Rabbit Cake
Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn’t yet know—like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.
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Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
327 pages
What’s it about?
This coming-of-age story centers around young Elvis Babbitt as she grapples with the drowning death of her mother in the Chattahouchee river in Alabama. Elvis is intrigued by animals and science. She grieves along with a sleepwalking older sister and a lipstick wearing Dad. Quite a memorable cast of characters!
What did it make me think about?
Annie Hartnett has a sense of humor. The subject matter sounded so sad that I was hesitant to pick this one up, but the cover accurately depicts the mood of the book. Elvis Babbitt just made me smile.
Should I read it?
This novel is made for those of us who appreciate a cast of quirky characters and a strange sense of humor.
Quote-
“On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake. “Ten might not be a great year for you, she said, squeezing my shoulder. I couldn’t tell if she was kidding. The rabbit’s face and ears were charred black.”
“Dogs have a lot of things about life figured out; they aren’t afraid to let something go. Their hearts are always open to loving no more.”
If you like this try-
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
327 pages
What’s it about?
This coming-of-age story centers around young Elvis Babbitt as she grapples with the drowning death of her mother in the Chattahouchee river in Alabama. Elvis is intrigued by animals and science. She grieves along with a sleepwalking older sister and a lipstick wearing Dad. Quite a memorable cast of characters!
What did it make me think about?
Annie Hartnett has a sense of humor. The subject matter sounded so sad that I was hesitant to pick this one up, but the cover accurately depicts the mood of the book. Elvis Babbitt just made me smile.
Should I read it?
This novel is made for those of us who appreciate a cast of quirky characters and a strange sense of humor.
Quote-
“On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake. “Ten might not be a great year for you, she said, squeezing my shoulder. I couldn’t tell if she was kidding. The rabbit’s face and ears were charred black.”
“Dogs have a lot of things about life figured out; they aren’t afraid to let something go. Their hearts are always open to loving no more.”
If you like this try-
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
I identified with nearly all the characters, the family and the story in this book... despite the fact that I'm an aging New Englander in a traditional marriage who has no claims on the Babbitt family's geography and/or culture.
But perhaps this highlights Hartnett's particular skill: why does such a "normal" guy like me from a "normal" northern family identify with this southern family in an open marriage that is full of sleepwalkers?
Hartnett wove our common humanity throughout this tale… connecting it all through their family tradition of baking rabbit shaped cakes. They were a quirky bunch, yet I identified with both their struggles and their persons.
I was sad when the book ended because I was invested in every character. So I highly recommend this book.
Quirky fun book about death and grief. As crazy and wacky as the family in the story is, the grief reads true and real.
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