Rabbits for Food

By: Binnie Kirshenbaum

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

From master of razor-edged literary humor Binnie Kirshenbaum, a devastating, laugh-out-loud funny story of a writer's slide into depression and institutionalization.

It's New Year's Eve, the holiday of forced fellowship, mandatory fun, and paper hats. While dining out with her husband and their friends, Kirshenbaum's protagonist - an acerbic, mordantly witty, and clinically depressed writer - fully unravels. Her breakdown lands her in the psych ward of a prestigious New York hospital, where she refuses all modes of recommended treatment. Instead, she passes the time chronicling the lives of her fellow "lunatics" and writing a novel about what brought her there. Her story is a hilarious and harrowing deep dive into the disordered mind of a woman who sees the world all too clearly.

Propelled by stand-up comic timing and rife with pinpoint insights, Kirshenbaum examines what it means to be unloved and loved, to succeed and fail, to be at once impervious and raw. Rabbits for Food shows how art can lead us out of - or into - the depths of disconsolate loneliness and piercing grief. This is a bravura literary performance from one of our most witty and indispensable writers.

©2019 Binnie Kirshenbaum (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Depression novel that does not moralize

Straightforward plot describing the experience of being a middle-aged, bourgeois lady with severe depression, involuntarily committed to a psych ward. I bring up the "bourgeois" part because it shapes a lot of the story. Bunny, the narrator, constantly denigrates her distress by comparing it with people suffering from famine, octopuses killed for food, etc. She's aware that in the global scale of things, she has it good. When she describes the psych ward (lack of interior decorating, infantilizing "arts and crafts" activity hour), you're aware that even if this is "bad," it's not "really bad." But she never does anything with this realization. Bunny, a writer, can't bear to read contemporary fiction while she's locked up because it makes her feel inferior. Even at the very end of the book, she judges a nurse for not understanding casual Hemingway quotations. She's no more enlightened than her pretentious "friends" from the beginning of the book, who gush over dinner about the virtues of wildly expensive "Traditionale" balsamic vinegar.

The plot doesn't go anywhere, but it doesn't need to. In the beginning of the book the style is glib and superficial, but it comes together around the halfway point.

Devastatingly relatable for fellow sufferers

Wow, did I feel seen. This book would be helpful for anyone who loves someone struggling under the weight of clinical depression because it puts into words so many feelings and experiences that, when in the throes of the exhaustion depression foists upon you, you lack the energy or eloquence to express. Not that this can speak for individual experiences, but it certainly provided a window into a mindset I’ve been unfortunate enough to endure.
Also, I challenge anyone with as detestable a family as Bunny’s to not be bitter as all hell.

Better to read it than listen

I thought this was good account of mental illness, and the well-crafted writing was good, if not remarkable. The story kept my interest. However, the snide, nasal tone of the reader was extremely tiring, and unpleasant in every way. I would have preferred a more neutral delivery.

A tale into the mind

I really enjoyed this book until the end. The story is about a woman and her struggle with mental illness. It describes how it affects the people around her. It was engaging. However, the ending was a let down.

If you like sarcasm you will love this book!

Fair warning when reading this book: if you like sarcasm you will love it because there is lots of it! In fact the entire book is sarcasm. If you do not like sarcasm, however you will not like this book! Since I gave this book five stars I think it's safe to say that I love sarcasm. 😏

Kind of about nothing

This is a depiction of a woman in the throes of a mental breakdown. That’s the plot. Good narration made it listenable.

Hard to read but worth it

Startlingly accurate in its description of deep depression. Difficult to read, but well worth it.

100% about nothing

Narrator is good and the quips are great. Bunny has lots of story’s and has landed herself in a place that warrants exploration and discovery. Zero discovery occurs, therefore zero story happens. It’s like the beginning of a book, without a middle or ending.

Not funny

This was supposed to be funny. It was not. It was so depressing. Don’t read

Not Funny Bunny

I think this book is a decent description of a person with debilitating depression. It makes me wonder what kind of person thinks that is funny. I guess the main subject who finds some sarcastic humor in different characters is one thing, but as the reader if you are laughing at people in anguish, it's kind of pathetic.