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When God Was a Rabbit
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Review
'Gloriously offbeat... Winman's narrative voice is beautifully true, with a child's unsentimental clarity. A superb debut'
(The Times )'Beguiling... you can't quite get the voice out of your head'
(Daily Mail )'Captivating... rendered with an appealing frankness, precision and emotional acuity'
(Observer )'Thronging with incident, wonder and outré language... sharply funny, whimsical and innovative'
(The Guardian )Product Description
1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born.
Young Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe.
Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever.
Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it,
By
This review is from: When God Was a Rabbit (Paperback)
A very unusual book, told from the perspective of a young, then older girl / woman as she moves through her life. As the book states, though it is written very much like an autobiographical account, it really only focuses on the key moments of her life - the moments that hold the most impact, the most important or pivotal moments. For that reason, one could easily be forgiven for thinking it a more sensationalised life story - but it really isn't. Take your own life as an example, think of the biggest and most influential moments of your life - be they positive or negative, if you put them into a story, but omitted most of what was in between each event, you'd probably have quite a sensational story of your own!
This story focuses on the key moments from the life of Eleanor Maud, a young girl from a nice, loving family. Her parents love her and she has a very close relationship with her older brother Joe. Despite coming from a loving and protective home, Ellie still sees the ugly side of life, her parents placing trust where it doesn't belong, or brushes with death of family / friends. However the biggest exposure to the darker side of life for Ellie is when she meets Jenny Penny. Jenny is a girl of roughly the same age but who doesn't come from a loving or responsible home. Jenny struggles with life and though she never really envies Ellie and her family, she longs to be a part of it. Ellie's realisation that not all families are the same, and not everyone is as lucky as her is a key theme throughout the book. Even later in the book when she is older, this idea that, through all life has thrown at her, she should still feel fortunate really holds true. The story, despite being fiction, feels so honest and true - there are elements that MUST be from Sarah Winman (the author)'s own life. Inspired by events in hers, others and indeed all of our lives, this is one book that I really found difficult to put down. I had to read on, I worried about the characters - I wanted to share their good times and bad. Comparisons with Mark Haddon I think are very fair (especially if you have read 'A spot of Bother')but also a very personal style of her own, I shall be looking forward to Sarah Winman's next book. You'll laugh and cry in equal measure and if you are as lucky as me, recognize some of your own family's dysfunctional brilliance!
99 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not sure what the fuss is about...,
By
This review is from: When God Was a Rabbit (Paperback)
Firstly, let me say that I did enjoy this book, and I realise I'm in the minority in not thinking it is amazing. So, fully anticipating a lynching, I will list what I thought was wrong with it:
- Simply far too much happens. It seems as if the author has taken everything she has ever thought about and splurged it on the page. She touches on a wide range of topics, each one of which could occupy a whole book by itself, but she barely skims them. This is not only overwhelming to the reader, but it serves to trivialise these important issues. There also doesn't appear to be any uniting theme. There is an element of 'and then this happened, and then this happened' and the reader is left wondering why. - I couldn't identify with the main character, who appeared to be a wry observer who was unaffected by the events in her life. I think this would have worked better told in the third person, as we never really get under the skin of the narrator. - The narrative is all over the place, appearing disjointed and unedited - something which really isn't helped by the gap between each paragraph, which gives the impression of a change in scene/time and causes the reader to readjust every time it happens. So onto the good stuff. Firstly, the book was extremely funny, in a very subtle way. Several times I laughed out loud and I applaud the author for this: genuinely funny writing is hard to come by. Secondly, the writing and the descriptions are very beautiful, and some of the similes are spot on and breathtaking. These two things alone deserve three stars, and I was so impressed with them I would like to give the book more. However, a beautiful style and impeccable comic timing do not, unfortunately, make up for unlikeable characters, disjointed story telling and a lack of unity. Sorry, guys.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting debut (3.5 stars),
By
This review is from: When God Was a Rabbit (Paperback)
I avoided reading this book for ages despite the hype, merely because of the title. When a friend lent it to me however I thought I'd give it a try and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Told over forty years, this book is the story of an everyday family whose lives are shaped by a slew of events around them. The main aspect covered is the relationship between a brother and a sister and there are also some fantastic, fairytale qualities in the story- including a talking rabbit. That sounds a bit weird, and indeed this book IS weird- but mostly in a good way. At least, I thought so! This seems to be a book that really divides people, but I liked it- though I can certainly see why it isn't a lot of people's cup of tea. Granted, there is a LOT going on in this book- as other reviewers have said. To me, it feels like the author wanted to cram in as much as possible to demonstrate what happened in society as the years passed by and to tie these events in with the lives of the characters in some way, which doesn't necessarily always work. I felt that the second part of the book was definitely the weakest and that the author also didn't really expand on events that took place as much as she should have- I'm not saying that she trivialised them, just that they didn't really appear to be dealt with effectively. Also, the way that some of the chapters were linked felt a little bit stilted and didn't always flow very smoothly. However, despite these quibbles, the book is genuinely moving and really funny in places. I really loved some of the characters too- particularly Arthur and Ginger. I didn't always feel like I knew Elly very well- or Jenny Penny either as they seemed quite detached and in places emotionless from some of the events going on around them, but the other characters made up for this. I would have liked the ending to be just that little bit longer though- it seemed to end in a very abrupt fashion. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction that is just a little bit different, or coming of age tales with memorable characters.
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