Customer Reviews

The Rabbit Factory: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Like "Magnolia" or "Nashville," this is a mosaic about a group of loosely connected characters, most of whom don't realize their relationships to one another.

Domino, for example, is an ex-con who makes deliveries for a gangster named Mr. Hamburger; Hamburger employs Frankie, a button man who keeps hooker Anjalee as his on-hold skeezer; elderly Arthur meets both Anjalee and Frankie as he worries about his straying wife, Helen, who longs for pet shop clerk Eric; Eric was once acquainted with a one-armed man named Nub who recently hooked up with Miss Muffet, a woman who looks after a demonic dog for Mr. Hamburger, and so on....

It took me a while to get into the book -- it takes some time to get acclimated to all the different characters and you've got to get used the way Brown jumps from place to place and person to person.

But once that's out of the way, the stories speed by. Brown is a master at getting you hooked into one story, then shifting to another one that gradually becomes just as engrossing. He also creates characters that are deeply flawed but surprisingly sympathetic: case in point -- Domino D'Alamo, a dope-dealing, cop-killing no good who will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal (basically "deliver the weed and get paid.") Despite his Tuco-esque flaws, I kept catching myself rooting for him. And in his last scene, when his ridiculous but terrible fate is revealed, I genuinely felt sad.

The usual Brown trademarks are here -- perfectly crafted scenes that look deceptively easy; vivid depictions of men and women and land and violent activity; Brown's obsessions with and depictions of drinking, smoking, money, sex and food. And yet the book also finds the author going in a few different directions, as well, writing about people and places that don't ordinarily wind up in his fiction.

The book isn't perfect. It's a little indulgent and some strands feel incomplete; some of the characters fare better than others -- I never really got too interested in the adventures of college professor Merlot and his law enforcement squeeze Penelope, and I wondered if it was really necessary for Anjalee *and* Helen *and* Miss Muffet to be such man-hunting barflies.

But overall, it's a series of compelling stories and it's good to be back with Brown's kooky brokenhearts and badasses, and to see a great writer branching off into new territories -- whom among his fans would've thought a whale would enter into one of his tales?

The title sets the tone: Rabbits are bread as cute pets; but once they reach a "certain age", they become unsaleable. Mr. Studebaker, owner of the pet store, doesn't know what to do with these "older" rabbits. Eric--a homeless employee, looking for a friend after having run away from his abusive father--knows just what to do--kill them and freeze them for meat. How does he know? Because his father enfenced a 7 acre field, and bred rabbits for hunting. The rabbit factory.

In a series of interlocking stories, Larry Brown artfully weaves together the lives of several characters, all inhabiting (all temporarily) Memphis. None have had good luck recently, and only Arthur--a former oil tycoon, now 70, in retirement, facing impotency, and trying to hold on to his 40 year old wife--seems to have ever had any.

A mobster from Chicago has his privates mangled by a post hole digger; his one legged maid has her leg stolen in her battle with the family poodle; a good looking hooker looses two sugar daddy's, and is then arrested for assaulting an abusive nurse working at an old folk's home; a navy man, whose ship kills a whale, and who then suffers brain damage in an unofficial boxing match; and an ex-con, who really, really tries to go straight, but suffers a series of comic mishaps that turn him into first a murderer, and then food for lions (just in case the Rabbit factory image hasn't sunk in yet).

At the end, two of the plot lines remain unresolved. Will Helen stop drinking and running around and return to Arthur, who (probably) still loves her? Will the beautiful hooker stay with the brain damaged boxing naval man? Can anyone ever find happiness?

Or are we all, including authors who labor long over a book only to have it read and then discarded, simply grist for some cosmic rabbit factory we call existence.

More readable than Waiting for Godot, and far more entertaining--but the point seems the same--there is no point.

In The Rabbit Factory, Mississippi writer Larry Brown does something different--this time, he lets humor take center stage. After the darkness of his other books (which were always ripe with gallows humor anyway), Rabbit Factory is a more-than-pleasant surprise. Not that everything is all chipper for his new cast of characters. Hardly. But the absudity of their situations is presented with a bit of a lighter tone this time around. Even a dog gets a few chapters to itself, and they are hilarious. The narrative moves much faster here as well--kind of like an Elmore Leonard tale. If you thought Brown's last couple of novels were a bit too heavy, give this one a shot. You won't be disappointed. The Rabbit Factory should deservedly earn Brown a legion of new fans--and one can sense a great movie just up the road apiece.

This was my first Larry Brown novel and I am so glad that I happen to pick it up at the airport bookstore. I decided to take a chance on a new writer and since the description intrigued me I chose this book. I couldn't put it down. The novel would make for an exceptional film and I am hoping that it will be considered for screen adaptation one of these days. I have already cast the juicy characters in my mind.

This is not the type of novel I would typically gravitate towards. It just happened upon me. And I am truly glad that it did.

Based on Fay and earlier works, I knew Brown's "The Rabbit Factory" would be entertaining, and it certainly did NOT disappoint! A wonderful collection of quirky characters and situations. Just great white trash writing, not to be missed!

The only thing Brown left out of this novel is a cooler full of beer in the trunk. Of course, all the other Brown-isms are there, all those things we have loved from him over the years: blood, booze, sex, and more booze. The novel will not disappoint rabid Brown fans, but it might take a while to get used to the characters weaving in and out of the narrative. A fun read.

Larry Brown delivered an assortment of interesting characters pulled together by their self-destruction, desperation and curiousity. This is a very interesting read.

Larry Brown always challenged himself to experiment with new forms. Here, he writes a novel comprised of exactly 100 "segments" rather than chapters, intertwining the stories of multiple characters into one colorful tapestry.
This man is a literary phenomenon. His prose is hard as a diamond, and it propels you forward relentlessly. Yes, you can see the Carver, Faulkner, Harry Crews influences, but Brown's voice is distinctive. He knows exactly where he's going.
Speaking of Crews, whom Brown admired greatly--I see this book as a bit of tribute to him. There's more gonzo humor than is usually found in Brown's work.
This is a great book. Like all of Brown's stuff, it's not for the faint of heart. But the rewards are countless.

Larry Brown's "The Rabbit Factory" is a soap opera in both style and content. The short, choppy chapters offer glimpses of the characters - all of whom are loosely related but none of whom can be considered protagonistic. Each storyline, in and of itself, is well-developed, but broken up and interrupted frequently by the scene change to the next chapter, leaving the reader with a "meanwhile, back at the ranch" feeling. It makes one wonder if Brown wrote each character's story contiguously and then used scissors and paste to cut them up and glue the fragments amidst each other.

The story's personalities are bound together by that ever-nagging human condition of the need for companionship - no matter how temporary or how dysfunctional. Let's face it - life is just that thing that happens while you're looking for love. Even the animals in the book struggle to find the comfort of affection. Of course, just as real life and love are rarely pretty, Brown's treatment of his subjects is brutal tenderness.... or is it tender brutality?... From the beginning to the very end, his writing is raw, edgy, real, and frequently uncomfortable. Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives....

another gem by larry brown. his prose is so authentic you can almost smell the tequila and fried pork skins. he follows harry crews as a blood and guts southern storyteller who can hook you into a story like no other. his characters might be low lifes, but they are never dull.