Book Details Author: Todd Parnell Hardcover: 256 pages Product Dimensions: 6” x 9” Retail Price: $24.95 ISBN: 978-1-948901-08-6 Book Description Pig Farm is a taste of the present spread over two centuries past, eight generations of the fictional Snarkle clan in all, grounded in the truth of a non-fictional travesty. It’s an historical tall tale set in the context of a real life environmental tragedy, along side America’s first national river, the Buffalo. Brimming with humor and colorful characters, riddled with mystery and misfortune, tainted with prejudice and deceit, and laced with money and greed, fiction intersects with fact to paint a disturbing portrait of a “pig farm” over time. Follow young Jebediah Snarkle and his family from his homeland in Tennessee to the newly minted state of Arkansas, where they discover Large Creek, and “the most beautiful place on earth.” His family’s competition with the Hensbells through decades and generations over everything from sustainable agriculture to money and politics simmers throughout, bursting forth in spurts of violence and greed, and even intermarriage. Pig Farm recounts their personal adventures, tragic events, and historical reference points with vivid descriptives and subtle humor, and discounts truth along the way. At its core, Pig Farm is a recounting of how an ill-conceived and stupidly permitted pig CAFO along side America’s first national river might have come to be. Author Todd Parnell is the recently retired President of Drury University, founding CEO of THE BANK in Springfield, Mo., civic leader, environmental advocate as co-founder of the Upper White River Basin Foundation and recently retired Chairman of the Missouri Clean Water Commission, and award winning author inducted into the Missouri Writers Hall of Fame in 2012. He holds Masters degrees in Business Administration from Dartmouth University and History from Missouri State University, and an undergraduate degree from Drury University. Parnell began writing non-fiction during his years as a banker and educator, including published works The Buffalo, Ben, and Me, Trails of the Heart: Along the Buffalo River, Mom at War, and Postcards from Branson. He tried his hand at fiction upon retiring from the Drury presidency and hasn't stopped writing since, publishing the Ozarkian Folk Tales Trilogy {Skunk Creek, Swine Branch, and Donny Brook)Children of the Creek in production. His most current release, Pig Farm, unfolds a sweeping and rollicking historical tall tale set in the context of a real time environmental tragedy, along side America's first national river, the Buffalo. Brimming with humor and colorful characters, riddled with mystery and tragedy, and laced with money and greed, fiction merges with fact to paint a disturbing portrait of a "pig farm" over time. Parnell was born in Branson, Mo. and is an eighth-generation Ozarker. He resides with his wife of 42 years, Betty, in Springfield, Mo. and is blessed with four children and five grandchildren. Praise “Todd Parnell has more interest in pork than a politician. Pig Farm is his fictional foray into his ancestral home, Arkansas’s Buffalo River… His writing combines humor with history and adventure with mystery, seasoned with tall tale hilarity and a dash of depravity.” —Fred Pfister, Founder, Ozarks Mountain Magazine “Parnell’s stories reflect an organic sense of the people, land, water, culture and history of the distinctive Ozarks region.”—Jone E. Moore, Jr., Retired President of Drury University “Few people are more passionate about the Ozarks—both the physical region and the Ozarks on the page—than Todd Parnell. His deep roots in the region, his devotion to the Buffalo River, and his appreciation for the late master Donald Harington show through each page of Pig Farm. Add Welcome, Arkansas, to the fictional places I’d love to visit. It’s a bold book.”—Dr. Brooks Blevins, Author of Ghost of the Ozarks, Hill Folks and A History of the Ozarks, Vol. I; Professor of Ozarks Studies, Missouri State University Proceeds from the sale of this book will also help other communities and organizations preserve their history through Our American Heritage Project, a non-profit organization.
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