The Death of Bunny Monro by Nick Cave

25 Apr 2011 2 Comments

by Dani Cotton in 2011, Book Reviews

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.

3 star rating

I really struggled to decide which star rating I should give this novel – it was a bit of a strange one. I am also going to struggle, I am now realising, to review it properly. Until I was around 60% of the way through the novel, I was describing it as “not uninteresting”, but I still wouldn’t say that it was anything special. The language was crude, not much was really happening, and I had a serious dislike for the main character. In the remaining 40% of the novel, a lot more was beginning to happen, and the plot was picking up a little more speed, but ‘not uninteresting’ would still just about cover it. I am glad that I finished the novel, and did not give up, which I almost did on several occasions due to the awful language used (and it has to be mentioned, that I feel sorry for both Kylie and Avril Lavigne, if they ever read this – I know I wouldn’t like to be spoken about in the way they are by the main character).The verdict on this one is then, that I am not really sure whether or not I would recommend it to anyone. I’m glad I read it, but I would not read it again.