Review from a Transgressive Fiction Fan
The story of Bunny Munro is exactly the kind of fiction I hoped to read from Mr. Cave: a deliciously disturbing sleazefest that shocks, titillates, offends the senses, and frequently assaults the stomach like a shot of cheap whiskey. Cave revels in tormenting Bunny, his despicable caricature of a protagonist: mercilessly breaking his spirit with devastating plot twists and gleefully exposing to readers his slimy inner monologues and absolute lack of redeeming qualities like a circus ringman at a grimy freak show.
The story’s most important relationship, that between Bunny and his son, both asks and elicits poignant questions of masculinity and fatherhood that are rarely addressed in popular media, if ever. Cave seems to be indicting and deriding a violently misogynist culture that robs men of their humanity and wholeness of being, a culture passed down like a disease from father to son.
Not for the faint of heart. Darkly entertaining, lurid, campy, and profound; it’s impossible to leave The Death Of Bunny Munro unaffected.
“Insightful” Review from a Mainstream Reader
Abominable! And not in the fierce, Snowman kind of way. I’d have more to add if I weren’t so irked at the hours I’ve already devoted to it.