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A review by jentidders
Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum
3.0
In Rabbits For Food (a possibly semi-autobiographical?) novel, we follow a writer (Bunny aka Binnie Kirshenbaum?) as she slides from clinical depression into institutionalization.
I very much enjoyed the first half of the book and could relate to the alternating monotony and drama of long term depression, the pain, the mistreatment of loved ones, and feeling on the edge of losing it. Bunny is not the most likeable protagonist and reminded me of the narrator in Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, except I liked Bunny more.
Sadly, the book lost me a bit once Bunny was committed to the psychiatric facility. Forgive me if the book is based on a true experience, as I've never been in such an institution, but it didn't ring true to me and this second half just felt full of the various tropes and cliches that exist about mental health facilities and their inpatients.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed Kirschenbaum's wry, observational way of writing and would definitely read something else by her.
I very much enjoyed the first half of the book and could relate to the alternating monotony and drama of long term depression, the pain, the mistreatment of loved ones, and feeling on the edge of losing it. Bunny is not the most likeable protagonist and reminded me of the narrator in Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, except I liked Bunny more.
Sadly, the book lost me a bit once Bunny was committed to the psychiatric facility. Forgive me if the book is based on a true experience, as I've never been in such an institution, but it didn't ring true to me and this second half just felt full of the various tropes and cliches that exist about mental health facilities and their inpatients.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed Kirschenbaum's wry, observational way of writing and would definitely read something else by her.