Product Description

The Death of Bunny Munro recounts the last journey of a salesman in search of a soul. Following the suicide of his wife, Bunny, a door-to-door salesman and lothario, takes his son on a trip along the south coast of England. He is about to discover that his days are numbered. With a daring hellride of a plot The Death of Bunny Munro is also a modern morality tale of sorts, a stylish, furious, funny, truthful and tender account of one man's descent and judgement. The novel is full of the linguistic verve that has made Cave one of the world's most respected lyricists. It is his first novel since the publication of his critically acclaimed debut And the Ass Saw the Angel twenty years ago.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3356 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
A compulsive read possessing all Nick Cave's trademark horror and humanity. --Irvine Welsh

Review
Cave writes novels like he does lyrics, with strokes of blood and sulphur and lightning.

Review
Cocksman, Salesman, Deadman; Bunny Munro might not be Everyman, but every man ought to read this book.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of modern fiction?
This novel is bound to spark lots of different reactions because it is provocative and explicit and strange and dangerous and incredibly funny and genuinely challenging. But I hope that the beauty of the writing and the seriousness of the book's moral dimensions are not overlooked because of the "controversial" aspects of the novel. For this second novel by Nick Cave is a major piece of literature that makes so much of what is being written today in this country look anodyne and flaccid.

At the emotional heart of this death trip of a ride is this extremely tender and movingly captured relationship between the Bunny Munro of the title and his nine year old son Bunny Junior. It has real depth and is utterly convicing and so when you do get to the end of the rollercoaster you feel literally spent.

But along the way you will experience some of the sharpest and funniest writing you are likely to find this year. Fans of Cave's music will lap it up like cream (and the audio book which he has recorded with an accompanying soundtrack by him and fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis) but it should also win over a lot of new fans because it is so damn good. The novel's protoganist, the travelling salesman Bunny Munro, is an unforgettable and utterly flawed and tragic anti-hero that is going to live forever.

Rock on Mr Cave and thanks for writing such a stunning book. And please don't leave it another twenty years before you give us a third novel!

Not about rabbits
Celebrity novelists are often easy to mock; one always has a suspicion that their work might not have been published had they not been famous. Usually that's a question of quality.

In the case of The Death Of Bunny Munro, the real issue is probably the subject matter. Bunny Munro is not a rabbit, he's a sex maniac - though presumably the reader is supposed to see a parallel between Munro and the legendary proclivity of the rabbit to breed. This would have been an easy subject to address in a hamfisted way, but instead Nick Cave presents us with a dull man who has an empty, lonely life that is scarred by his insatiable appetite for sex. He even recognizes this; he recognizes the damage it did to his marriage to Libby; the damage it does to his relationships with those around him; the damage it probably does to his career. For all the sex, there seems to be no gratification. It is very matter of fact. And, as it turns out, not even with particularly attractive women. In a telling moment, Bunny Munro is discussing with colleagues who is a breast man and who is a leg man. Bunny declares that he is a vagina man. He's no interest in the person or in the foreplay - just the mechanical act.

The novel particularly focuses on the days immediately following Libby's death. It shows a very disturbing grief reaction as Bunny's life falls apart - the one anchor point in his life is removed and Bunny fails to deal with the situation. He is landed with Bunny Jr to look after; a job that seems to be little more than an entry card into Brighton bedrooms; and a complete inability to look after himself. The result is pitiable for the sake of Bunny, but deeply concerning for the wellbeing of Junior. He's pulled from school, pulled from the family home and expected to keep watch as Bunny goes off on his salesman's rounds. Junior is portrayed as malleable, scared and bewildered but constantly seeking approval from a father who is behaving unpredictably. At times, Junior seems trusting, at other times he seems helplessly terrified.

The reader's perception of Bunny, Junior and their relationship then undergoes a paradigm shift as Bunny Sr is introduced. This turns what might have been ordinary fare into something far more interesting. It offers some insight into who Bunny actually is; why he is like that; and perhaps even where Junior is heading.

If there is a lack in the novel, it is a clear understanding of whether Bunny behaves in quite such a despicable way all the time or whether his bad qualities have been magnified by grief. The sex, we understand, is constant. The other misdemeanours and transgressions seem somewhat out of character and, perhaps, not sustainable over time.

The language is plain, straightforward and deadpan. Not a million miles from a Nick Cave lyric. But for all that, it is a rich, deceptively complex novel which defies being read in long sessions. The plot, for all it is, will not linger long. It's the characterization that is the real strength of The Death Of Bunny Munro.

Bunnysaurus
The story of the end of Bunny Munro is a story about a dinosaur who has not realised that his species is extinct.

Bunny is really not a very nice person at all. It's not simply his antediluvian attitude towards women, but also his uncaring solipsism. Certainly, his son is caught in his orbit, but Bunny barely seems to notice him until towards the end. And, really, it's the ending that gives the book any meaning, and changes the bathos to pathos.

I don't know...it is well written, although some repeated phrases started to jar a little (the repetition of 'or something' after several metaphors). But I found it really hard to empathise with Bunny, to care in any way for this drunken lecher. After all, here is a man who, in the first few pages, drives his wife to suicide. Yet I plugged on with it and, when we meet Bunny's father, when we see Bunny Senior, Bunny and Bunny Junior, and we get some inkling of the motives of and background to Bunny's story, then maybe there is some sympathy. But the sympathy is for Bunny Junior; his father is clearly a lost cause.

In places, it reminded me of 'Bad Lieutenant'. Set in Brighton and the South Coast, the comparison still works, but the book is certainly no religious text, even given the hints of supernatural goings-on.

As a character study, it doesn't really have a great deal of depth. Bunny is simply thoroughly and pretty well two-dimensionally unpleasant. Bunny Junior is the only glimmer of light in this novel. In some ways, the Death of Bunny Munro may be the saving of Bunny Junior.

Still, it is a good read, but a bit disappointing overall. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, but if it hadn't been for Bunny's obsession with Kylie Minogue and Avril Lavinge, I'd have thought this was a 50s 'period piece'. As I said, Bunny is a dinosaur.