Astounding! Tess Gunty is brilliant. I am not smart enough to give this book the review it deserves. This absolutely STUNNING debut novel, the winner of the National Book Award 2022 for Fiction, is unlike any book I’ve ever listened to. Definitely not an easy read, this book tackles trauma, the foster care system, climate change, Catholicism, the dying economy of the Rust Belt… I could go on! Tess Gunty masterfully weaves all these themes and more with a cast of characters who all center around a low-income apartment complex nicknamed The Rabbit Hutch.
The large cast of characters are all intricately connected, which is one of the themes of the novel. That everything has an effect is also echoed in the obituary of a former child star named Elsie Blitz, which offers a wicked and witty interlude into this otherwise very serious novel. (As Elsie writes in her own obituary: “Everything affects everyone.”)
But it is the main protagonist Blandine Watkins who is at the heart of this unforgettable story:
“But Blandine had it the worst, being so smart and female. People want things from the Blandines of the system and I’m sure her brain didn’t help. Thinking too much can zap you dead.”
The author’s prose is unparalleled. Highly, highly recommend the audiobook version. I believe it is the author herself who is the main narrator. Along with the fantastic Scott Brick, the narrators are all incredible!
About the Book:
The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving the residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of people now reside quietly, looking for ways to live in a dying city. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck. C8 harbors an extraordinary fear. But C4 is of particular interest.
Here live four teenagers who have recently aged out of the state foster-care system: three boys and one girl, Blandine. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine is plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her. Now all Blandine wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads.
Set across one week and culminating in a shocking act of violence, The Rabbit Hutch chronicles a town on the brink, desperate for rebirth. How far will its residents—especially Blandine—go to achieve it? Does one person’s gain always come at another’s expense? Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and community, entrapment and freedom. It announces a major new voice in American fiction, one bristling with intelligence and vulnerability.
