Review: The Constant Rabbit – Jasper Fforde
I received a free ARC of the book. Many thanks to Netgalley and to Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity.
Having read some previous Fforde books I picked this one up expecting whimsy. This book, however, though it has its comic themes, leans far more heavily towards satire.
The book opens with a scene in a library that didn’t make great sense at first but seemed to be there to have a (justly deserved) dig at government funding policies. Here we meet the hero, Peter Knox as he bumps into an old flame, Constance Rabbit. Now we get into the real premise of the book, in an event of unknown origin 55 years previously a number of rabbits metamorphosed into forms of near human biology and intellect. The human population did not take it well.
The story is a satire of human and particularly of systemic racism, homophobia and other anti-attitudes that plague current society. Peter is a ‘spotter’ who works for a government organisation that ‘controls’ the anthropomorphised rabbits. His job is to tell rabbits apart when they have committed misdemeanours. Haunted by his role in the death of Constance’s second husband and hopelessly compromised by the nature of his work, Peter befriends the beautiful rabbit and her family. Though possessed of an overt moral compass, Peter lacks the strength of character to act on it. His inaction leaves him, hopelessly pin-balling between the different sides of an increasingly polarised society.
At another time I would have found this book comically bizarre, but I confess, reading this book whilst the news is full of international protests against systemic racism means events feel both familiar and, at times, uncomfortable. The incidences of gaslighting on a national scale, are horribly recognisable. Fortunately, Fforde’s trademark humour rescues us, and includes a court room scene that rivals My Cousin Vinny and a humorous depiction of a prison designed around fictional TV prison tropes.
Fforde’s detailed exploration of a very new age-styled Rabbit culture, is a soothing antidote to the jarring bureaucratic speciesism. With a preference for group harmony over individual desire, veganism, and a passion for the environment that would thrill Greta Thunberg, this could easily form the of a basis of a real-life commune. Throw in the dandelion brandy and you may have a lifestyle trend of the future.
Be prepared for a darkly comic read that might have you hankering for a rewatch of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The Constant Rabbit is published 2nd July 2020.
