy of drug addiction 鈥� and an antidote drug used to reverse overdoses. 鈥淏lue Bloods鈥� provides a fascinating account about horseshoe crabs, and about crab fans around greater New York who study these ancient creatures. Frazier鈥檚 deadpan realism can鈥檛 hide his compassion as he examines this colorful but often discordant world.
In 鈥淗ungry Minds,鈥� Frazier describes helping homeless individuals in New York discover their voice at a writers鈥� workshop 鈥� in league with the soup kitchen at the Church of the Holy Apostles. About the homeless, who seem to have lost their identity, he comments, 鈥淭he alchemy of writing gives everybody who鈥檚 been in the workshop an extra dimension: along with possessing a name and a face ... writing even a few lines makes the person who does it more substantial and real.鈥�
Meanwhile, Frazier himself makes the homeless 鈥渕ore substantial and real鈥� to readers, and homelessness, along with everything else he writes about, even more poignant and meaningful, in this brilliant collection.
