The Word Cloud

The Death of Bunny Munro, by Nick Cave

Reviewed by Rust on March 15, 2011

Bunny Munro must die. We are convinced of this truth from the first sentence of the second and long awaited novel by Nick Cave, but what we really want to know is what Bunny will do with the time he has left. In The Death of Bunny Munro Cave departs from his gothic artistry of old to present us with a vivid and modern canvas, but the theme of redemption remains. And love. Bunny Junior's love for his father steals centre stage from Avril Lavigne's privates and prevents this tale from being merely a tragedy. The boy's admiration for his dad gives purpose to the chaotic and vulgar demise of our protagonist and lends him some credibility. Bunny Junior gives us hope. And boy, do we need it as our boozy, sex addicted antihero lurches, ever more desperately, from one vagina to the next in a desperate attempt to find 'the fucking Valhalla of vaginas', all the while neglecting his son and moving inexorably towards his own death.

It is a feat of good story telling that I found myself urging Bunny to gather his wits about him and change his fate, in spite of his despicable behaviour. A plethora of arguments exists for Bunny's peculiar and vulnerable state of mind, but it is grief over his wife's suicide that causes him to finally cast off from sanity. Grief and guilt. Feeling spooked in his own house, suspicious of a haunting, Bunny decides to bundle his nine year old son into their Fiat Punto and start out on a road trip around Brighton (England) to sell beauty products and have sex with as many women as possible. As Junior sits in the car learning from his treasured encyclopaedia (a gift from his mother)and contemplating how great his dad is, Bunny dives headlong into his appetites, giving up all responsibility as he “feels all the psychic strings that bind him to the rational earth snapping like rubber bands in his skull”.

As Bunny hurtles towards his reckoning a horned killer on a separate rampage draws near. We follow this red beast's progress through the media as the death toll rises, his existence a warning of what could become of us and perhaps also a reminder that we still have humanity at our core, regardless.

We are also introduced to Bunny Senior's father, another salesman. His time for redemption has long gone and he serves not to symbolise, but rather to evidence the sins of the father. In him we see why Bunny must die.

The plot is not what sells this story, but rather the tender moments between father and son. Love seems to be at the core of everything Cave offers us, a searing love for mankind and all its disgusting, funny and beautiful passions.