3/5 stars
What's it about? Tess Gunty's debut novel centers on brilliant teen and aspiring mystic Blandine Watkins and the lives of those who intersect her orbit in Vacca Vale, a sigh of a Midwestern town. While there is much to admire in the character development and depictions of Americana, the plot goes off the rails in that peculiar contemporary way, in which an auspicious start devolves into a violent, cobbled together denouement (think Tommy Orange's There There or The Overstory by Richard Powers). Such endings always make me wonder if the publisher rushed the writer to the finish line.
How’d I find it? I picked up The Rabbit Hutch at the Books-A-Million store located next to a bar I frequent. I tell you, whoever puts their bookstore next to a bar is a genius.
Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Andrew Sean Greer, Deb Olin Unferth, and perhaps Lauren Groff's Matrix, though The Rabbit Hutch is decidedly not a slow burn.
What stood out? Gunty sketches her characters with an oddball collection of tics and thoughts and interests that bring wit and realness to the page. I particularly relished the chapter "Variables," which chronicles Blandine's relationship with her high school music teacher.
Which line made me feel something? "Yes, I wanted your mind and your words and your face and your sadness and your sensitivity and your power and your talent and your age and your imagination and your hair and your music, but ultimately — ultimately — I wanted to fuck your piano." Heartbreaking and hilarious.