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Samuel R. Delany
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Hogg Kindle Edition

by Samuel R. Delany (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 288 ratings
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The narrator of Hogg is a Huck Finn–like youngster caught in society’s most sinister seams—but unlike Huck, he passes no moral judgments on the violence he takes part in . . .

Hogg is the story of a man—a depraved trucker named Franklin Hargus, whom the people he works for call Hogg—and of the nameless boy who tells the story of three days of unspeakable sexual violence and devastation, which, together, they initiate in a small seaside American city in the middle of the last century. Hogg is a towering brute who makes his living as a rapist for hire. By the end of a series of vicious attacks, kidnappings, and mass murders, the reader will wonder who is more corrupt: the man or the boy.
 
Samuel R. Delany completed his first draft of Hogg within a day, if not within hours, of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City and revised it over the next four years, though it was not released until 1995.
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  1. Print length
    319 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    June 2, 2015
  6. File size
    2152 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hugo-and Nebula Award-winner Delany?whose early books were fascinating but whose recent efforts have grown increasingly obtuse?has been trying to get this pornographic novel published since 1973. The main narrator here is an 11-year-old boy who joins up with a raping, murdering pederast named Hogg. Coprophiliac Hogg violates women for pay. He enlists the help of other pedophiliac murdering rapists?Nigg, Dago and Denny?and the group sets off to perform acts of hideous violence. After the attacks, a biker friend of Hogg's sells the boy into sexual slavery to dockyard slum resident Big Sambo, who keeps his 12-year-old daughter for prostitution and his own perversions. The traumatized little girl is gang-raped by Hogg's crew as well. Meanwhile, teenaged Denny goes on an insane mutilating and mass-murder spree, eludes the police and finally returns to Hogg and the hopelessly confused narrator, who has been "rescued" after Hogg murders Big Sambo. Gang-rape attacks and criminal sex orgies are detailed at excruciating length, with photographic realism. This potent emetic is all the more disturbing for want of modulators of honest outrage. In other works, Delany has examined the role of the criminal within society; with Hogg, he apparently was content merely to inhabit the criminal mind without exploring it.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"There is no question that Hogg by Samuel R. Delany is a serious book with literary merit."
-Norman Mailer


"Hogg is a truly significant book. It is distasteful, raw, and upsetting; it also treats some of the sexual taboos that Americans do not want addressed in either art or politics. Hogg is an artistic triumph, as well as a political one." -John O'Brien, Dalkey Archive Press

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00W4LL4AS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (June 2, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 2, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2152 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 319 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 288 ratings

About the author

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Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany

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Samuel R. Delany’s science fiction and fantasy tales are available in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories. His collection Atlantis: Three Tales and Phallos are experimental fiction. His novels include science fiction such as the Nebula-Award winning Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection, as well as Nova (now in a Library of America anthology) and Dhalgren. His four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon is sword-and-sorcery. Most recently, he has written the SF novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. His 2007 novel Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award. Other novels include Equinox, Hogg, and The Mad Man. Delany was the subject of a 2007 documentary, The Polymath, by Fred Barney Taylor, and he has written a popular creative writing textbook, About Writing. He is the author of the widely taught Times Square Red / Times Square Blue, and his book-length autobiographical essay, The Motion of Light in Water, won a Hugo Award in 1989. All are available as both e-books and paperback editions. His website is: www.samueldelany.com.

Photo by Alex Lozupone (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5
288 global ratings
Great Novel, by an accomplished award winning Science Fiction Novelist.
5 Stars
Great Novel, by an accomplished award winning Science Fiction Novelist.
Great Novel, by an accomplished award winning Science Fiction Novelist. The Book is Raw; fast paced and easy to read. Extremely dirty minded and to the point. No other book compares to it!
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Top reviews from the United States

Donald Fischer
5.0 out of 5 stars Some Thoughts on Hogg
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2016
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This was a shocking book. Recognizing that it is a novel, if it is compendium of things that are being done or have been done, the book reveals a world beyond dark. I believe that it is a function of art to reveal things to us that we might not see. This book does that. I have seen the transition in freedom of expression from Blue Moon and the Marilyn Monroe picture to today and am grateful for it. However, this book is so obscene and violent, it is difficult to read. As a work of literature it is important. It is important to know that such things occur, at least enough to be brought to light for observation. It is important to see what trains of thought are out there. For me, as a 75 year old and not exactly prudish, this was a very enlightening and raw experience. I have not finished it.
19 people found this helpful
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Jose Jones
1.0 out of 5 stars The very definition of dull.
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2011
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Delany is known for his sci-fi/fantasy novels. "Hogg" is about as realistic. In it, a slovenly man (the titular Hogg) is a rapist-for-hire, and he drags around our narrator, a silent 11 year old, from one vile crime to the next, all the while repeatedly having sex with him. His cohorts -- an Italian man and a black man, who are normally referred to only by their race -- tag along raping, killing and having sex with the narrator too. Everyone that exists in this strange world 1) is extremely violent and commits acts of violence without hesitation, 2) has sex with children of both genders, 3) engages, or has engaged, in incest, 4) has a penchant for scatology.

Even the sex in this book seems unrealistic -- like something someone who's never had sex might write.

But more than anything, this novel is just boring. Dreadfully, maddeningly, intensely BORING. The depravity is so redundant it makes your eyes glaze over.

We never even scratch the surface of who these evil men are. We hear more of their genitals than what makes them do these things. Delany never once stops to bring us into his characters' minds. What motivates them? What allows them to rape and kill unremittingly and not even have a pang of guilt?

Much has been made about how "Hogg" was an "unpublishable" novel. You would assume this was because of its content, but I truly believe it was simply because the book is so gravely dull. If you read one paragraph of the book, you don't need to read anything else. It is that repetitive.

Since Delany never bothers to delve even briefly into the reason his characters are who they are, and do the things they do, it leaves the novel as basically violent scenes of rape strung together randomly. Ultimately, what is Delany saying about violence in our society and the exploitation of children? Is he saying anything at all? He doesn't seem to be.

The fact that this novel has managed to generate a certain respect and renown, and be taken seriously, isn't exactly surprising. It's been proven more than once that if you clog something with sadistic, repulsive sexual acts people will find it profound. But as it exists, with no insight into its characters and absolutely nothing beneath its grimy surface, "Hogg" is nothing more than lazily and obtusely written rape-porn.
44 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Raunchy
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2018
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Combine the most shocking parts of "The Painted Bird" and "The Last Exit to Brooklyn". Then put it all on steroids. I'm giving it a three because it is certainly well written although the subject "matter" is gross. Rape, mass murder, child abuse, and very Progressive Liberal mating rituals.
7 people found this helpful
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Lou Britt
4.0 out of 5 stars Proceed with caution
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2018
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HOGG was written in 1968, a few short months before the Stonewall Riots. Brimming with anger and pent up sexuality, HOGG is (by the author's admission) a pornographic novel for nobody. It's the kind of novel that's hard to describe as "good," even though it's masterfully constructed and hard-hitting. It's also disgusting on a deep, visceral level--multiple levels, actually.

The (mostly) nameless, voiceless narrator of HOGG is an underage boy of possibly mixed race who begins his narrative by immediately shifting focus from himself to Hogg, a character so vile that it's hard to write a PG description of him. His profession is that of a rape artist. He rapes specific women in exchange for cash and enjoys his work, though admittedly he prefers the company of men.

When the narrator and Hogg meet, it leads to a weekend of unspeakable violence and puke-worthy sex. Racism literally abounds; some characters are referred to just by an epithet, and some of their names are only revealed in police reports. HOGG, the novel, plays on our sense of pity--we want to feel bad for the narrator. It's easy to see him as a victim of society. But as the pages go on, it gets harder and harder as he becomes more than an active participant in the goings-on.

The word "love" is never mentioned in the 200+ page novel, but the reader can feel an approximation of it in the relationship between Hogg and the narrator--maybe. This makes the ending just that much more powerful, when the narrator speaks his only line of dialogue.

This is a very powerful book, whether you can find something redeemable in it or not. It's very much a product of its time, and furthermore, it SAYS something, which I think these so-called "extreme" horror authors could learn a thing about. HOGG is not just filth for the sake of filth, or violence for the sake of violence. When put in context, it's heart-breaking and vile at the same time. I don't know if another book has ever made me feel this way.
60 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Cliente Kindle
1.0 out of 5 stars Mind numbing
Reviewed in Italy on September 3, 2023
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"can you finish Hogg?" that's long been the question... Usually asked to show just how "hardcore" this book is from cover to cover

However, let's be real, the question really asks if you have the ability to finish a book with zero plot, zero character development, and zero shock vale beyond, oh, racist terms and endless, completely nonsensical r*pe scenes

The book is lame. Save your money. This isn't transgresive fiction, it's a 6th grader trying to impress his dopey friends with how many "bad words" he knows. Total snooze fest
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Bernie Gourley
4.0 out of 5 stars Imagine the most morally and hygienically disgusting person you can, Hogg is worse.
Reviewed in India on February 11, 2020
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If you’re familiar with Samuel R. Delany, it’s probably as a writer of science-fiction. His most famous works are “Dhalgren” and “Babel-17.” However, this book isn’t science-fiction, and I’m not sure that there is a concensus term for the particular genre that would categorize it. Astute readers will point out that it’s described as “erotica” right on the cover. But, in as much as erotica is a genre whose dominant intention is to evoke feelings of arousal, I’m not sure the majority of people would classify it that way (though I have no doubt there is a fetish community that would.) This isn’t to say that the book isn’t loaded with sexual activity. It is, across virtually every page, but the way those acts are presented -- I suspect -- will be found more cringe-inducing than arousing to the average reader. I’m specifically talking about the extreme unhygienic behavior that takes place throughout this book – much of which is tied up in sexual activity, but not all of it. Let it be known that I’m not commenting on the nature of the sexual activity, which is pansexual. I’m not even talking about the moral disgust of the fact that most of the scenes in which a woman is present involve rape of a particularly vicious nature, and that child molestation takes place throughout. By the same token, horror isn’t a good classifier either, though the book does have many horrifying scenes, and might best be categorized by a type of horror subgenre. If horror is a genre designed to evoke fear, “Hogg” is a book designed to evoke disgust – and it does so with great success. So, the first thing a reader should be aware of before taking on this book is that you may throw up in your mouth at one or more points during the reading of it.

So strong is aversion to disgust that probably most readers will have given up on this review by now and given up any intention of reading the book. Those who are still here, however, may want to know whether the book has redeeming qualities. The answer is: Yes. It has a smart story, psychological intrigue, and skillful use of language (even if much of that skill is directed at making one physically queasy.) While “Hogg” is often painful to read, it is adroit storytelling.

The book tells the story of the unnamed narrator, a boy who is known throughout only by a slang term for “giver of fellatio.” The narrator spends much of the book in service to the titular character, Hogg. Hogg is about as loathsome a character as one can imagine, and he needs the extra “g” because to call him a hog wouldn’t be an insult to swine. He exercises little control over where he urinates and defecates, and prides himself in unhygienic behavior. His job is contract work, but instead of murder he rapes and beats women who’ve run afoul of despicable and cowardly men. The lead character seems to be motivated by a need to please and / or capture the attention of an individual who has no capacity for human connection. The psychotic Hogg seems perfect target for such “affections,” and that’s why after bouncing from master to master, the narrator ends up with Hogg for such a time.

One of the most psychologically interesting elements of the book is its depiction of the bizarro morality of individuals who have an anarchic mindset. At one point, Hogg decides that he can’t tolerate a customer who insists on explaining his reason for hiring Hogg and his crew. In Hogg’s mind, the fact that the man can come up with a reason for the horrific act, other than the pure bliss of it, indicates that the man is crazy and will ultimately feel guilty and be the ruin of them all.

The story is swept along through its climax and resolution when Hogg’s most junior crew member (not counting the narrator who is only along for the ride) goes on a killing spree after an ill-advised penis-piercing. The reader never learns for certain whether this individual just lost his mind as a result of being drawn into Hogg’s world, if it was toxicity from the rusty metal he was pierced with, or some combination of both. However, we know from his chronic, public masturbation that he was never completely right in the head to begin with.

This book is not for everybody. Reading it is almost an act of courage and discipline. As a piece of literature, it’s intense and thought-provoking, but if you find any of the following intolerable to read about, you’ll not get through it: child molestation, rape, violence, the n-word, or coprophilia.
One person found this helpful
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Irish Beast
5.0 out of 5 stars Literature for this century
Reviewed in Canada on March 16, 2018
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Best piece of literature to catch my attention in a longtime. Warning: Graphic Adult Content
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Nathan F.
2.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing read
Reviewed in Australia on March 2, 2023
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Over the top violence. I read this knowing it's reputation. But the violence depicted was extreme and made for an uncomfortable read. Not an enjoyable experience at all.
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Quantum Cat
5.0 out of 5 stars Shogg And Awe
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2018
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Got this for the book club I recently joined. Sadly I was unable to discuss it with my fellow book-lovers as they seem to have moved the reading group to a different venue, and through what must be an oversight I still have not received the details of the new meeting place.

In any case, this is a great book, full of uplifting prose that sends your soul soaring sky-high at every twist and turn. The nameless protagonist strikes a friendship with the titular Hogg, and soon the pair, along with a colourful cast of supporting characters, embark on a three-day adventure across America that will test their blooming camaraderie to the limit. A true American classic an an essential read. A great gift to give that special someone on a first date.
21 people found this helpful
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