What's the deal with the Trufflepig?

I have mixed feelings about Fernando A. Flores' Tears of the Trufflepig. When I first started reading it, I loved the writing style and I thought it was really engaging. However, I quickly became overwhelmed by how much Flores tries to achieve in one novel, touching on so many different themes such as new vs. old, science vs. nature, loss, borders, religion, to name a few. When reading the second half of the book, I found it increasingly difficult to get through. I was having trouble processing all of the different themes that the novel tackles and pinpointing the most important parts of it. Despite this, one question remained: what is the deal with the Trufflepig?

The Trufflepig represents a lot: wealth, gain, loss, entertainment, playing "God," and possibilities. We are first introduced to it when Bellacosa and Paco Herbert go to one of the "illegal dinners." Why is the Trufflepig there in the first place? I think it's interesting that there was very minimal explanation about the origins of the Trufflepig in this part of the novel, and the way that the other dinner guests talk about it (like when the young girl asks Bellacosa if it was "[his] first time with one,") makes it seem like its existence is totally normal and not at all unnatural (116). At this point, an explanation is unimportant and the only thing that matters is that the Trufflepig is there for one thing and one thing only: entertainment. At one point during the dinner scene, Josie explicitly states that the Trufflepigs are there "for [their] enjoyment" (120). What does this mean? What does "enjoyment" mean here? In a setting filled with opulence and extravagance and individual wine bottles for each guest, I think the Trufflepig is there for the wealthy to revel in the things that only they have access to.

My opinion changed drastically throughout the second half of the book as we learn more about the Trufflepig, especially when Bellacosa is kidnapped. From this point, I started to see the Trufflepig as representative of possibilities and other lives. It "brought [Bellacosa] closer to his dead wife and his dead daughter, to his life if it had taken a different direction" (234). It serves as a gateway for Bellacosa to see what his life could have been like, something that is both devastating and comforting at the same time. He was able to have more time with his family and understand what his daughter would have been like if she grew up, but the experience is also snatched away from him when he wakes up. At the end of the book, when Bellacosa goes to check up on the Trufflepig in his bathroom, he "[feels] very much in touch with his entire life," having been able to "see his daughter [and] his entire family" (318). The Trufflepig, essentially, is a mirror of Bellacosa's loss and the possibilities that his life had, but also provided him with closure and control over his life.

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