The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave

I very much doubt that I can offer an unbiased review of this book since I’m such a huge Nick Cave fan (he could put out a book of nursery rhymes and I’d wax lyrical about it — but then again, a book of nursery rhymes from Nick Cave would be kind of awesome…and appropriate). But as soon as I finish reading it, I’ll give it a try and add it to this post.

So far, it’s crude and strange and funny and…I love it.

Review (posted on 6/26/10): Well, I’m not surprised to say that I liked the book. It’s Nick Cave, so I was going to be biased from the beginning. What can I say?

As a fan, I saw a lot of him in some of the references and the overall tone. But I’ll admit, I had trouble with the main character, Bunny Munro. There’s not a lot about him to be liked: he sleeps around on his wife, which (don’t worry, I’m not giving anything away) leads to her death, and doesn’t seem to have very much remorse or self-awareness about it. We get to see a few tender moments with his son, Bunny Jr., as they hit the road to sell beauty products door to door, but nothing that redeems his overall character. Even when Bunny is finally held accountable for his sins, we still never get a sense that he’s truly sorry. But maybe that’s the point: we’re never supposed to like Bunny, and Bunny is never going change because of our dislike for him. This is never going to be one of those stories where the protagonist realizes the error of his ways, and that’s okay. We’re just along for the ride as he self-destructs and faces his demons, which is still greatly entertaining, in a train wreck kind of way.

The book was crudely entertaining (there’s a lot of strong language in the book), and I didn’t want to put it down. Because it is a tale of the relationship between a father and son, I couldn’t help but think that maybe Cave was inspired by the movie version of The Road, for which he wrote the soundtrack. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is an altogether different story (an excellent book if you haven’t read it), but focuses on the relationship between a father and his son after a dramatic turn of events.

I definitely recommend the book, but I’d love to hear your opinion of it, especially if you’re not familiar with Nick Cave, the musician.