Review
A bitingly funny, and occasionally heartbreaking, look at mental illness, love and relationships, with Kirshenbaum's familiar black humor. ― The New York Times
Breaks down the mental breakdown into disquieting bite-sized pieces. It's fast-paced and turbulent, but beautifully complex, and the details are stunning. -- Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout
Binnie Kirshenbaum is an unflinching teller of truths. She's also sublimely funny. Rabbits for Food shows this immensely gifted writer at the height of her powers. -- Jenny Offill
Binnie Kirshenbaum has hit her considerable stride in Rabbits for Food. This novel is compulsive reading; it's wonderfully paced, explosively funny and witty, and very, very wise about many grave things--but mostly about merely being human. -- Richard Ford
Rabbits for Food is a crisp and funny and heartrending account of life with depression, and of life in a psychiatric ward. But at its deepest heart, it's a book about the joy and horror of being yourself. I loved it. -- Jean Hannah Edelstein
Kirshenbaum's portrait of intractable depression is acerbic, heartbreaking, and improbably hilarious. ― People
Astounding . . . Readers will quickly commit to this extraordinary novel. Laser-sharp prose, compelling observations, and an engaging, sympathetic central figure conspire to make it a page-turner. Rabbits for Food is an impressive achievement. It should be read as soon as possible. ― Los Angeles Review of Books
A joy-giving and hilarious letter from the realm of despair. Also, somehow, a gentle love story. Marvelous and beautiful. -- Rivka Galchen
Funny, tender and heartbreaking, often in the same line, Rabbits for Food is a remarkable examination of the fault lines that run through us all. Wit and anger jostle for space with constant intelligence and subversiveness. -- Tash Aw
An intensive character study of a woman on the verge of a breakdown-written with distinctive relentlessness and the compassion that Kirshenbaum has cultivated for all her characters across six previous novels. ― Guernica
A burst of energy . . . our narrator examines her surroundings-the eccentric patients and doctors, the absurd daily activities, the Kafkaesque system-with a blunt and biting wit. ― BuzzFeed Books
This book achieves absolute genius . . . [Bunny] is willing to look clearly at the darkness, even if she doesn't ever anticipate light, and that bravery, and her raw humor, makes her magnificent. ― Boston Globe
Heartbreaking and groundbreaking, a harrowing yet darkly funny chronicle of clinical depression . . . Told in witty, propulsive prose. ― BOMB Magazine
A remarkable achievement that expertly blends pathos and humor . . . comparisons to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest are obvious and warranted, but Kirshenbaum's dazzling novel stands on its own as a crushing work of immense heart. ― Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Kirshenbaum has excelled at capturing one woman's disturbing mental illness and the daily struggles to cope with survival even in a setting that supposedly offers support and rehabilitation. ― Library Journal
Kirshenbaum is a remarkable writer of fiercely observed fiction and a bleak, stark wit; her latest novel is as moving as it is funny, and that-truly-is saying something. ― Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
In her first novel in a decade, Kirshenbaum reclaims her scepter as a shrewdly lacerating comedic writer, joining Sylvia Plath, Ken Kesey, Will Self, Ned Vizzini, Siri Hustvedt, and others in writing darkly funny and incisive fiction about life in a psychiatric hospital ward. ― Booklist
Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it's a routine defence against tragedy, and there's plenty of both in this sparky novel -- John Self ― The Times Published On: 2019-11-01
A tale for our time, if ever there was one -- Katy Thompsett ― Refinery 29 Published On: 2019-11-01
Give it to someone you want to talk to. -- Marion Winik ― The Washington Post Published On: 2019-11-05
Razor-sharp, astutely observed and acerbically funny -- Hannah Beckerman ― The Observer Published On: 2019-11-10
Kirshenbaum doesn't trivialize mental breakdown. She makes Bunny's debilitation raw and worrying, and not without its insights. -- Lucy Ellmann, author of Ducks, Newburyport
Every one of these pages is written with fluid grace and uncompromising truth. That there are six further novels by Binnie Kirshenbaum to now discover is the icing on this Christmas cake. ― Irish Independent
The book sweeps you along because of its whip-smart observations and comic insights mined from the darkest depths ― Press Association
About the Author
Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of the story collection History on a Personal Note and six novels, including On Mermaid Avenue, Hester among the Ruins, An Almost Perfect Moment, and The Scenic Route. Her novels have been chosen as Notable Books of the Year by The Chicago Tribune, NPR, TIME, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. Her work has been translated into seven languages.
Because the sorrow I feel about everything is bigger than the thing itself?Highlighted by 120 Kindle readers
