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The Death of Bunny Munro

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38 · rating details · 4,593 ratings · 527 reviews

THE WORLD IS A HARD PLACE TO BE GOOD IN...

Struggling to keep a grip on reality after his wife's death, Bunny Munro does the only thing he can think of: with his young son in tow, he hits the road. An epic chronicle of one man's judgement, The Death of Bunny Munro is also an achingly tender portrait of the relationship between father and son.

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published 2009 by Canongate Books

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Apr 19, 2013 Anthony Vacca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

ALSO POSTED ON SHELF INFLICTED

I am conflicted. On one hand, Nick Cave is one of my top ten favorite musicians. For over thirty years he has consistently made some of the best emotionally and physically visceral music ever to come tearing, and sometimes aching, its way of the electric shiver of a set of speakers. The man can sing about capital letter Love in a way that will turn any person equipped with something resembling a heart into a believer; but he can also thrash and foam like a maniac ab...more

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Oct 01, 2009 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: icky-sex, littry-fiction

look we are best friends!

okay now it is time to actually review the book. and im having an off day so im not sure what form this review will take, but im writing it and thats what is happening. i was trying to remember the other day where i was the first time i encountered nick cave. not in person, - i remember that quite well. before the above picture was taken i had tried, many years ago, to flirt on him and was rebuffed. REBUFFED! but the first time i heard his music. i remember quite well the first time i heard the smiths. or leonard cohen. or oingo boingo. and thats about all the music i know. but i cant remember my first nick cave. fascinating, right?? like i said - its an off day. but so the book. i liked it, but not nearly as much as and the ass saw the angel. which i love enough to maybe review later, if im feeing saucy. this book is very good, and i know a movie is in the works, and i can see how that would be good, maybe. but when he was chatting in the green room, maria mentioned the word antihero. and nick cave seemed genuinely surprised at this word being used in connection with this book. and that, in turn, surprises me. because if you read this, theres nothing really to fall in love with, character-wise. hes a pure, unmitigated asshole. and thats great, really, but he is nothing if not an antihero. and moments later, he tried to make a call on his cell, but was geting poor reception and kept saying "can you hear me now", which makes me cringe, and then said "never mind, ill just text you". to this technogrouch, that was unforgiveable. but still - best friends. i thank this book for making =me realize how close avril lavignes name anagrams to "vaginal". and i love that when i was reading this outside on the back stoop at work, some lady came by and tried to sell me makeup from her little suitcase, which meshed nicely with what i was reading, but not as nicely (or terrifyingly) as when i was reading the plague on the jmz subway platform at like 2 in the morning and no one was around and then a rat ran over my foot. that was pretty awesome. but so thats my review, sortof, and i cant even see what i am typing because goodreads.com is experiencing some kind of annoying glitch that is superimposing "formatting tips" over my little box here. (on my display device) so i dont even care. comment, vote, whatever... this day is annoying all-round. boo.(less)

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Apr 15, 2013 Alex Akesson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow! Death is too good for this breed of megalomaniac sociopath........... and his ilk... most of the people who should read this book, probably won't.
Well done Mr Cave, I like a book that really pisses me off.
One hand is clapping, I guess it's my feminine side. The other one is busy wanking off.

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 12, 2009 RandomAnthony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Monro is a novel about a delusional sex addict/beauty products salesman and his reserved, thoughtful nine year old son in the fateful days after the suicide of their wife/mother. The novel’s quick 278 pages include (without giving away too much, I hope):

• At least a dozen references to Arvil Lavigne’s vagina,
• The same amount of references to Kyle Minogue’s vagina (and remember, Mr. Cave sang with her a few albums back),
• A sex scene between the main character and...more

35 likes · like · see review

Oct 04, 2009 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who want to think about Avril's bearded taco.

Shelves: fiction

After reading this book I can not think of Avril Lavigne without automatically thinking about what her vagina would look like. The "Complicated" singer's cooter will probably forever be a purple elephant to me, and I'll be 90 years old and "Skater boy" will come on the "Good Times Oldies" podcast, or whatever we'll be listening to then, and the question of what her box looked like 60 years ago will jump into my head.

Sadly that is probably what is going to stick with me long after all the other...more

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May 15, 2013 Marco Cultrera rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have both the book and the audio-book (read by the author himself), and I ended up listening to the audio-book while completing a repetitive manual task.

I'm glad I did. Nick Cave's voice and delivery are perfect for the twisted events during the last few days of Bunny Munro's life. Also, the many music interludes are fantastic, and really add to the atmosphere.

About the novel itself: Nick Cave is at his best. The man is a genius in creating incredibly compelling and flawed characters and Bunny...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Agathafrye rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: downer

Hmmm. Mr. Cave has a knack for writing about the wretched among us. The topics that I love in his music can be a hit or miss when he's writing prose. I deeply loved his first novel, "And the Ass Saw the Angel" even though it was profoundly disturbing and a total bummerfest. Cave's protagonist Bunny Munro is a traveling salesman of beauty products, serial womanizer, and terrible father. I often have difficulty enjoying a book when I can't stand the main character, and that was definitely the case...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Ethan Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nick Cave. Songsmith, Poet, Artist, Screenwriter, Performer--of all his great talents and larger than life artistic abilities novelist seems to be the one area that he just doesn't shine quite so much. And I love Nick Cave. I wouldn't quite say "worship" as many do, but certainly "idolize" is appropriate for my feelings toward him. As an idea "Bunny Munro" is prime Cave material and perhaps would ring with greater resonance and deeper human truth and tragedy as a song, possibly a full album or e...more Nick Cave. Songsmith, Poet, Artist, Screenwriter, Performer--of all his great talents and larger than life artistic abilities novelist seems to be the one area that he just doesn't shine quite so much. And I love Nick Cave. I wouldn't quite say "worship" as many do, but certainly "idolize" is appropriate for my feelings toward him. As an idea "Bunny Munro" is prime Cave material and perhaps would ring with greater resonance and deeper human truth and tragedy as a song, possibly a full album or even a screenplay. But though the novel is about human redemption in some extremely roundabout way the author just doesn't earn his character redemption. The writing is often funny (in the very very blackest, sinister and cruel way it could be and still be called humor), it is often pornographic, often the descriptions are so sharp and wonderful that you can smell the pomade dripping off Bunny's pompadour in the hot afternoon sun of a Brighton summer day (as well as a lot of other too real smells from Bunny's dripping body parts). And yet with all that it reads more like Bukowski than Norman Mailer. Like Bukowski, Cave is brilliant with a line but lacks mastery of story architecture and character nuance. Yet in his music the architecture and character nuance is often pitch perfect so the potential is there. And like Bukowski, after any bearing of the soul or glimpse at complexity into the male psyche there remains this ringing bellow of base alpha male misogyny and mean spirited masculinity at it's worst that doesn't allow the sensitive moments of emotional depth to carry much weight. I just can't tell if "Bunny Munro" was supposed to be a cruel little dirty bit of fun or have a depth and human quality that leaves you with something you could put in your heart or want hanging around your head. Either way, it's not really that fun though one might let a couple chuckles go at any one of the many descriptions of Avril Lavigne's vagina floating through the air. A must read for Nick Cave fans only for the sole fact that a true Nick Cave fan works obsessively through every bit of his work. I'm not sure this book holds interest for anyone else and definitely not for the faint of heart. 3 stars because I love Nick Cave.

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Jun 13, 2011 Shantell rated it 1 of 5 stars

Jesus, how is this even a book. Its like they grabbed the horniest 15 year old boy they could find, gave him a playboy, and told him to try and right a fiction novel. I'm no prude, far from it in fact, but saying "her tits are nice like peaches or something"...does NOTHING for me. The descriptions are awful, full of "or something" and "or whatever"...spending long lengths talking about a street FULL of women. Tell me about one or two hot chicks-their hair, their eyes, their body. Literally writi...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Bjorn rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Are you for real?" women ask Bunny Munro in open-mouthed shock. (Well, not all of them.) "Do guys like you still exist? Shouldn't you be in a museum somewhere, with a sign around your neck saying PREHISTORIC FOSSIL?"

Bunny himself, of course, doesn't really get why they react like that. (Well, some of them.) After all, what has he ever done wrong? No misogynist he; he loves pussy. ...Women, I mean. Bunny Munro loves women. In fact, it is... I mean they are pretty much what his entire life revolv...more "Are you for real?" women ask Bunny Munro in open-mouthed shock. (Well, not all of them.) "Do guys like you still exist? Shouldn't you be in a museum somewhere, with a sign around your neck saying PREHISTORIC FOSSIL?"

Bunny himself, of course, doesn't really get why they react like that. (Well, some of them.) After all, what has he ever done wrong? No misogynist he; he loves pussy. ...Women, I mean. Bunny Munro loves women. In fact, it is... I mean they are pretty much what his entire life revolves around. As one of the most successful travelling salesmen of a cosmetics company, he rides from town to town in his faithful Fiat, seduces farmer's daughters... uh, bored suburban housewives into buying his various, ahem, creams, then rides home to his faithful if boring wife (jerking off a couple of times on the way) and spends his nights fantasizing about Avril Lavigne and Kylie Minogue and the neighbour's 14-year-old and, well, anything with a... he loves women. (Cave apologizes to Lavigne and Minogue in the afterword, and for good reason.) That's his entire existence: want pussy, have pussy , joke about pussy, dream about pussy, and occasionally pat his young son on the head and make him want to be like him. The world is, ahem, his oyster.

And then one day it falls apart. His wife kills herself rather than live with him, and suddenly Bunny is alone with a young kid, a growing gut, and a life built around... well, a hole, I suppose. So after first having sex with a colleague's girlfriend (he has no actual friends to speak of) at his wife's wake, he takes Bunny Jr out of school to "teach him the ropes", and together the two of them set out on a The Road-style odyssey (it's hardly a coincidence that he and John Hillcoat have been collaborating on the film version) through a Britain of council flats, 20-year-old mothers of three, and drugged-out teenagers who look like pop stars (or possibly the other way around). Bunny tries to do his job, sell his product to increasingly apprehensive women, while the certainty that something is going to end very very soon is slowly causing him to lose his, ahem, marbles. He keeps seeing news reports of a man dressed as the devil who's working himself down through England on a collision course with Bunny, beating women to death. Meanwhile, poor motherless Bunny Jr (there's three Bunny Munros in this - grandfather, father, son) is trying to teach himself about the world from an old encyclopedia that can only offer (dubious) facts.

Cave's second novel is savage, both in the the way his protagonist acts and in the treatment Cave gives him, and also very funny; it's as if he can't quite make up his mind if Bunny deserves pity for what the world has made him or a swift kick in the balls for what he does to the world, and decides to do both. Cave was always one of rock's more ambitious songwriters, with an approach that echoes Milton, Updike or Straub as often as it does Hooker, Reed or Dylan, and in Bunny Munro he proves himself a more than capable prose writer as well. It's funny how his writing has developed since the 80s; where his Faulkner-on-heroin debut And The Ass Saw The Angel felt like a novelization of a Nick Cave song (specifically, a mash-up of "Swampland" and "Tupelo"), many of his recent songs have felt more like condensed novels made to rhyme. And Bunny Munro has the same restless, frantic, impotently furious feel of many of his best latter-day lyrics, except here he gets to spread out and explore every, ahem, crevice of what it means. Bunny tumbles head-first (you know which one) through life in a rhythmic, pounding, Humbert/Rabbit Angstrom/John Self-like haze of images and ideas about himself and those who exist for his pleasure, unsure of which bits are jokes and which ones are just very macabre tragedies, only that they're all increasingly at his expense. Especially Cave's dialogue is an absolute joy to read, if by "joy" you mean "funny, but awkward and authentic enough to make your teeth hurt."

Sure, in the long run his strength is more in how the story is told, and like his other recent full-length effort (the script for The Proposition), his plot and his points end up a little too predictable; not enough to ruin the book, but just enough that you know what's around the bend before he gets there. He kicks in what should be open doors, but he does it with style. You might argue that he's being either hypocritical or just a little too honest, considering the amount of songs he's written about stalking, beating or killing women, but of course Cave realised that that aspect of his writing was turning into self-parody over 10 years ago and mostly ditched that persona following Murder Ballads. When he revisits it now, as if he wants to finally deconstruct and bury the idea of the poor, set-upon middle-aged male novel protagonist trying to understand why women won't fuck... I mean love him, it's often about as subtle as - to quote a phrase - "a fucking really big brick." Bunny, the killer (or at least rapist) rabbit who sells women an idea of wanting to be like he wants them to be, makes them pay through the nose for it, and passes it on to the next generation without a second's thought. The real and more subtle tragedy is in the world we see around Bunny - the men who laugh at his jokes, the women who gladly play his game for lack of anything better in their life, poor Bunny Jr idolizing his father for lack of anything else. Cave walks - or rather, runs ranting back and forth - along a thin line between social commentary and outrageous satire, and keeps it up (sorry) more than he falls off. Bunny Munro dies and lives forever; a pitiful, hilariously inept predator caveman, whose only function is to swim and eat and make little sharks, and lacks even the language to wonder why he shouldn't be allowed to.(less)

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Dec 11, 2012 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A well executed parable -- a kind of a Death of a Salesman for our times. Cast in a much murkier, darker and seedy way, The Death of Bunny Munro looks at similar themes through a modern lens. There's no American dream, per se, given that the setting is the South of England, but there is a sense of reaching for the good life, of heritage, and failure and redemption. Bunny says 'he could sell a bicycle to a barracuda,' a phrase stolen from his father, it would seem, and passed down to his son, and...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Lazarus rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'd been avoiding reading this one, mainly out of fear it wasn't any good and would somehow ruin my appreciation of Nick Cave. It didn't.

Bunny Munro, a man with 'the gift' when it comes to women, is left a widower and a single parent following his wife's recent suicide. Regardless of the fact he may have driven his already unstable wife insane with his frivolous ways he fears the circumstances will cripple his 'talent' and decides to hit the road with his young son. He roams the English country...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Laura Rittenhouse rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book gets darker as it goes - and it starts off pretty darned dark. Bunny Sr (yes, he named his son Bunny) is a chain smoking, alcoholic philanderer. His distressed wife phones him, begging him to return home and, when he eventually does, he finds she’s committed suicide and he is left facing the reality of single parenthood with a troubled son.

The subject is heavy and through the book Mr. Cave attempted to create an empathy in the mind of the reader for the totally reprehensible Mr. Munro....more

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Jun 26, 2012 Marc Nash rated it 1 of 5 stars

Bunny Munro, travelling priapic salesman of women's beauty products, just can't help himself sampling the customers. His constant infidelity pushes his wife to suicide and yet he still seeks solace between alien bedsheets. Only there does seem to be some guilt tugging at the fringes of his conscience, for she seems to be haunting his performances. And other than an underwritten relationship with his introverted nine year son, (this ain't no "The Road") that is the whole book. There is no motion,...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Louise rated it 1 of 5 stars

I am a major Cave fan! I love his music and I think his first novel And The Ass Saw The Angel is a masterpiece! One of the greatest book ever written.
This book just makes me sad. Coming from the brilliant mind who gave us ATASTA, The Mercy Seat, The Sorrowful Wife, The Carny and I could go on. Here is a man who can make you laugh and cry at the same time. Who can make you love those no one can love.
This book is so below him! It reeks of midlife crisis! And possibly even (though it breaks my he...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Elvis Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars

I like Nick Cave's music so I naturally came to this with some pre-conceptions. I liked it but not as much as I wanted to.

The thing I liked was how seedy it all was, like everything is seedy, the main character is seedy, the locations are seedy, the action is seedy. I guess it's that English thing about squalor. I lived in Amsterdam for a few years and people occupied empty houses (squats or kraakhuis). The Dutch occupied beautiful empty apartments overlooking the canals while the English occupi...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Kirstie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nick Cave fans

This book should really garner more like a 3 1/2 but that is impossible with Goodreads rating system and I don't feel it deserves 4/5 stars. I'd recommend it to Nick Cave fans but that's probably as far as the recommendation would extend. It's a far cry from what he achieved in his novel And the Ass Saw the Angel, for instance. Still, it's not completely devoid of positives and it's definitely easier to read in terms of its language than the predecessor.

What Nick Cave does well is bring us a ch...more This book should really garner more like a 3 1/2 but that is impossible with Goodreads rating system and I don't feel it deserves 4/5 stars. I'd recommend it to Nick Cave fans but that's probably as far as the recommendation would extend. It's a far cry from what he achieved in his novel And the Ass Saw the Angel, for instance. Still, it's not completely devoid of positives and it's definitely easier to read in terms of its language than the predecessor.

What Nick Cave does well is bring us a character who is truly simultaneously depraved and happy go lucky, therefore, slightly likable despite his immorality. Bunny Munro is a sex fiend to the point of roofies and date rapes even as a married man with a son. But, as a traveling salesman he seems to get all of the action he could want, telling girls his name is "Bunny" with a wiggling of his hands behind his ears. Most of the girls seem to fall for it in this twisted Kylie Minogue fueled grand hallucination. Well, clearly parts of the novel are ripe with hallucinations and delusions and, if we really did care about Bunny we'd probably be more motivated to sort out reality.

There's a hint of a James Joyce mentality of son becomes father cyclic nature of families but only a hint. It's more about this psychotic over the top escapade where a man has to come to terms with the nature of himself, someone he truly can't escape...and the reader must ask her/himself..."Does Bunny Munro even see his actions as wrong?" That's where Cave errs...in trying to create a complex character, we don't actually see one that can be redeemed even though I think we're supposed to want him to be redeemed.

The best character in the novel is Munro's son, Bunny Jr. and already you feel like he's cursed the same way as his father whom he idolizes. Bunny Jr. is a bit different in his quest for knowledge over women at least at his young age. One has to hope he'll eventually have decent role models, go back to school, go to college, and realize the true horror of everything he witnessed from parents he thought were fun and lovable in his oblivious and not nearly terrified enough state of innocence.

Oh, and this book is very NSFW. Seriously, if you work in a standard work space, don't even think of bringing it on your lunch break. Read it in your bathroom or something. Incidentally, there are a few bathroom scenes. Yeah. NSFW.(less)

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Jun 21, 2011 Sarah Etter rated it 4 of 5 stars

i gave this book to a friend after i read it and he said something that stuck with me forever: "this would've been better as a short story."

there's a lot at work here - the protagonist is an asshole, addicted to sex and booze and fantasies about the vagina of a canadian pop singer. as a woman, reading this, i was both amused and disgusted at turns. i also felt myself urging bunny munro to "get it together, get it together," and that felt odd, that i wanted to mother this pitiful man.

this is a bo...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Following his wife's suicide, cosmetics salesman and sex addict Bunny Monro takes to the road in his seagull-dropping covered car, together with his nine-year-old son, Bunny Junior. As we follow their tragic journey through Brighton's bleaker suburbs selling lotions and potions, we encounter pre-pubescent girls and giggling housewives, blind pensioners and erotically-dressed policewomen.

Having grown up with Cave's music and been a long admirer of his lyrics - many of which have stories at their...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Sun rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Bunny Munro is a sleazy sex-obsessed door-to-door salesman who is left in charge of his 9-year old son after his wife kills herself.

As a song writer, Nick Cave's lyrics are hypnotic, potent, and excruciating. As a novelist, Cave doesn't stray from this distinctive style: "Bunny Munro" alternates between the horrific and the tender. Cave's writing is visual, pungent, vivid and immediate but it's the whip-cracking pace and the humour that sucks you in.

Bunny's predatory character is balanced by h...more

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Nov 12, 2010 Jesse Young rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After a 20-year intermission Cave's back with his second foray as a novelist. I haven't had the chance to plow my way through all of his first outing just quite yet (And the Ass Saw an Angel), but its on my list. Nick Cave is hands-down, far and away my favorite songwriter. I've greedily eaten up all his back-catalogue from his early days in the Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party, through to the Bad Seeds, and recently, Grinderman. The Death of Bunny Munro is a strange beast, originally penne...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Craig Wallwork rated it 3 of 5 stars

Following on from his critically acclaimed debut novel, And The Ass Saw The Angel, Nick Cave’s second novel tells the story of Bunny Munro, a traveling salesman who, after the suicide of his wife, takes his son on a road trip around the South coast of England in attempt to forsake his demons and outrun the Devil.

As previously stated in my blog entry, "Drinking Panther Piss", this book was the only publication I truly wanted to read this year. I loved And The Ass Saw The Angel, and from what I r...more Following on from his critically acclaimed debut novel, And The Ass Saw The Angel, Nick Cave’s second novel tells the story of Bunny Munro, a traveling salesman who, after the suicide of his wife, takes his son on a road trip around the South coast of England in attempt to forsake his demons and outrun the Devil.

As previously stated in my blog entry, "Drinking Panther Piss", this book was the only publication I truly wanted to read this year. I loved And The Ass Saw The Angel, and from what I read from advanced reviews of Bunny Munro, I felt it was going to be equally gratifying. To stop me from climbing the walls until its September release, fellow Velvet member and all round good-guy Jesse Witchterman provided me with an advance copy from the States, to which I’m indebted – again, thanks Jesse.

On first reflection, I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell the book was about. I assumed that Cave was exercising his own demons through his prose. Cave’s father died when he was a young man, and the story of Bunny and Bunny Jnr could be seen as a boy wanting to know his father better, but they are worlds apart, emotionally, so even the most basic of communication is beyond their reach, which might be a comparable experience Cave had with his father when alive. Alternatively, with Cave reaching his twilight years (Christ, I hope he never reads this!), maybe he is redefining his role as a father, and the responsibilities it brings – I think Cave has at least three, maybe four children?

Another conjecture forced me to arrive at the conclusion most writers, regardless of what they say, have some part of themselves in their characters. It’s almost impossible to write objectively. In the past, Cave has been labeled a dirty old man based on a few of his song lyrics, and he’s been reported as liking the designation. This may help to explain Bunny’s unnatural obsession with the vagina throughout the book. Moreover, it can’t just be coincidence that the main character is named after the most reputed horniest animal alive, can it? Not surprising then that Cave designed Bunny to have a natural magnetism which most women find irresistible. His charm has made Bunny a decent living as a traveling salesman, allowing him to work his magic to seduce lonely housewives and single mums into partaking in cheap cosmetic products, and the pleasures of the flesh. After his wife’s successful suicide attempt, Bunny begins to feel her presence around every corner, seemingly robbing him of his unnatural magnetism. But his gift is Bunny’s undoing. It had ended a life, and forced him to accept the responsibility of raising his son, something quite alien to him based on his experiences with his own father. What began as a simple busman’s holiday, a fun trip with his stranger son, as well as a perfect excuse to pageant his beguiling influence on the female species becomes more a journey of abstemiousness for Bunny. And it is because of this we see a change in character. The deeper into the journey he goes, the more Bunny searches for absolution, absolution for his sins as a father, as a son and a husband.

From the beginning, Heaven was to Bunny a perfect place where you could fuck all day without consequence, and for a long time he lived a happy existence there. But like Adam, he fucked up. His desires became the reason for his eviction, and when you abuse the laws of Paradise, there is only one place left for you, and for Bunny that was the archetypal holiday choice for most English low-income families, Butlins – a place where Bunny spent time with his father, and first discovered his talent. I can say with some authority that having spent a week in Butlins when I was 20 years old, I can think of no better analogy of Hell.

Overall it was a brave book. On the surface it was simple, the writing in parts, lazy (I seriously hope Cave does not read this!). Compared to his first novel, which was like eating Banoffee pie covered in Maple Syrup, The Death of Bunny Munro tasted like plain Vanilla Cheesecake. Nothing wrong with cheesecake. In fact, I love cheesecake! But you would expect something just as sweet as his last recipe. Instead, Cave gave us a book that was simple on the surface, plain to the eye; yet, as you trawl through its words, the flavours are still there. You’re just going to have to Dig! Dig! Dig!!!
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Jan 22, 2010 Lizzie rated it 2 of 5 stars

A major disappointment.

Given that the title makes the ending somewhat obvious, you'd've thought Bunny's journey toward meeting his maker would offer some kind of dramatic tension. You'd be wrong. Character, plotting and setting are weak, and for a tragedy (which I guess we could label the book,) there is no dramatic arc, just a never ending stream of vaginamania and the rampant misogyny of a man who has no demons to confront - he's already dead man walking. Where is the conflict? The tension? Th...more

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Oct 30, 2009 Ian Mapp rated it 4 of 5 stars

Of course i am going to like this. The man is a genius who can possibly turn his hand to anything. Upteen great albums, a previous book 20 years ago, a screenplay and soundtracks for several films. Unbelievable.

This is a deceptively simple tale. You can tell it was written at the time of grinerman with similar themes of aging lotharios. Here we have bunny munroe - one of the truley great literary creations. And similpy unforgetable.

The book starts in a hotel room when he is talking to his wife,...more Of course i am going to like this. The man is a genius who can possibly turn his hand to anything. Upteen great albums, a previous book 20 years ago, a screenplay and soundtracks for several films. Unbelievable.

This is a deceptively simple tale. You can tell it was written at the time of grinerman with similar themes of aging lotharios. Here we have bunny munroe - one of the truley great literary creations. And similpy unforgetable.

The book starts in a hotel room when he is talking to his wife, getting blown by a prostitute. She knows he is lying as to his whereabouts and when he heads home, he finds that she has killed herself, leaving him in charge of his 9 year old boy - bunny junior.

If you think this is the peak of bunnys sex addiction - you are very much mistaken. Without his wife, he goes on a road trip of despair, plunging ever downwards to his own inevitable demise, as predicted in the title of the book.

The humour in the book is incredible. From bunnys yellow fiat punto, to his seduction antics that appear to be based around bouncing up and down to any female with a pair of bunny ears bellowing I am the bunny man. And I guarantee that you will not be able to think of the Kylie track "spinning around" in ths same light again. She gets a deserved apology in the footnotes.

So from a literary perspective, what is going on. Well we have great characterisations and repeating montifs. His demise is coming and there are clues to how it comes about. A happy event in his own childhood (trip to butlins that formed his sexual awakening) is repeated. The colour yellow is prominent.

There are good characters with Geoffry his boss and his seedy maters - poodle et al that work well.

What works slightly less well is a horned serial killer working his way south that just disappears and the introduction of Bunny SNR which does seem to add a lot of value.

All in all its a fun ride with laughs on nearly every page. Some of the stuff is so close to the bone its untrue and fans of the music will lover the references - listening to womans hour, intersections of jeans - even cave himself makes an appearance as the moustasioed musician that Bunny converses with in his dying moments. At least this goes some way to explaining the moustache as he justifies it to bunny.

Read in a day - this is for more than fans and a great introduction to a unique talent. But you need to have a sense of humour that would not be offened by Jimmy Carr to stop you puting the book down.(less)

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Jun 12, 2012 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

The story of Bunny Munro is exactly the kind of fiction I hoped to read from Mr. Cave: a deliciously disturbing sleazefest that shocks, titillates, offends the senses, and frequently assaults the stomach like a shot of cheap whiskey. Cave revels in tormenting Bunny, his despicable caricature of a protagonist: mercilessly breaking his spirit with devastating plot twists and gleefully exposing to readers his slimy inner monologues and absolute lack of redeeming qualities like a circus ringman at a...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Clint rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I didn't know what to expect going into this book, but would never have guessed what it was. If you are looking for a follow-up to And the Ass Saw the Angel, this is not it. This is not the Nick Cave of Henry's Dream, this is the Nick Cave of Dig, Lazarus, Dig!, which makes sense, given the release dates and whatnot. Gone is the super-gothic William Faulkner-esque writer, with odd phrasings and observations giving away the fact that he's not American. This is the equally verbose, but funnier, sl...more I didn't know what to expect going into this book, but would never have guessed what it was. If you are looking for a follow-up to And the Ass Saw the Angel, this is not it. This is not the Nick Cave of Henry's Dream, this is the Nick Cave of Dig, Lazarus, Dig!, which makes sense, given the release dates and whatnot. Gone is the super-gothic William Faulkner-esque writer, with odd phrasings and observations giving away the fact that he's not American. This is the equally verbose, but funnier, sleazier, and somehow even more misanthropic Nick Cave of today.

This is kind of a plotless novel that begins with a piece of shit travelling salesman of beauty products coming home and finding his wife has committed suicide, and then turns into a kind of On the Road or Huckleberry Finn mixed with a 70's porno with lots of hair and moustaches. Like another reviewer of this book, I couldn't not picture Nick Cave himself as the character of Bunny Munro.

Several times I found myself laughing out loud, and I am awed at how great Nick Cave is at producing great lines. But he's not exactly the best novelist. The book doesn't really go anywhere, and at times you can see that Nick Cave's lifelong love-affair with words gets in the way of him being able to create a really good book. But that's okay, that's what he does best, and why as a recording artist he's unmatched.

The last chapter or two of the book were actually the best, when the whiskey and pussy runs out Bunny is actually dying; it's surreal and actually touching, which I would have thought impossible, considering how the first 95 percent of the book was.

Recommended for Nick Cave fans, of course, and fans of guys like Charles Bukowski.

And check this out: "He closes his eyes and imagines for a split second a rush of perilous and apocalyptic visions - planes falling from the sky; a cow giving birth to a snake; red snow; an avalanche of iron maidens; a vagina with its mouth stapled shut; a phallus shaped like a mushroom cloud - and Bunny shudders, checks his teeth in the mirrir and thinks - Man, where did that come from?"(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: keeper, bought-new

For a number of years' birthday or Christmas, my husband has been buying me a Nick Cave CD or DVD, despite 'The Boatman's Call' being the only album I really like. So why, when I dropped many unsubtle hints that I was very intrigued by the idea of the audiobook of this, narrated by Cave himself, did I get a bloody Mighty Boosh DVD? Anyway, I bought the bog-standard hardback myself in the sales.

Is it possible to have too much sex in a book? Yes, yes it is. This is positively pornographic. Suppose...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Jade rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 15, 2013 Κατερί Να rated it 2 of 5 stars

(I'm copying the review I wrote in bookcrossing.com shortly after reading it)

I found that it took me longer to finish than other books of its size. I couldn't concentrate on it easily and it was a few chapters in that I got absorbed in it. I liked the vivid, unusual metaphors and the haunting details, the blend of realism with fantasy - although I didn't care for the encounter with the devil. Bunny is an utter waste of space, but his story of purposeless wandering just impressed on me the depths...more

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Jul 21, 2011 MonsterMan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Now I finished this one about a week and a half ago - but I wanted it to fester away in my gray matter for a bit. My initial reaction when I started the book was that it’s early chapters read like masturbation fodder for a teenage boy. The detailed references to Kylie Minogue’s ass, daydreams of spanking Madonna’s bottom and the pure admiration of Avril Lavigne’s looks came off a bit odd and seemed more like name dropping than anything relevant - which would all be fine if this story was about M...more

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About Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is best known for his work in the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and his fascination with American music and its roots. He has a reputation, which he disowns, for singing dark, brooding songs which some listeners regard as depressing. His music is characterised by intensity, high ener...more

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Quotes from The Death of Bunny Munro

“I just found this world a hard place to be good in,’ says Bunny, then he closes his eyes and, with an expiration of breath, goes still.” — 15 people liked it

“Then he smiles because he knows deep in his bones that his dad has gone and said something really funny probably. He kicks off his sheet and slides his feet into his slippers. Bunny sits in the living room, slumped low on the sofa, full of Geoffrey's Scotch and Poodle's cocaine.” — 4 people liked it

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