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The Constant Rabbit
Peter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that's up for the Village Garden of the Year award. Until Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, upsetting the locals (many of them members of governing political party United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population), complicating Peter's job as a Rabbit Spotter, and forcing him to take a stand, moving from unconscious leporiphobe to active supporter of the UK's amiable and peaceful population of anthropomorphised rabbits.
307 pages, Hardcover
First published July 2, 2020
About the author
Jasper Fforde
51 books12.5k followersFforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,568 reviews
May 14, 2020
No one writes like Jasper Fforde. He has the ability to take the absurd & present it in a way that his version of an alternate society seems completely normal. So when you open this book & find yourself in an England where the neighbours are 6 ft. talking rabbits, you merely shrug & think “Oh, right. Forgot that happened.”
That would be the Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event, an unexplained aligning of elements that resulted in walking/talking rabbits joining society (along with a few other small mammals but please don’t mention the bees). Sure, there are small differences. They tend to settle disputes with duels & have a thing for dandelion brandy (“the diabolical 3-way love child of methanol, crack cocaine & U-Boat fuel”)
The MC & narrator is Peter Knox, a (human) single dad who works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce. Although the bunnies are technically integrated, they are subject to slightly different rules. Most live “within the fence”, approved colonies with restricted movement. But some live in town. Peter is one of the few who can actually tell them apart & it’s his job to identify any who have broken laws.
By now, this set-up should have you thinking about real life historical parallels. Now lets add in a prime minister with a secret agenda to transport all rabbits to a government facility in Wales. It’s called the Mega-Warren & PM Nigel Smethwick publicly promotes it as a wonderful place for the furballs to socialize & feel safe. But his party (UK Anti-rabbit Party or UKARP) are avid supporters of segregation. His character is portrayed as a hilariously inept idiot surrounded by henchmen & scary PR people.
Peter’s trouble begins when he bumps into Connie, a stunning bunny he knew in university. His old crush is alive & well & as he gets swept up in her life, he’ll be forced to choose sides as tensions rise.
It’s an entertaining story that can be enjoyed on a couple of levels. On the surface it’s fun, witty satire. Fforde loads it with great characters, ridiculous government acronyms & plenty of that painfully polite British gift for understatement that borders on subversive. But if you look a little deeper, there are thinly veiled jabs at issues that sadly, are prevalent in real life. Fake news, racism, xenophobia & the need for those in power to portray anyone who thinks or looks differently as being “other”.
Dialogue is dryly funny & there are many comic moments that make this a great read, especially during a time when we could all use a good laugh. If you enjoy this, I highly recommend his series featuring Thursday Next, Literary Detective extraordinaire.
That would be the Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event, an unexplained aligning of elements that resulted in walking/talking rabbits joining society (along with a few other small mammals but please don’t mention the bees). Sure, there are small differences. They tend to settle disputes with duels & have a thing for dandelion brandy (“the diabolical 3-way love child of methanol, crack cocaine & U-Boat fuel”)
The MC & narrator is Peter Knox, a (human) single dad who works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce. Although the bunnies are technically integrated, they are subject to slightly different rules. Most live “within the fence”, approved colonies with restricted movement. But some live in town. Peter is one of the few who can actually tell them apart & it’s his job to identify any who have broken laws.
By now, this set-up should have you thinking about real life historical parallels. Now lets add in a prime minister with a secret agenda to transport all rabbits to a government facility in Wales. It’s called the Mega-Warren & PM Nigel Smethwick publicly promotes it as a wonderful place for the furballs to socialize & feel safe. But his party (UK Anti-rabbit Party or UKARP) are avid supporters of segregation. His character is portrayed as a hilariously inept idiot surrounded by henchmen & scary PR people.
Peter’s trouble begins when he bumps into Connie, a stunning bunny he knew in university. His old crush is alive & well & as he gets swept up in her life, he’ll be forced to choose sides as tensions rise.
It’s an entertaining story that can be enjoyed on a couple of levels. On the surface it’s fun, witty satire. Fforde loads it with great characters, ridiculous government acronyms & plenty of that painfully polite British gift for understatement that borders on subversive. But if you look a little deeper, there are thinly veiled jabs at issues that sadly, are prevalent in real life. Fake news, racism, xenophobia & the need for those in power to portray anyone who thinks or looks differently as being “other”.
Dialogue is dryly funny & there are many comic moments that make this a great read, especially during a time when we could all use a good laugh. If you enjoy this, I highly recommend his series featuring Thursday Next, Literary Detective extraordinaire.
September 18, 2021
First of all a little apology to Mr Fforde for the loss of one star. I always love your books but my enjoyment of this one was less than usual because of the rabbits. I felt the same about Watership Down. I just feel uncomfortable about talking rabbits and even more so about ones who walk upright and wear clothes. Note that I do not much care for Beatrix Potter either.
Okay having got that out of the way the rest of the book was just great! Fforde's terrific sense of satire was there all the way, with storylines revolving around the English Local Government, Brexit, racism and idiotic politicians. The local residents in the village fight against the idea of having rabbits living in one of the houses, because they will lower the tone of the area and of course property values. Where have we heard all this before?
So some serious issues tackled in an imaginative and humorous way. The ending is sad but realistic (well if you can believe in walking, talking rabbits it is).
Okay having got that out of the way the rest of the book was just great! Fforde's terrific sense of satire was there all the way, with storylines revolving around the English Local Government, Brexit, racism and idiotic politicians. The local residents in the village fight against the idea of having rabbits living in one of the houses, because they will lower the tone of the area and of course property values. Where have we heard all this before?
So some serious issues tackled in an imaginative and humorous way. The ending is sad but realistic (well if you can believe in walking, talking rabbits it is).
April 20, 2020
This is an at times funny, clever satire which encompasses several issues in a very different and entertaining way. On 12th August 1965 The Event occurred, a strange phenomenon which led to 18 rabbits morphing into semi human shapes. They did what rabbits do and these anthropomorphised rabbits spread into large colonies. However, rabbits talking rabbity are not to be tolerated, they are undesirable according to UKARP (The UK Anti Rabbit Party) and Prime Minister Nigel Smethwick, surprise winner of the 2012 snap election. Our narrator is Peter Knox who lives in Much Wenlock in Hertfordshire. Peter is a Rabbit Spotter, a rabbit intelligence officer working for RabCot (Rabbit Compliance Force), somewhat reluctantly it has to be said!
I love the start of the book which satirises local government spending cuts with libraries being open for six minutes precisely which is timed and strictly enforced. Nigel Smethwicks party is a thinly disguised swipe at a now defunct right wing political party and its leader. For Brexit we have Rabxit and far right groups with a propensity to thuggery are TwoLegsGood. Although the book does have its light side and there are many moments where I laughed out loud, it does present a darker side of both politics and human nature. It presents racism and racial bias but in a very different way. We have conflict and outrage as Mrs Constance Rabbit (a friend of Peter’s briefly from university days) and her family move into Much Wenlock to the dismay of villagers not least because they are up for the village Spick and Span award! The book is not always subtle but some points do hit the mark and make you think. It’s original, different, I like the acerbic wit and that the Rabbits take a stand led by the Venerable Bunty. Some of the humour is definitely cheesy and at times I confess to thinking of Aardman’s The Curse of the Were-rabbit of Wallace and Gromit fame! I love the ending especially as it made UKARP irrelevant!
So, if you want something different, a bit unusual and entertaining with a portion of Wensleydale served with a side salad (to include dandelion leaves) for the rabbits to enjoy, then this book is for you!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the entertaining ARC.
I love the start of the book which satirises local government spending cuts with libraries being open for six minutes precisely which is timed and strictly enforced. Nigel Smethwicks party is a thinly disguised swipe at a now defunct right wing political party and its leader. For Brexit we have Rabxit and far right groups with a propensity to thuggery are TwoLegsGood. Although the book does have its light side and there are many moments where I laughed out loud, it does present a darker side of both politics and human nature. It presents racism and racial bias but in a very different way. We have conflict and outrage as Mrs Constance Rabbit (a friend of Peter’s briefly from university days) and her family move into Much Wenlock to the dismay of villagers not least because they are up for the village Spick and Span award! The book is not always subtle but some points do hit the mark and make you think. It’s original, different, I like the acerbic wit and that the Rabbits take a stand led by the Venerable Bunty. Some of the humour is definitely cheesy and at times I confess to thinking of Aardman’s The Curse of the Were-rabbit of Wallace and Gromit fame! I love the ending especially as it made UKARP irrelevant!
So, if you want something different, a bit unusual and entertaining with a portion of Wensleydale served with a side salad (to include dandelion leaves) for the rabbits to enjoy, then this book is for you!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the entertaining ARC.
August 4, 2020
anyone who knows me knows i love jasper fforde. i’ve been a fan since my teens and he’s been a huge influence on my own writing! i��ve attended countless number of his talks and even designed one of the postcards for one of the thursday next book releases. i adore his surrealist, absurdist humour and there are absolutely no other comedy writers who do it as well as he does. the point being: I Am A Ffan.
i also adore rabbits. watership down is probably my most favourite book. i’m also into dystopian fiction. and satire. i should have, by all accounts, loved this book. but as much as it physically pains me to give this three stars, this book was not for me.
the writing was delightful as always. i think this was more serious than a lot of his other books, but there was plenty of wit and humour, some biting, some gentle. the plot was twisty and turny in the best way (one reveal early on had me gasping and i had to immediately go back to find the clues i missed! how often does that happen??). the characterisation of the various political groups were so on point it was delightful. (2LG being entirely middle class was just perfect in a way i can’t describe). i even loved the bittersweet ending.
but...
here’s the thing. racism and xenophobia are very real issues which impact on millions of people every day, in very real, very horrible ways. this book was about racism and xenophobia, at times in a very heavy-handed manner, and it still somehow managed to totally ignore it in a way which really unsettled me as a person of colour.
the rabbits were wonderful. their society, mannerisms and culture were really well thought out. they were insanely clever and certainly not helpless. taken on their own, removed from all context, i loved them. but in context, they were a stand-in for immigrants and people of colour, and replacing people of colour with animals is... deeply uncomfortable, and not for the right reasons. i’ll leave it at that.
while i prefer to read diverse books, i don’t think a book has to be diverse to be good. however i do strongly feel that if you’re going to write about racism, people of colour should be involved in the narrative. here, people of colour were totally erased from the narrative. and unfortunately, the more i think about it, the more obvious it is.
taken devoid of any context, this book is a wonderful read. taken in context, it’s a book about racism for white people. that’s what i meant when i said it wasn’t for me. i just don’t have the emotional energy to spend on them. i only finished because it was fforde (and i do think it got stronger as it went on, and i’m not sorry i did), but i don’t think i’ll be revisiting this one.
and that makes me immeasurably sad.
i also adore rabbits. watership down is probably my most favourite book. i’m also into dystopian fiction. and satire. i should have, by all accounts, loved this book. but as much as it physically pains me to give this three stars, this book was not for me.
the writing was delightful as always. i think this was more serious than a lot of his other books, but there was plenty of wit and humour, some biting, some gentle. the plot was twisty and turny in the best way (one reveal early on had me gasping and i had to immediately go back to find the clues i missed! how often does that happen??). the characterisation of the various political groups were so on point it was delightful. (2LG being entirely middle class was just perfect in a way i can’t describe). i even loved the bittersweet ending.
but...
here’s the thing. racism and xenophobia are very real issues which impact on millions of people every day, in very real, very horrible ways. this book was about racism and xenophobia, at times in a very heavy-handed manner, and it still somehow managed to totally ignore it in a way which really unsettled me as a person of colour.
the rabbits were wonderful. their society, mannerisms and culture were really well thought out. they were insanely clever and certainly not helpless. taken on their own, removed from all context, i loved them. but in context, they were a stand-in for immigrants and people of colour, and replacing people of colour with animals is... deeply uncomfortable, and not for the right reasons. i’ll leave it at that.
while i prefer to read diverse books, i don’t think a book has to be diverse to be good. however i do strongly feel that if you’re going to write about racism, people of colour should be involved in the narrative. here, people of colour were totally erased from the narrative. and unfortunately, the more i think about it, the more obvious it is.
taken devoid of any context, this book is a wonderful read. taken in context, it’s a book about racism for white people. that’s what i meant when i said it wasn’t for me. i just don’t have the emotional energy to spend on them. i only finished because it was fforde (and i do think it got stronger as it went on, and i’m not sorry i did), but i don’t think i’ll be revisiting this one.
and that makes me immeasurably sad.
August 31, 2020
I was, as always, extremely excited to hear of a new Jasper Fforde book, he's been a marvel in everything that I've read by him, from the Thursday Next books, up until Early Riser (still waiting for a sequel to Shades of Grey!). He's one of the few writers that I follow for updates to his work, as I can guarantee that each new release will mean a day or two of furiously well-spent binge reading.
Unfortunately, The Constant Rabbit misses a lot of the charm of his other books, and the very deliberate choice of topics (racism, xenophobia, Brexit), seems to have been too close to Mr. Fforde's heart to be effectively satirized.
Firstly, the whole book is a bit too on-the-nose. The rabbits are achingly saccharine, forgiving every hurt done to them by humans, protesting peacefully and quietly until they literally fall over from hunger, and contributing to mathematics while they are at it! Their major crimes are burrowing and laying about in a field, and even the one villain bunny is redeemed about 2/3 of the way through the book. Aside from making the protagonist uncomfortable, their entire existence seems to be about making everyone a "better" person.
By contrast, there are no neutral humans. At all. There are either allies, wishy-washy allies (protagonist), or enemies. With the exception of a bartender, every human is very vocal in talking about how much they hate rabbits, love upper-class white life, and stepping on the throats of small brown children... sorry, rabbit kits. The human side features vile killer foxes, dastardly drunken weasels, and boorish, ignorant humans. There is nobody (excepting the protagonist) who even so much as doesn't care about rabbits, or goes along to get along.
This extreme dichotomy comes across as preachy at best, and ignorant of the causes of the attitude being satirized. While there is a lot of talk about the "population bomb", there isn't enough emphasis put on areas where the cultures clash to make it a believable premise. We only see one family that lives away from a colony, and again, they are sympathetic to a fault. There are a few low-effort jabs at "not speaking English", and "bloody vegans", but they don't really do anything except make the humans look petty. And fine, I get it, that's the point of the book, but even Acheron Styx had a sympathetic note here and there, or at least a bit of character other than Bad Guy.
Secondly, the way the conflict is handled comes across as almost completely ignorant. SPOILER ALERT, in the end, the rabbits save the day and defeat prejudice by.... going away. That's it. No continued struggle, no strained integration or compromise. The bunnies just thumb their nose at the naughty humans, take their ball and go home. So at once, the book chides us all (at length in several chapters, and in an uncharacteristically protagonist-as-a-mouthpiece fashion) for being terrible people for not just adopting a vegan lifestyle and letting rabbits dig our foundations out and upturn our culture without a peep. BUT, it also says that the issues with immigrants/minorities/problem populations would go away if they bloody idiots would just leave the UK already.
And I want to emphasize that there is no, I repeat, no consequence from this leave-taking. The protagonist opens an unpopular museum, a few throwaway lines talk about the news media making fun of politicians, and that's it. No talk about economic impact from losing what was essentially a slave class, no portion of the population stops to think about what happened, no hint of shame about driving the rabbits away. The protagonist writes a book, the author writes a throwaway line about a Kenyan elephant president, the reader wonders what happened to the last few pages of the book.
Last but not least, I take issue with the protagonist's motivation. While he comes across as having a supportive attitude towards the rabbits, it's hard to sympathize with him when his first motivation for feeling that way, and a driving motivation for the story, is that he wants to get his leg up over a rabbit. Do the horizontal bunny hop. Do a Thumper duet. He wants to get a hare of the dog that bit him. That's it, aside from an un-admirable pile of wet human guilt. But don't worry, the rabbits are so unfailingly kind that the love interest's husband arranges a fake duel so that the protagonist can bump cottontails with a clear conscience. And this holds true for the three other characters with sympathies towards rabbits, they all have a romantic partner who is a rabbit. So the lesson is; the only path to allyship is through banging a minority. Either your with them (in bed), or you're against them.
So, in short, fetishization of minorities is a valid reason to support them, anyone against minorities is an unfeeling bad man who needs the Paw Patrol to show him a powerpoint presentation on diversity, and incidentally minorities wouldn't have such a hard time in the UK if they just BLOODY GOT OUT.
The frustrating part is that the book is well-written, fast-paced but with a believable series of plot points, and has a good portion of the humor that Fforde is known for. But whether the book was rushed because of "current events" or the subject is too close to his heart for even a slightly unbiased critique, it just fell flat on numerous points, and what could have been another Ffun Fforde Ffling came off as a Ffrustrating lecture about "human silence is violence."
Unfortunately, The Constant Rabbit misses a lot of the charm of his other books, and the very deliberate choice of topics (racism, xenophobia, Brexit), seems to have been too close to Mr. Fforde's heart to be effectively satirized.
Firstly, the whole book is a bit too on-the-nose. The rabbits are achingly saccharine, forgiving every hurt done to them by humans, protesting peacefully and quietly until they literally fall over from hunger, and contributing to mathematics while they are at it! Their major crimes are burrowing and laying about in a field, and even the one villain bunny is redeemed about 2/3 of the way through the book. Aside from making the protagonist uncomfortable, their entire existence seems to be about making everyone a "better" person.
By contrast, there are no neutral humans. At all. There are either allies, wishy-washy allies (protagonist), or enemies. With the exception of a bartender, every human is very vocal in talking about how much they hate rabbits, love upper-class white life, and stepping on the throats of small brown children... sorry, rabbit kits. The human side features vile killer foxes, dastardly drunken weasels, and boorish, ignorant humans. There is nobody (excepting the protagonist) who even so much as doesn't care about rabbits, or goes along to get along.
This extreme dichotomy comes across as preachy at best, and ignorant of the causes of the attitude being satirized. While there is a lot of talk about the "population bomb", there isn't enough emphasis put on areas where the cultures clash to make it a believable premise. We only see one family that lives away from a colony, and again, they are sympathetic to a fault. There are a few low-effort jabs at "not speaking English", and "bloody vegans", but they don't really do anything except make the humans look petty. And fine, I get it, that's the point of the book, but even Acheron Styx had a sympathetic note here and there, or at least a bit of character other than Bad Guy.
Secondly, the way the conflict is handled comes across as almost completely ignorant. SPOILER ALERT, in the end, the rabbits save the day and defeat prejudice by.... going away. That's it. No continued struggle, no strained integration or compromise. The bunnies just thumb their nose at the naughty humans, take their ball and go home. So at once, the book chides us all (at length in several chapters, and in an uncharacteristically protagonist-as-a-mouthpiece fashion) for being terrible people for not just adopting a vegan lifestyle and letting rabbits dig our foundations out and upturn our culture without a peep. BUT, it also says that the issues with immigrants/minorities/problem populations would go away if they bloody idiots would just leave the UK already.
And I want to emphasize that there is no, I repeat, no consequence from this leave-taking. The protagonist opens an unpopular museum, a few throwaway lines talk about the news media making fun of politicians, and that's it. No talk about economic impact from losing what was essentially a slave class, no portion of the population stops to think about what happened, no hint of shame about driving the rabbits away. The protagonist writes a book, the author writes a throwaway line about a Kenyan elephant president, the reader wonders what happened to the last few pages of the book.
Last but not least, I take issue with the protagonist's motivation. While he comes across as having a supportive attitude towards the rabbits, it's hard to sympathize with him when his first motivation for feeling that way, and a driving motivation for the story, is that he wants to get his leg up over a rabbit. Do the horizontal bunny hop. Do a Thumper duet. He wants to get a hare of the dog that bit him. That's it, aside from an un-admirable pile of wet human guilt. But don't worry, the rabbits are so unfailingly kind that the love interest's husband arranges a fake duel so that the protagonist can bump cottontails with a clear conscience. And this holds true for the three other characters with sympathies towards rabbits, they all have a romantic partner who is a rabbit. So the lesson is; the only path to allyship is through banging a minority. Either your with them (in bed), or you're against them.
So, in short, fetishization of minorities is a valid reason to support them, anyone against minorities is an unfeeling bad man who needs the Paw Patrol to show him a powerpoint presentation on diversity, and incidentally minorities wouldn't have such a hard time in the UK if they just BLOODY GOT OUT.
The frustrating part is that the book is well-written, fast-paced but with a believable series of plot points, and has a good portion of the humor that Fforde is known for. But whether the book was rushed because of "current events" or the subject is too close to his heart for even a slightly unbiased critique, it just fell flat on numerous points, and what could have been another Ffun Fforde Ffling came off as a Ffrustrating lecture about "human silence is violence."
September 11, 2024
“It’ll take a rabbit to teach a human humanity.”
Rabbits have evolved into intelligent, talking, human-sized rabbits. But people aren’t exactly very friendly against these new immigrants. The Anti-Rabbit Party even wants to ship all the UK’s rabbits to another country.
To most people, all rabbits look the same. But Peter Knox is one of the people who can tell individual rabbits apart from one another. Which is why Peter is a rabbit spotter for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce.
One day, a family of rabbits moves in next door to Peter. And it makes him see things from a new perspective.
You can’t exactly call this a subtle critique against Brexit, the refugee crisis and racism. More like a rant masquerading as a fictional story. And I have to admit that it does come across as a bit too in your face at times. A little bit more subtlety and a bit less black and white thinking could have benefited the story. Turning refugees into cute animals is a great concept to make them ironically feel more human and sympathetic. Still, I think it could have served the story better had there been no humans at all, so that all the characters are animals. To make all the characters feel like equals, no matter the difference in species. Though maybe that’s just me. The many pop culture references can also be quite good and funny with the added presence of the rabbits, though perhaps there might be a bit too many of them for my personal taste. And I’m also not a big fan of the ending.
At the core of the story is the protagonist’s character arc. Even though he’s not exactly anti-rabbit from the start, he’s still a voluntary part of the system that’s fighting against the rabbits. The protagonist is not a bad person. But it’s still made clear that the protagonist is at fault. By not doing anything about all the wrongs he sees in the world, he’s accepting the new status quo. While I do appreciate the sentiment of showing that it’s important to care about politics, it does feel a bit like finger-pointing at times. I think some more nuance could have been added to the story in that regard. And the motivation for the protagonist’s change of heart can also feel a bit problematic.
A book with an important message at its core. I like the concept, it’s well-written, and there are some good moments in here. It’s not a bad read but the execution of the concept just didn’t always work for me personally.
Rabbits have evolved into intelligent, talking, human-sized rabbits. But people aren’t exactly very friendly against these new immigrants. The Anti-Rabbit Party even wants to ship all the UK’s rabbits to another country.
To most people, all rabbits look the same. But Peter Knox is one of the people who can tell individual rabbits apart from one another. Which is why Peter is a rabbit spotter for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce.
One day, a family of rabbits moves in next door to Peter. And it makes him see things from a new perspective.
You can’t exactly call this a subtle critique against Brexit, the refugee crisis and racism. More like a rant masquerading as a fictional story. And I have to admit that it does come across as a bit too in your face at times. A little bit more subtlety and a bit less black and white thinking could have benefited the story. Turning refugees into cute animals is a great concept to make them ironically feel more human and sympathetic. Still, I think it could have served the story better had there been no humans at all, so that all the characters are animals. To make all the characters feel like equals, no matter the difference in species. Though maybe that’s just me. The many pop culture references can also be quite good and funny with the added presence of the rabbits, though perhaps there might be a bit too many of them for my personal taste. And I’m also not a big fan of the ending.
At the core of the story is the protagonist’s character arc. Even though he’s not exactly anti-rabbit from the start, he’s still a voluntary part of the system that’s fighting against the rabbits. The protagonist is not a bad person. But it’s still made clear that the protagonist is at fault. By not doing anything about all the wrongs he sees in the world, he’s accepting the new status quo. While I do appreciate the sentiment of showing that it’s important to care about politics, it does feel a bit like finger-pointing at times. I think some more nuance could have been added to the story in that regard. And the motivation for the protagonist’s change of heart can also feel a bit problematic.
A book with an important message at its core. I like the concept, it’s well-written, and there are some good moments in here. It’s not a bad read but the execution of the concept just didn’t always work for me personally.
June 29, 2020
I received this book from Net galley, in exchange for an honest review.
Several decades before our story starts there has occurred the Anthropomorphising Event in which certain animals have suddenly become human-like.
In the UK the event has mainly effected rabbits though there are also foxes, weasels and individual animals from several other species. In Africa there is a human-like elephant.
Although only a few individual animals were originally affected by the anthropomorphisation, due to their energetic breeding habits there are now great numbers of human-like rabbits in the UK.
Many references are made to Beatrix Potter but Fforde’s rabbits are not the cute and cuddly Flopsy bunnies. Neither are they bunnies mimicking human behavior. They have their own religion and values as well as norms of courtesy and interaction. They are intellectual and ecologically aware, disliking waste and consumerism. And if Constance Rabbit is anything to go by, they are excellent cooks.
It seems inevitable that such an alternate reality would become ridiculous and absurd but under the author’s expert guidance the world of The Constant Rabbit is much like our own world, except for the rabbits.
Just as real, unfortunately, is the way so many use the rabbits as a political scapegoat, treating them as ‘the other’ and blaming them for society’s ills.
The narrative is told from the POV of Peter Knox a human and father to Pippa. He works for the Rabbit Compliance Force but is not totally convinced of the righteousness of their mission.
He is another of Fforde’s extremely likeable if flawed characters and acts as a bridge for us to pass between the human and the rabbit world.
The end was a little melancholy and although it was the perfect conclusion for the story it left me a little sad.
One of the most difficult questions I was left to wrangle with was why did it seem so realistic that the humans chose to ally themselves with the cruel, bullying foxes while despising the peaceful rabbits.
This is yet another five star contribution from Jasper Fforde. His stories are always satirical creating an alternate reality to poke fun at the more ridiculous or less appealing aspects of human life but The Constant Rabbit is more specific, more topical and as a results the pokes are a little sharper.
Several decades before our story starts there has occurred the Anthropomorphising Event in which certain animals have suddenly become human-like.
In the UK the event has mainly effected rabbits though there are also foxes, weasels and individual animals from several other species. In Africa there is a human-like elephant.
Although only a few individual animals were originally affected by the anthropomorphisation, due to their energetic breeding habits there are now great numbers of human-like rabbits in the UK.
Many references are made to Beatrix Potter but Fforde’s rabbits are not the cute and cuddly Flopsy bunnies. Neither are they bunnies mimicking human behavior. They have their own religion and values as well as norms of courtesy and interaction. They are intellectual and ecologically aware, disliking waste and consumerism. And if Constance Rabbit is anything to go by, they are excellent cooks.
It seems inevitable that such an alternate reality would become ridiculous and absurd but under the author’s expert guidance the world of The Constant Rabbit is much like our own world, except for the rabbits.
Just as real, unfortunately, is the way so many use the rabbits as a political scapegoat, treating them as ‘the other’ and blaming them for society’s ills.
The narrative is told from the POV of Peter Knox a human and father to Pippa. He works for the Rabbit Compliance Force but is not totally convinced of the righteousness of their mission.
He is another of Fforde’s extremely likeable if flawed characters and acts as a bridge for us to pass between the human and the rabbit world.
The end was a little melancholy and although it was the perfect conclusion for the story it left me a little sad.
One of the most difficult questions I was left to wrangle with was why did it seem so realistic that the humans chose to ally themselves with the cruel, bullying foxes while despising the peaceful rabbits.
This is yet another five star contribution from Jasper Fforde. His stories are always satirical creating an alternate reality to poke fun at the more ridiculous or less appealing aspects of human life but The Constant Rabbit is more specific, more topical and as a results the pokes are a little sharper.
May 17, 2020
This is both perfectly absurd and too painfully real. A rather challenging combination. Review to follow.
October 10, 2020
I loved that the story began in a public library and truly enjoyed learning about "speed librarying," which is basically an extreme version of maximizing service with the minimum or resources. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek and snarky humor in the book and references to some of my favorite British TV shows from long ago. The riff on UKIP aka UKARP was on point. I recognized a lot of people and places as I became absorbed with the cleverness and humor of the writing with it's underlying meanings.
I loved the explanation of a "Rabbalaureate" and the subsequent response. "'Much harder, and for rabbits. Physics, philosophy, horticulture, European languages, economics, botany, politics and mixed martial arts with an optional module on weapons training.'
'Thinking of the military? Officer training?'
'No - childminding. Rabbits make excellent child minders.'"
Favorite quote at the beginning of a chapter:
"Rabbits never drove fast. They like to enjoy the view, didn't much care for speed and besides, it was wasteful of fuel. If you want to get somewhere a long way away, just leave early. Days, if that's required. Or, as Samuel C. Rabbit had it: 'nhffnfhfiifhfnnffhrhrfhrf' or 'to travel joyously is better than to arrive.'"
Overall a clever and diverting read.
I loved the explanation of a "Rabbalaureate" and the subsequent response. "'Much harder, and for rabbits. Physics, philosophy, horticulture, European languages, economics, botany, politics and mixed martial arts with an optional module on weapons training.'
'Thinking of the military? Officer training?'
'No - childminding. Rabbits make excellent child minders.'"
Favorite quote at the beginning of a chapter:
"Rabbits never drove fast. They like to enjoy the view, didn't much care for speed and besides, it was wasteful of fuel. If you want to get somewhere a long way away, just leave early. Days, if that's required. Or, as Samuel C. Rabbit had it: 'nhffnfhfiifhfnnffhrhrfhrf' or 'to travel joyously is better than to arrive.'"
Overall a clever and diverting read.
February 16, 2022
A disappointment. I expected it to be more articulate and upfront with world-building. All the rabbit lore and rabbity rights and all that stuff just isn't working for me.
August 17, 2020
‘The language of division can always be monetised.’
This novel is an absolute highlight of my reading year. Honestly, it was utterly brilliant. The best way I can describe it is as a fantastical political satire that is both completely bonkers and specifically insightful. And, it’s a pure delight to escape into. I desperately would love to see it as a movie but only if it were made exactly as it is in the book – word for word, character for character.
‘Don’t let yourself be tempted by the bun’s mild temperament and apparent peaceful nature,’ he said without answering my question. ‘That “cute and cuddly victim of human’s domination” stuff they do? It’s bullshit. It’s not sunny meadows, warm burrows and dandelion leaves they’re after, it’s majoritisation, assimilation and domination. And they could win out, if left unchecked. Promiscuity is not just their raison d`etre, it’s their secret weapon. A LitterBomb is a very real and present danger, and once the supply chain of stockpiled food is successfully coordinated by the Underground, the word will go out. Before you can say Lapin `a la cocotte you’ll be outnumbered, outvoted in your own nation, working for a rabbit, taking orders from a rabbit, worshipping at their altar and living the lapine way – it’ll be lettuce for supper, dinner and tea. Do you want that?’
I probably don’t need to state this but I will anyway, the rabbits are of course a metaphorical representation of any group that is considered ‘other’. In this case, they are another species, but I think this really worked so well to highlight the ways in which minority groups can be treated as though they are another species. There were times throughout this novel where I wondered if the real problem with the rabbits was their ‘aggressive veganism’ more than the fact that they were actually giant rabbits. They chose to live by a different set of values that were very much grounded in not eating meat, they also worshipped a different deity, and their family size was significantly larger than the average human one; all things that were viewed as very threatening to the order maintained by humans. You should already be seeing the connections to reality poking up out of all of this.
‘Incremental change comes from incremental action.’
‘Incremental is enough?’
‘It’s the most most people can do. We’re not all revolutionaries, but enough people challenging the problem can make a difference.’
As well as being enormously entertaining, there are some really important themes raised within this novel. Peter takes a journey that many can relate to. He doesn’t feel that he is leporiphobic (anti-rabbit), but he becomes aware as the events of the novel unfold, that he has in fact been maintaining a life that is leporiphobic, from his work through to his unconscious attitude – akin to what we call casual racism. The slow dawning of this and how it manifests itself in his actions was really well done and something many of us can relate to and think more deeply on. He’s a bit of hero in the end, Peter, in many different ways, and I was really on his side from the get-go.
‘Perhaps that’s what satire does – not change things wholesale but nudge the collective consciousness in a direction that favours justice and equality.’
To fully enjoy and appreciate the intent of this novel, you really do just need to let go and take it as it comes. It’s speculative fiction but can’t be pegged as science fiction or fantasy as such. It’s kind of like Roald Dahl for adults. I loved it to bits and I missed reading it once I was finished. I don’t get that all too often, so that in itself should indicate to you how much I admire this novel. It was just so incredibly imaginative and clever. I’ve deliberately left some surprises for you. You’ll know what I mean if you read it, but as a hint, giant rabbits are not the only minority species to feature in this novel. I’ll leave it at that. Enjoy!
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of The Constant Rabbit for review.
This novel is an absolute highlight of my reading year. Honestly, it was utterly brilliant. The best way I can describe it is as a fantastical political satire that is both completely bonkers and specifically insightful. And, it’s a pure delight to escape into. I desperately would love to see it as a movie but only if it were made exactly as it is in the book – word for word, character for character.
‘Don’t let yourself be tempted by the bun’s mild temperament and apparent peaceful nature,’ he said without answering my question. ‘That “cute and cuddly victim of human’s domination” stuff they do? It’s bullshit. It’s not sunny meadows, warm burrows and dandelion leaves they’re after, it’s majoritisation, assimilation and domination. And they could win out, if left unchecked. Promiscuity is not just their raison d`etre, it’s their secret weapon. A LitterBomb is a very real and present danger, and once the supply chain of stockpiled food is successfully coordinated by the Underground, the word will go out. Before you can say Lapin `a la cocotte you’ll be outnumbered, outvoted in your own nation, working for a rabbit, taking orders from a rabbit, worshipping at their altar and living the lapine way – it’ll be lettuce for supper, dinner and tea. Do you want that?’
I probably don’t need to state this but I will anyway, the rabbits are of course a metaphorical representation of any group that is considered ‘other’. In this case, they are another species, but I think this really worked so well to highlight the ways in which minority groups can be treated as though they are another species. There were times throughout this novel where I wondered if the real problem with the rabbits was their ‘aggressive veganism’ more than the fact that they were actually giant rabbits. They chose to live by a different set of values that were very much grounded in not eating meat, they also worshipped a different deity, and their family size was significantly larger than the average human one; all things that were viewed as very threatening to the order maintained by humans. You should already be seeing the connections to reality poking up out of all of this.
‘Incremental change comes from incremental action.’
‘Incremental is enough?’
‘It’s the most most people can do. We’re not all revolutionaries, but enough people challenging the problem can make a difference.’
As well as being enormously entertaining, there are some really important themes raised within this novel. Peter takes a journey that many can relate to. He doesn’t feel that he is leporiphobic (anti-rabbit), but he becomes aware as the events of the novel unfold, that he has in fact been maintaining a life that is leporiphobic, from his work through to his unconscious attitude – akin to what we call casual racism. The slow dawning of this and how it manifests itself in his actions was really well done and something many of us can relate to and think more deeply on. He’s a bit of hero in the end, Peter, in many different ways, and I was really on his side from the get-go.
‘Perhaps that’s what satire does – not change things wholesale but nudge the collective consciousness in a direction that favours justice and equality.’
To fully enjoy and appreciate the intent of this novel, you really do just need to let go and take it as it comes. It’s speculative fiction but can’t be pegged as science fiction or fantasy as such. It’s kind of like Roald Dahl for adults. I loved it to bits and I missed reading it once I was finished. I don’t get that all too often, so that in itself should indicate to you how much I admire this novel. It was just so incredibly imaginative and clever. I’ve deliberately left some surprises for you. You’ll know what I mean if you read it, but as a hint, giant rabbits are not the only minority species to feature in this novel. I’ll leave it at that. Enjoy!
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of The Constant Rabbit for review.
April 14, 2020
How I love Jasper Fforde and his original, offbeat, clever fiction. I’ve waited in vain for a new Nursery Detectives book, his noiresque nursery rhyme crime novels, read every single one of his utterly inspired Thursday Next books as well as his children’s and other stand alone books. Basically, a new Jasper Fforde book is a celebration day in this household, so I was, as you can imagine, thrilled to be approved for an earc of his new standalone The Constant Rabbit.
The premise is this: approximately 50 years before the novel takes place An Event happens and a handful of animals are anthropomorphised. These include several rabbits who, being rabbits even if they are now six foot and intelligent, proceed to multiply rapidly. Now England has a sizeable minority population of rabbits, very much second class citizens, regarded with suspicion and downright loathing, denied basic rights even as they fulfil many menial jobs. Sound familiar? Of course it does, because this absurd comedy is a brilliant satire of Brexit Britain, the Windrush scandal, UKIP, Little Englanders, racism and hypocrisy.
Peter lives in an idyllic village of conservative with a small C middle Englishness, with his daughter Pippa. He would describe himself as not having a problem with rabbits, partly thanks to an intense friendship at university with Connie, one of the few rabbits admitted to higher ed. But he works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, nominally there to help the rabbit population, but with a much more sinister remit. Deep down he is aware of his own passive hypocrisy, whilst concentrating on his salary and pension, keeping his head down. But when Connie re enters his life and he realises just how malign the Taskforce’s plans are for the rabbits, he has to decide who he is once and for all.
This is a really thought provoking read, the grittiness of the moral dilemmas brought sharply to life by the humour and concept and moments of very real menace. Satire doesn’t come much more biting than this. Highly highly recommended.
The premise is this: approximately 50 years before the novel takes place An Event happens and a handful of animals are anthropomorphised. These include several rabbits who, being rabbits even if they are now six foot and intelligent, proceed to multiply rapidly. Now England has a sizeable minority population of rabbits, very much second class citizens, regarded with suspicion and downright loathing, denied basic rights even as they fulfil many menial jobs. Sound familiar? Of course it does, because this absurd comedy is a brilliant satire of Brexit Britain, the Windrush scandal, UKIP, Little Englanders, racism and hypocrisy.
Peter lives in an idyllic village of conservative with a small C middle Englishness, with his daughter Pippa. He would describe himself as not having a problem with rabbits, partly thanks to an intense friendship at university with Connie, one of the few rabbits admitted to higher ed. But he works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, nominally there to help the rabbit population, but with a much more sinister remit. Deep down he is aware of his own passive hypocrisy, whilst concentrating on his salary and pension, keeping his head down. But when Connie re enters his life and he realises just how malign the Taskforce’s plans are for the rabbits, he has to decide who he is once and for all.
This is a really thought provoking read, the grittiness of the moral dilemmas brought sharply to life by the humour and concept and moments of very real menace. Satire doesn’t come much more biting than this. Highly highly recommended.
May 6, 2020
I have been a fan of Jasper Fforde's since reading The Eyre Affair, and so I was super excited to receive an Advanced Review Copy of his latest book, The Constant Rabbit. His writing style reminds me of other authors I enjoy such as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
The Constant Rabbit is set in a world which is similar to our own but slightly different. On 12th August 1965, a Spontaneous Anthropomorphising Event turned some of the rabbit population into humanoids, along with some guinea pigs, foxes and weasels. These human-like rabbits have their own culture, religion and traditions, with many living in their own warrens. Some get passes to live outside of these colonies and move into human towns and villages throughout the UK. While some humans are happy to welcome rabbits into their neighbourhood, some aren't — including the Prime Minister, Nigel Smethwick, who plans to relocate all rabbits to the MegaWarren by force.
The story follows Peter Knox from the village of Much Hemlock in Herefordshire. He is a Spotter for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce (sort of like the police, but for rabbits), identifying whether the rabbit arrested matches the rabbit who committed the crime. Apparently humans really struggle to identify individual rabbits so he is invaluable in making sure that the correct rabbit is convicted.
The world that Jasper has created in this book is incredible. There are so many details (as you can probably gather from just my short synopsis and intro), with small facts at the start of each chapter as well as footnotes giving additional details. Because of this it took me a little while to 'get into it' and understand the world I was in, and it's certainly one I will be re-reading as I'm certain there is a lot that I've missed.
As with all of Jasper's books, The Constant Rabbit compares and constrasts his alternative history with our present. It is full of witty one-liners as well as longer speeches. The footnotes (as with Terry Pratchett's books) are must-reads. There is a lot of social commentary and satire on our present day — for example, budget cuts mean that the local library is only open for six minutes, which is timed and enforced with fines.
However, it's not all jokes and it has a darker side to it too. There is an underlying theme around racism, privilege and tolerance of those who are different to ourselves. It also talks a lot about how silence is acquiescence — while the public is generally not 'leporiphobic', they have allowed many inhumane laws to pass and have allowed an anti-rabbit leader to become Prime Minister.
One of my favourite lines in the book is from Peter Knox:
It really made me think about my own past actions, as well as reflecting on recent movements such as Black Lives Matter. The rabbits are generally law-abiding and compliant, despite all of the oppression around them (and their rights continue to be taken away). It is a well-written commentary on our world as well as being a 'call to action' for people to take a stand against fascism, injustice and intolerance, wherever we see it.
The story itself is compelling, with lots of twists and turns that kept me intrigued. I really liked the characters of Peter and his new rabbit neighbours, Connie and Doc. The rabbits are really interesting and I enjoyed learning more about their traditions, such as duelling with pistols. At times I was terrified for the characters and their fate. The incredible ending was also totally unexpected and had me in tears.
The Constant Rabbit is a fantastic read. It's incredibly original and clever, with the perfect blend of humour and darker themes, that really made me think about my own actions. It's one that I will be re-reading.
The Constant Rabbit is set in a world which is similar to our own but slightly different. On 12th August 1965, a Spontaneous Anthropomorphising Event turned some of the rabbit population into humanoids, along with some guinea pigs, foxes and weasels. These human-like rabbits have their own culture, religion and traditions, with many living in their own warrens. Some get passes to live outside of these colonies and move into human towns and villages throughout the UK. While some humans are happy to welcome rabbits into their neighbourhood, some aren't — including the Prime Minister, Nigel Smethwick, who plans to relocate all rabbits to the MegaWarren by force.
The story follows Peter Knox from the village of Much Hemlock in Herefordshire. He is a Spotter for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce (sort of like the police, but for rabbits), identifying whether the rabbit arrested matches the rabbit who committed the crime. Apparently humans really struggle to identify individual rabbits so he is invaluable in making sure that the correct rabbit is convicted.
The world that Jasper has created in this book is incredible. There are so many details (as you can probably gather from just my short synopsis and intro), with small facts at the start of each chapter as well as footnotes giving additional details. Because of this it took me a little while to 'get into it' and understand the world I was in, and it's certainly one I will be re-reading as I'm certain there is a lot that I've missed.
As with all of Jasper's books, The Constant Rabbit compares and constrasts his alternative history with our present. It is full of witty one-liners as well as longer speeches. The footnotes (as with Terry Pratchett's books) are must-reads. There is a lot of social commentary and satire on our present day — for example, budget cuts mean that the local library is only open for six minutes, which is timed and enforced with fines.
However, it's not all jokes and it has a darker side to it too. There is an underlying theme around racism, privilege and tolerance of those who are different to ourselves. It also talks a lot about how silence is acquiescence — while the public is generally not 'leporiphobic', they have allowed many inhumane laws to pass and have allowed an anti-rabbit leader to become Prime Minister.
One of my favourite lines in the book is from Peter Knox:
Although I'd never consciously discriminated against rabbits, read a single issue of The Actual Truth or considered myself leporiphobic in the least — I was. As a young man I'd laughed at and told anti-rabbit jokes and I never once challenged leporiphobic view when I heard them. And although I'd disapproved of encroaching anti-rabbit legislation I'd done nothing as their rights were slowly eroded. My words and thoughts had never progressed to positive actions. No rallies, no angry letters, no funds to RabSAg, nothing. ...My most pressing emotion right now was not a sense of righteous indignation, frustration at the unfairness of my situation or even a courageous sense of a justice that a fight needed to be fought and won. No, what I truly felt was a sense of deep and inexcusable shame.
It really made me think about my own past actions, as well as reflecting on recent movements such as Black Lives Matter. The rabbits are generally law-abiding and compliant, despite all of the oppression around them (and their rights continue to be taken away). It is a well-written commentary on our world as well as being a 'call to action' for people to take a stand against fascism, injustice and intolerance, wherever we see it.
The story itself is compelling, with lots of twists and turns that kept me intrigued. I really liked the characters of Peter and his new rabbit neighbours, Connie and Doc. The rabbits are really interesting and I enjoyed learning more about their traditions, such as duelling with pistols. At times I was terrified for the characters and their fate. The incredible ending was also totally unexpected and had me in tears.
The Constant Rabbit is a fantastic read. It's incredibly original and clever, with the perfect blend of humour and darker themes, that really made me think about my own actions. It's one that I will be re-reading.
January 9, 2021
This was a pretty good book to be my first of 2021—the clearly curséd year following the previous extremely curséd year. Sure, why not start with a (VERY) thinly veiled allegory about immigration and assimilation and Brexit that turns out actually to be fairly powerful and quite funny?
I've loved Jasper Fforde for a very long time, and honestly I was hoping this would be as light and wacky and escapist and fun as his divine Thursday Next books. It's not all that, though it's definitely wacky, groanfully pun-filled, and slyly clever. I suppose you could say it's light on the surface? But it's a very thin crust.
Basically here is the story of a small UK town whose inhabitants are working out how to coexist with thousands of anthropomorphized rabbits, weasels, and foxes, all of whom assumed mostly human form after an unspecified and never-explained Event some twenty-odd years ago.
So early on we have pitch-perfect NIMBYism like "Yes, they might be individually good neighbors and in time make a positive contribution to the community. But you're missing the big picture. Once you let a single family in, then the downward spiral begins. This is the thin end of the wedge. Let one family in and pretty soon they'll all be here, filling up the schools, attempting to convert us all to their uniquely aggressive form of veganism, undermining our worthy and utterly logical religion with their depraved and nonsensical faith." Or: "Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm the least leporiphobic person you know. I've got absolutely nothing against rabbits. Fine upstanding creatures, many of them, I"m sure—just not around here."
As I said, VERY thinly veiled.
There's a clear Nigel Farage stand-in, all smarmy insistence that forcibly rehoming the rabbits into a massive, walled MegaWarren is truly for their own good; a Proud Boys–esque "hominid-supremacy" group called TwoLegsGood made of ex–law enforcement and middle-class weekend warriors; and probably dozens more characters and incidents that painfully parallel and lampoon our current idiocy. It's probably much more Brexit than I realize, being wholly consumed with the dumpster fire that is the US these days, and unable to keep abreast of all the nuances of the dumpster fire that is the UK.
Anyway. At the outset it kind of made me tired; it's awfully heavy handed and extremely on the nose. I mean, I don't need a sendup of our current idiocy to help me realize how idiotic it is; I'm plunged into this idiocy every damn day! But after all, it's Jasper Fforde, and as the plot got twistier and the hijinks wackier, as his meta-commentary and goofy spoofery got wilder and wilder, I of course relaxed into things and was able to enjoy the ride.
The thing I love about Jasper—like so many of my fave authors—is that it's just so clear how much fun he's having when he writes. He's got long discussions about many other modern ills, like the corrupt banking system and frictionless white-collar crime, which I can't help but love. He waxes poetic about the power of satire to change society (get it??), does whole digressions on the anthropomorphized foxes' predilection for vanity spellings ("She was named Jocaminca fforkes, with two small 'f's—as if having two 'f's wasn't pretentious enough") (GET IT???), and the book is full of endless, endless, endless puns and asides about Beatrix Potter, carrot-based delicacies, cottontails, burrowing habits, bouncing, and on and on and on.
I still want more Thursday Nexts though!!!! Who else is writing stories like that that I could be reading?
I've loved Jasper Fforde for a very long time, and honestly I was hoping this would be as light and wacky and escapist and fun as his divine Thursday Next books. It's not all that, though it's definitely wacky, groanfully pun-filled, and slyly clever. I suppose you could say it's light on the surface? But it's a very thin crust.
Basically here is the story of a small UK town whose inhabitants are working out how to coexist with thousands of anthropomorphized rabbits, weasels, and foxes, all of whom assumed mostly human form after an unspecified and never-explained Event some twenty-odd years ago.
So early on we have pitch-perfect NIMBYism like "Yes, they might be individually good neighbors and in time make a positive contribution to the community. But you're missing the big picture. Once you let a single family in, then the downward spiral begins. This is the thin end of the wedge. Let one family in and pretty soon they'll all be here, filling up the schools, attempting to convert us all to their uniquely aggressive form of veganism, undermining our worthy and utterly logical religion with their depraved and nonsensical faith." Or: "Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm the least leporiphobic person you know. I've got absolutely nothing against rabbits. Fine upstanding creatures, many of them, I"m sure—just not around here."
As I said, VERY thinly veiled.
There's a clear Nigel Farage stand-in, all smarmy insistence that forcibly rehoming the rabbits into a massive, walled MegaWarren is truly for their own good; a Proud Boys–esque "hominid-supremacy" group called TwoLegsGood made of ex–law enforcement and middle-class weekend warriors; and probably dozens more characters and incidents that painfully parallel and lampoon our current idiocy. It's probably much more Brexit than I realize, being wholly consumed with the dumpster fire that is the US these days, and unable to keep abreast of all the nuances of the dumpster fire that is the UK.
Anyway. At the outset it kind of made me tired; it's awfully heavy handed and extremely on the nose. I mean, I don't need a sendup of our current idiocy to help me realize how idiotic it is; I'm plunged into this idiocy every damn day! But after all, it's Jasper Fforde, and as the plot got twistier and the hijinks wackier, as his meta-commentary and goofy spoofery got wilder and wilder, I of course relaxed into things and was able to enjoy the ride.
The thing I love about Jasper—like so many of my fave authors—is that it's just so clear how much fun he's having when he writes. He's got long discussions about many other modern ills, like the corrupt banking system and frictionless white-collar crime, which I can't help but love. He waxes poetic about the power of satire to change society (get it??), does whole digressions on the anthropomorphized foxes' predilection for vanity spellings ("She was named Jocaminca fforkes, with two small 'f's—as if having two 'f's wasn't pretentious enough") (GET IT???), and the book is full of endless, endless, endless puns and asides about Beatrix Potter, carrot-based delicacies, cottontails, burrowing habits, bouncing, and on and on and on.
I still want more Thursday Nexts though!!!! Who else is writing stories like that that I could be reading?
January 15, 2021
Say one thing for Jasper Fforde, he does his own thing. This is a quintessential 3.5 star book for me, but I was all set and ready to round this up to four stars until the ending happened and totally threw me for a loop. It's not that I thought the ending was bad, more that I wasn't expecting it and didn't quite know how to process it. I may very well come back at some later date and round this up to four stars after I've sat with it a while.
This is a book in which fifty years previously, there occurred a "Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event" in the UK that transformed eighteen rabbits into humanoid rabbits who can walk and talk and read and experience abstract thought, along with several weasels, foxes, guinea pigs, a dalmation, and bees (no one knows what happened to the bees). The book follows the social consequences of what that would look like, including a burgeoning rabbit population (rabbits maintain their early sexual maturation, quick gestation, among other things). Our main character is a white man in his fifties that works for a department of the government that governs rabbit society and criminality. He also happened to have a crush on a rabbit in college, and that rabbit has now become his next door neighbor.
This is simultaneously Fforde's most bizarre, least funny, most serious book. It also was a bit off-putting for me at first because I dislike allegory, and the rabbits seemed designed to me to represent "racism". Like Tolkien (who famously "cordially dislike[d] allegory") once said, "I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author." At the beginning of this book, it was really feeling like the latter rather than the former, but I'm glad I stuck with the book, because it ended up feeling much more open-ended and less heavy-handed. I think this was due to a combination of factors: 1) getting to know the characters and the world in specific, and 2) the way the premise opens up about halfway through when Fforde just casually throws it out that a lot of people in the world of the book believe that the Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event had other origins:
There was something about this bonkers metaness that really blew the story open for me and I quite enjoyed myself after that. I stopped thinking of it as allegory and just went with it. Also, Fforde gets so delightfully specific about rabbit culture that it was hard to believe strict allegory was his intention. The ending kind of brought the heavy handedness back a bit, but it was also such a bonkers, unexpected ending that I'm not quite sure it didn't work anyway.
An interesting read if nothing else!
[3.5 stars]
This is a book in which fifty years previously, there occurred a "Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event" in the UK that transformed eighteen rabbits into humanoid rabbits who can walk and talk and read and experience abstract thought, along with several weasels, foxes, guinea pigs, a dalmation, and bees (no one knows what happened to the bees). The book follows the social consequences of what that would look like, including a burgeoning rabbit population (rabbits maintain their early sexual maturation, quick gestation, among other things). Our main character is a white man in his fifties that works for a department of the government that governs rabbit society and criminality. He also happened to have a crush on a rabbit in college, and that rabbit has now become his next door neighbor.
This is simultaneously Fforde's most bizarre, least funny, most serious book. It also was a bit off-putting for me at first because I dislike allegory, and the rabbits seemed designed to me to represent "racism". Like Tolkien (who famously "cordially dislike[d] allegory") once said, "I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author." At the beginning of this book, it was really feeling like the latter rather than the former, but I'm glad I stuck with the book, because it ended up feeling much more open-ended and less heavy-handed. I think this was due to a combination of factors: 1) getting to know the characters and the world in specific, and 2) the way the premise opens up about halfway through when Fforde just casually throws it out that a lot of people in the world of the book believe that the Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event had other origins:
"Although once a fringe idea, the notion that the Event might have been satirically induced was gaining wider acceptance.
'The event does have all the trappings of satire,' I said, 'Although somewhat clumsy in execution.'
'We live in unsubtle times,' said Connie."
There was something about this bonkers metaness that really blew the story open for me and I quite enjoyed myself after that. I stopped thinking of it as allegory and just went with it. Also, Fforde gets so delightfully specific about rabbit culture that it was hard to believe strict allegory was his intention. The ending kind of brought the heavy handedness back a bit, but it was also such a bonkers, unexpected ending that I'm not quite sure it didn't work anyway.
An interesting read if nothing else!
[3.5 stars]
August 17, 2020
The Constant Rabbit is a novel by Welsh author, Jasper Fforde. The 2020 United Kingdom that Fforde describes to the reader is very much an alternate one where, fifty-five years earlier, a Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event transformed a selection of animals into human-sized, talking, walking, thinking creatures.
In the British Isles, the most numerous are now rabbits, who prove to be peaceable and hard-working. It takes a good deal of world-building to make a tale like this work, but anyone who has read his books knows that this is something at which Fforde is highly skilled.
Even though Peter Knox works at the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce detecting rabbits attempting identity fraud, he’s not anti-rabbit like some of his colleagues, who are just a shade off hominid supremacists. But his favourable treatment of a doe rabbit borrower at the village library has been noted by the right-wing village elders. He recognises Constance Rabbit from their casual friendship at college decades-earlier, before rabbits were banned.
The ruling UK Anti-Rabbit Party is pressing for their “humane” solution, Rehoming the rabbits from their established colonies to a MegaWarren in Wales, and their campaign to subvert the Rabbit Underground sees a very reluctant Peter plucked from his office job into active Ops, tracking down a suspected rabbit operative. His last experience on Ops had ended very badly.
To unsettle him even further, the vacant house next door is suddenly occupied by Major Clifford and Mrs Constance Rabbit and their two children. While Peter tries to deal with his re-emerging attraction to his new neighbour, his scary boss wants him to infiltrate, suspecting connections to the Rabbit Underground, while the village council wants the rabbits out of Much Hemlock.
What follows for Peter is a wild ride that includes being challenged to a duel, a graffitied garage door, getting drunk on dandelion brandy, being charged with murder, physical mutilation, prison time, wearing a wire, and slicing a lot of cucumbers. Of prison, he says: “In a turnabout that no-one expected after the crash of 2008, the second-largest group in prison after rabbits was now sociopathic investment bankers, corrupt representatives of ratings companies and dodgy corporate accountants.”
Readers from Goulburn NSW might be quite delighted to find that their Big Merino also exists in Fforde’s world, if by a different origin. As always, Fforde manages to include a generous helping of over-the-top English-sounding place names, typically useless government departments with all their annoyingly abbreviated titles, plenty of poli-speak and silly character names.
Fforde gives the reader a heavily satirical social commentary that takes aim at propaganda, conspiracy theories, xenophobia, right-wing politics and detention centres, to name but a few. He even lets a character muse that satire might “provoke a few guffaws but only low to middling outrage – but is couped with more talk and no action. A sort of … empty cleverness.” Smart and inventive, another thought-provoking and entertaining read.
In the British Isles, the most numerous are now rabbits, who prove to be peaceable and hard-working. It takes a good deal of world-building to make a tale like this work, but anyone who has read his books knows that this is something at which Fforde is highly skilled.
Even though Peter Knox works at the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce detecting rabbits attempting identity fraud, he’s not anti-rabbit like some of his colleagues, who are just a shade off hominid supremacists. But his favourable treatment of a doe rabbit borrower at the village library has been noted by the right-wing village elders. He recognises Constance Rabbit from their casual friendship at college decades-earlier, before rabbits were banned.
The ruling UK Anti-Rabbit Party is pressing for their “humane” solution, Rehoming the rabbits from their established colonies to a MegaWarren in Wales, and their campaign to subvert the Rabbit Underground sees a very reluctant Peter plucked from his office job into active Ops, tracking down a suspected rabbit operative. His last experience on Ops had ended very badly.
To unsettle him even further, the vacant house next door is suddenly occupied by Major Clifford and Mrs Constance Rabbit and their two children. While Peter tries to deal with his re-emerging attraction to his new neighbour, his scary boss wants him to infiltrate, suspecting connections to the Rabbit Underground, while the village council wants the rabbits out of Much Hemlock.
What follows for Peter is a wild ride that includes being challenged to a duel, a graffitied garage door, getting drunk on dandelion brandy, being charged with murder, physical mutilation, prison time, wearing a wire, and slicing a lot of cucumbers. Of prison, he says: “In a turnabout that no-one expected after the crash of 2008, the second-largest group in prison after rabbits was now sociopathic investment bankers, corrupt representatives of ratings companies and dodgy corporate accountants.”
Readers from Goulburn NSW might be quite delighted to find that their Big Merino also exists in Fforde’s world, if by a different origin. As always, Fforde manages to include a generous helping of over-the-top English-sounding place names, typically useless government departments with all their annoyingly abbreviated titles, plenty of poli-speak and silly character names.
Fforde gives the reader a heavily satirical social commentary that takes aim at propaganda, conspiracy theories, xenophobia, right-wing politics and detention centres, to name but a few. He even lets a character muse that satire might “provoke a few guffaws but only low to middling outrage – but is couped with more talk and no action. A sort of … empty cleverness.” Smart and inventive, another thought-provoking and entertaining read.
July 22, 2020
An intense, dare I say important, absurd allegory on racism and discrimination and the importance of speaking up against it. Can't recommend this enough.
July 30, 2020
This my Top Book of 2020 This dark take on Animal Farm with joke Twolegsgood a miss take from the book Four legs good Twolegsgood bad. Mr Ffoxe is brilliant as the Hitler style role model.
Fforde has placed lots of wicked rabbit jokes from the love of James Stewart movies to What's up Doc.
The more serious side is what if.... You can see dark side of the humanity.
But I don't think this anything to do with racism but as read deeply into the book you get it, but I am not one for spoilers.
Fforde has placed lots of wicked rabbit jokes from the love of James Stewart movies to What's up Doc.
The more serious side is what if.... You can see dark side of the humanity.
But I don't think this anything to do with racism but as read deeply into the book you get it, but I am not one for spoilers.
August 31, 2020
I get the idea - a parody on humanized animals novels, a commentary on the current political state of affairs all over the world, a criticism of racism, ethnocentricism, etc. But it doesn't work as a novel. Although Fforde's sharp wit and fierce intelligent are always enjoyable, it was impossible for me to read this book and I had to DNF it pretty early. The only thing that drives it is the ideology, this is not real literature. If you want to write a social commentary just write it, not a novel. If you insist on writing it as a novel, it has to have literary merit as well. It's not enough to be witty and throw in biting one-liners, there have to be characters that go through some sort of development and are fully believable as people (or in this case, "people"). Interesting things have to happen to them, and they have to learn from them. There is no good novel without the reader's emotional involvement. If you don't care, it isn't a novel. This is a shame, since I thought Fforde's Tuesday Next series was truly brilliant. Maybe because they didn't aspire or presume to be moral manifestos. With talking rabbits.
October 12, 2020
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I normally enjoy Jasper Fforde novels. This has the usual wordplay and humour, clever references and mixture of serious themes and pure nonsense but for some reason didn’t hit the spot.
In this book rabbits and certain other animals have been anthropomorphised and there is much social upheaval including the formation of the anti rabbit party, UKARP. A rabbit family moves into the town of Much Hemlock (all human before) where Peter Knox, the narrator lives. That’s the setup and it’s an obvious parallel for anti immigration, probrexit parts of Britain.
It’s a clever, entertaining read but perhaps too long and too much dialogue.
In this book rabbits and certain other animals have been anthropomorphised and there is much social upheaval including the formation of the anti rabbit party, UKARP. A rabbit family moves into the town of Much Hemlock (all human before) where Peter Knox, the narrator lives. That’s the setup and it’s an obvious parallel for anti immigration, probrexit parts of Britain.
It’s a clever, entertaining read but perhaps too long and too much dialogue.
September 23, 2020
A very witty and imaginative satirical tale about a population of anthropomorphised rabbits living in the UK, and the everyday prejudice they face in human society. In SFX magazine, Dave Golder wrote that ‘this is not so much a book about racism as one about white, middle-class angst about racism, especially set against an increasing wave of reactionary populism’. That Fforde manages to do so in such a humorous way without sounding frivolous or moralizing is really quite amazing. I felt he got the tone of the novel just right.
Fforde also displays a wonderful knack for wordplay in this novel and there were quite a few times that I had to laugh out loud at his inventive wordsmithery. The style of writing reminded me a bit of the works by Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. There was also something decidedly Arthur Dent-ish about the protagonist Peter Knox – a nice bloke, but a bit spineless.
I’m glad I listened to the audio version of the Constant Rabbit, because the narration by Andrew Wincott was an absolute delight. Definitely one of my favourite listens of the year. Wincott does an amazing job voicing the various characters, deftly transitioning between the different British accents. (I especially liked his Welsh accent for Doc.)
The Constant Rabbit is not perfect; some of the parallels are a bit on the nose and it sometimes feels the rabbits can do no wrong. But all in all I felt these were minor quibbles. In short, the Constant Rabbit is a well-crafted work of social and political satire that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. It also features some great characters and the world-building is top notch. 4.5 stars rounded up. Highly recommended.
Fforde also displays a wonderful knack for wordplay in this novel and there were quite a few times that I had to laugh out loud at his inventive wordsmithery. The style of writing reminded me a bit of the works by Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. There was also something decidedly Arthur Dent-ish about the protagonist Peter Knox – a nice bloke, but a bit spineless.
I’m glad I listened to the audio version of the Constant Rabbit, because the narration by Andrew Wincott was an absolute delight. Definitely one of my favourite listens of the year. Wincott does an amazing job voicing the various characters, deftly transitioning between the different British accents. (I especially liked his Welsh accent for Doc.)
The Constant Rabbit is not perfect; some of the parallels are a bit on the nose and it sometimes feels the rabbits can do no wrong. But all in all I felt these were minor quibbles. In short, the Constant Rabbit is a well-crafted work of social and political satire that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. It also features some great characters and the world-building is top notch. 4.5 stars rounded up. Highly recommended.
Read
October 13, 2020DNF without prejudice, because this book simply came at the wrong time for me. Fforde is one of my auto-buy authors, and I love his crazy humor, even in his one-off books. But the premise of this story--that rabbits, having become anthropomorphized, are now victims of racism and cruelty--is just...all right, I'll say it: it's too real. Everything that happens in this book has happened to minority groups across the globe, and putting it in terms of a fantasy construct doesn't give it enough distance. Peter Knox, the main character, is a typically Ffordeian hero, kind of a moral wimp, but not in a bad way--except he's in a terrible spot, working for an organization that would like to see rabbits gone and lying to himself that he's still a good person. So, basically, this is an excellent book, but I put it down and didn't want to pick it up again. I'll give it some time and try again later, maybe when the world is slightly less crazy.
March 13, 2023
While I own a bunch of Fforde's books, this is the first one I've read. For most part, I enjoyed it. There were some good characters and some snickering moments. The downside for me was, the story surrounded immigration issues which made it too political for my liking. Not my kind of thing. I really try to keep that kind of stuff out of my books unless I am reading an actual non-fiction book about it. Won't stop me from trying another book by this author since it does show that he has a great imagination.
May 14, 2021
There are certain things I expect from a Jasper Fforde book. Quirky but delightful worldbuilding. Bizarre incidents and exciting action. Characters who are eccentric yet ordinary. Alternative history, first-person narrative, fantastically silly humour, and a good smattering of anti-fascism wrapped up in all of this. All of these things appear in The Constant Rabbit.
I don’t expect the politics to be front and centre; to be the whole point, plot and theme of the book. I don’t expect to feel real fear and anxiety for the characters. And I sure as hell don’t expect to have tears in my eyes at the end of the book. All these things are also in The Constant Rabbit.
If I’m completely honest, I nearly decided not to read this book at all for no other reason than that the name of an animal appears in the title. I couldn’t tell you why this is a thing that freaks me out, but it does. To this day I’ve never watched the film Slumdog Millionaire. However, I bravely took myself in hand and requested it from Netgalley, thereby cunningly forcing myself to read it, since a review that just said “this has the word rabbit in the title so I couldn’t read it” probably wouldn’t go down too well. Anyway, I’m glad I did (maybe I should watch Slumdog Millionaire, too) because I found this book delightful.
We begin with a very typical Ffordian scene in which Peter, our protagonist, is directing the operations of a group of library assistants with military precision. This is necessary because library funds have now been cut so much that libraries can only be open for six minutes per fortnight. And although this is a very funny and delightful episode it’s also serious. Libraries are losing funding, losing workers, and being closed down, and while people like me who have their own excellent laptop (thanks to their friends!), a Kindle, and a couple of thousand books on their shelves might not see libraries as terribly important, they are absolutely vital services for thousands of people.
And, well, Jasper Fforde starts as he means to carry on: the book only gets more political from here. This feels like a blatant anti-fascist book, a Black Lives Matter book. Admittedly the marginalised communities in it are anthropomorphic rabbits, but the veil is thin and the parallels abound. Peter, for example, thinks he’s not leporiphobic because he disapproves of “juggings” and once fancied a rabbit – yet he also works in a crucial position for a huge rabbit law enforcement agency, which is seen as necessary and good despite the fact that rabbits obviously live peacefully, non-violently, co-operatively and sustainably.
Then there’s the government, run by the fascist UKARP party which is led by a man called Nigel, who provide the background of systemic hatred and persecution to the plot with their plans to round up all the rabbits (whose movement is already restricted) into one big camp, MegaWarren. The final straw for Peter is when a family of rabbits move into the nice little right-wing village where he’s previously been able to consider himself pleasingly liberal. He is going to have to choose a side and make some tough decisions.
This is a book for white people who want to understand why saying “all lives matter” isn’t cool, or who think that we imprison a disproportionate number of black people because they are more likely to be criminals. It’s a book for those of us who are privileged enough to be able to think of the police as providing safety and protection, or who haven’t quite been able to get our heads round the way that systemic oppression works and is designed to work against marginalised communities. There’s still lots of Jasper Fforde’s trademark quirky, funny silliness, but The Constant Rabbit is a much more serious book than any he’s written before (with the possible exception of Early Riser because I haven’t read that yet!). I highly recommend it, and especially to the people I’ve just mentioned.
Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The Constant Rabbit is published on the 2nd of July 2020 in the UK, and in September 2020 in the USA.
See all my reviews on my blog https://thewearybookcase.home.blog/20...
I don’t expect the politics to be front and centre; to be the whole point, plot and theme of the book. I don’t expect to feel real fear and anxiety for the characters. And I sure as hell don’t expect to have tears in my eyes at the end of the book. All these things are also in The Constant Rabbit.
If I’m completely honest, I nearly decided not to read this book at all for no other reason than that the name of an animal appears in the title. I couldn’t tell you why this is a thing that freaks me out, but it does. To this day I’ve never watched the film Slumdog Millionaire. However, I bravely took myself in hand and requested it from Netgalley, thereby cunningly forcing myself to read it, since a review that just said “this has the word rabbit in the title so I couldn’t read it” probably wouldn’t go down too well. Anyway, I’m glad I did (maybe I should watch Slumdog Millionaire, too) because I found this book delightful.
We begin with a very typical Ffordian scene in which Peter, our protagonist, is directing the operations of a group of library assistants with military precision. This is necessary because library funds have now been cut so much that libraries can only be open for six minutes per fortnight. And although this is a very funny and delightful episode it’s also serious. Libraries are losing funding, losing workers, and being closed down, and while people like me who have their own excellent laptop (thanks to their friends!), a Kindle, and a couple of thousand books on their shelves might not see libraries as terribly important, they are absolutely vital services for thousands of people.
And, well, Jasper Fforde starts as he means to carry on: the book only gets more political from here. This feels like a blatant anti-fascist book, a Black Lives Matter book. Admittedly the marginalised communities in it are anthropomorphic rabbits, but the veil is thin and the parallels abound. Peter, for example, thinks he’s not leporiphobic because he disapproves of “juggings” and once fancied a rabbit – yet he also works in a crucial position for a huge rabbit law enforcement agency, which is seen as necessary and good despite the fact that rabbits obviously live peacefully, non-violently, co-operatively and sustainably.
Then there’s the government, run by the fascist UKARP party which is led by a man called Nigel, who provide the background of systemic hatred and persecution to the plot with their plans to round up all the rabbits (whose movement is already restricted) into one big camp, MegaWarren. The final straw for Peter is when a family of rabbits move into the nice little right-wing village where he’s previously been able to consider himself pleasingly liberal. He is going to have to choose a side and make some tough decisions.
This is a book for white people who want to understand why saying “all lives matter” isn’t cool, or who think that we imprison a disproportionate number of black people because they are more likely to be criminals. It’s a book for those of us who are privileged enough to be able to think of the police as providing safety and protection, or who haven’t quite been able to get our heads round the way that systemic oppression works and is designed to work against marginalised communities. There’s still lots of Jasper Fforde’s trademark quirky, funny silliness, but The Constant Rabbit is a much more serious book than any he’s written before (with the possible exception of Early Riser because I haven’t read that yet!). I highly recommend it, and especially to the people I’ve just mentioned.
Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The Constant Rabbit is published on the 2nd of July 2020 in the UK, and in September 2020 in the USA.
See all my reviews on my blog https://thewearybookcase.home.blog/20...
March 21, 2021
More of a 3.5 stars rounded up.
Picked this up because I was a huge fan of The Eyre Affair series and Jasper Fforde in general.
This book is a cross between Animal Farm, Gulliver’s Travels and Wind in the Willows. The anthropomorphized rabbits are clearly meant to represent “other” - Jews, Muslims, what have you. It’s cleverly done but a very slow build up to a terrific ending. I would have given it three stars but the last 40 pages was a star on its own.
Picked this up because I was a huge fan of The Eyre Affair series and Jasper Fforde in general.
This book is a cross between Animal Farm, Gulliver’s Travels and Wind in the Willows. The anthropomorphized rabbits are clearly meant to represent “other” - Jews, Muslims, what have you. It’s cleverly done but a very slow build up to a terrific ending. I would have given it three stars but the last 40 pages was a star on its own.
June 5, 2021
3.25 stars
It was in the late 1960s that the “Event” happened. The Event caused rabbits (and a few other animals...though not nearly as many as the rabbits) to become anthropomorphized. It’s decades later and many people are leporiphobes. Peter Knox (who works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, sort of tracking down specific rabbits, I think) discovers a long-ago college friend (and rabbit) Connie has moved in next door, along with her husband.
My summary might not be exactly right, as I found the first half-ish of the book quite confusing. I ended up quite enjoying the second half, though, once I (kind of) figured out what was going on… though I don’t want to say too much more in my summary so as not to give anything away. So for the first bit of the book, I kept thinking – ok, Fforde is way too smart for me because this is over my head. I did like the second half-ish, though. At that point, there seemed to be more of a plot and things happened, and I understood what was happening. Anyway, this all made me unsure how to rate it, so I went with 3.25, between ok and good. It seems there was a bunch of “deep” satire that went over my head, but once there as a plot, I liked it!
It was in the late 1960s that the “Event” happened. The Event caused rabbits (and a few other animals...though not nearly as many as the rabbits) to become anthropomorphized. It’s decades later and many people are leporiphobes. Peter Knox (who works for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, sort of tracking down specific rabbits, I think) discovers a long-ago college friend (and rabbit) Connie has moved in next door, along with her husband.
My summary might not be exactly right, as I found the first half-ish of the book quite confusing. I ended up quite enjoying the second half, though, once I (kind of) figured out what was going on… though I don’t want to say too much more in my summary so as not to give anything away. So for the first bit of the book, I kept thinking – ok, Fforde is way too smart for me because this is over my head. I did like the second half-ish, though. At that point, there seemed to be more of a plot and things happened, and I understood what was happening. Anyway, this all made me unsure how to rate it, so I went with 3.25, between ok and good. It seems there was a bunch of “deep” satire that went over my head, but once there as a plot, I liked it!
October 11, 2020
When I was in college, there was a dollar theater by our apartment that showed mostly 2nd tier films. We made it a point to never look up what was playing, instead we simply showed up at 8 and rolled the dice. Because we had absolutely no expectations for these movies (we didn't have TV and the internet was still kind of not a thing), I enjoyed almost every movie I watched.
This book was the opposite of that experience. I paid extra for UK shipping so I could have it before the US market opened and my expectations ruined the experience. It's a good book and I really did like it, but I just felt like it was a bit of a sledgehammer when I wanted satire.
This book was the opposite of that experience. I paid extra for UK shipping so I could have it before the US market opened and my expectations ruined the experience. It's a good book and I really did like it, but I just felt like it was a bit of a sledgehammer when I wanted satire.
February 13, 2023
I have had this book borrowed from the library for roughly five weeks now and kept putting it off because I wasn’t sure why I had picked it up in the first place, dystopians and satires are generally hit or miss for me.
This morning it was time to either read or bring it back and I’m so glad I decided to read it. It’s a rather dim view of society today but also humorous and I enjoyed the message, which was less about all the bad things happening and more about our complicity in them.
It had me laughing til I was crying in some parts. It was kind of bonkers but in a good way.
Highly recommend.
This morning it was time to either read or bring it back and I’m so glad I decided to read it. It’s a rather dim view of society today but also humorous and I enjoyed the message, which was less about all the bad things happening and more about our complicity in them.
It had me laughing til I was crying in some parts. It was kind of bonkers but in a good way.
Highly recommend.
August 25, 2020
Jasper Fforde is an amazing writer and, up until now, have loved all of his books. This one just fell short for me. It didn't have the sparkle and wit I am used to from him. The allegorical nature wasn't the problem, it was the lack of subtlety. I felt I was being hit over the head with a morality stick. Fforde is so gifted at spinning tales and creating lovable characters that I was thrown by the harshness and likability of these. For the first time, I put down a Jasper Fforde book unfinished. I'll start the Thursday Next series again instead.
February 21, 2022
While I typically enjoy Jasper Fforde, this was a full miss. The language is thick, and does not flow as well as his other writings. And, while many may enjoy the overt metaphor for diversity, combined with satire, it's not for me. After several chapters, I stopped reading, and returned it to the library. Shades of Gray, and The Fourth Bear still remain some of my favorite books.
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