Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum
I loved this book. I had to slow myself down reading it because I didn’t want to say goodbye to Bunny, our protagonist, and yes, that is her given name, please stop asking. Bunny is a fiction writer suffering from clinical depression, who lives in New York with her husband, Albie. This novel follows Bunny’s life in a fragmented timeline that slowly reveals what leads to her mental break on New Year’s Eve, and her subsequent stay in a mental ward. Bunny firmly believes she doesn’t belong in the ward, and so writes about the other patients as if she herself was an outsider, using a legal pad and felt marker (as ballpoint pens are Not Allowed). Part of why I love this book is that what Bunny is writing in the story is the story, creating this metafiction where the book is seemingly being written while its being read. This is undoubtedly a sad novel, yet it is so beautifully written— Bunny’s voice is unique, refreshing, and full of razor sharp wit—she will make you laugh and cry with the same sentence.
This novel is like a modern day One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, except from a distinctly female perspective. Kirshenbaum’s writing reminds me of that of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and brings the confessional tone to present day melancholy. Bunny isn’t necessarily a likeable character but she is a loveable one—and relatable to us all to some degree. I would recommend Rabbits for Food to anyone who has dealt with depression in whatever form, to anyone who loves books and writing, and to everyone because it’s honestly one of my new favourite books and I think it is an important story.
Blair McFarlane
Community Outreach Intern