The Return of the Bunny Suicides

This is my second suicidal bunny book. I bought them both in Rome in a very sophisticated, upscale store where I had been cackling for longer than was appropriate in Rome. (When in Rome, don't cackle in public, the Romans don't.) Before I send this one off to my kid in college, I gave it one last look. And I got it. There's this drawing of a bunch of people running away from the shore line at the sight of a shark fin, and one tiny bunny in a swimfloat, eagerly padding into the water. So on one level, there's every mad politician going ahead with some policy that everyone on the beach knows is crazy. On another level, that's all of us doing some nutso thing in spite of the world running around us in the opposite direction away from the visible shark. It reminds me of the hilarious novelRecycling Jimmy> It has the same slightly repulsive subject matter, with the same weird British take on things and the same subversive sub-text. <br />I'm looking at this book one more time wondering which shark I'm heading towards. What about you? <br /> <br />--Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and <br />the comparatively wholesome bang BANG: A Novel. ISBN 9781601640005 <br /> <br />

I loved "Return of the Bunny Suicides". If you liked the first book, "The Book of Bunny Suicides," you will most likely enjoy the sequel. The bunnies find even more creative ways to end their lives. It is funny and amusing, if you don't mind seeing cartoon bunnies execute both simple and complex plans to end their lives. Although the reader does not know why the bunnies are so willing to die, (s)he can certainly appreciate the bunnies' formulated deaths. The drawings are relatively simple, not too gory (yes, some decapitated heads but nothing graphic), and allows the reader to anticipate what happens instead of always giving the end picture. Obviously this book isn't for everyone. But if you think you can appreciate the humor in suicidal cartoon bunnies, it's certainly worth flipping through. By the way, I love bunnies and am against animal cruelty, but have enough of a sense of humor to laugh at silly things such as this.

Worth a look nonetheless, for it is the genre of these books which is so amusing and intelligent. I get so tired of this notion that by acknowledging the purile, wicked and taboo we somehow become all of those things ourselves and worse still, evil. These books encourage us to see the natural and lighter side of wicked and intrusive humour. Far healthier to do so than claim not have such thought or feeling because it's inhuman, it is very much so human! What better way to develop greater understanding of your own mind than through humour? Incidently, to any detractors of this theory, no actual little fluffy bunnies were hurt in the making of these books!

I rarely buy books on first sight but one glimpse into this small volume sold me. My wife and I took it home and allotted ourselves to two pages a day to make it last. Then we both took it to work and caused downturns in productivity as we showed it to all our coworkers. Now it sits on the shelf in easy reach and gets brought out whenever people come over. Why? Well, this is simply the funniest thing I've come across in a long time. It's a book of simple black and white cartoon line drawings of bunny rabbits either planning their own demise, or showing the result of their suicide. There is no dialogue (except one sequence involving Darth Vader), no captions, just these ridiculous little rabbits with completely deadpan faces and a sadistic self-destructive streak. The most common comparison is to Gary Larson and the talking animals of his "Far Side" panels. These are somewhat similar in that they unfold in a single panel and are sublimely ridiculous and clever, but there's also often a Rube Goldberg character to the elaborate suicide plans. In terms of tone however, I think Edward Gorey is perhaps more on the mark, in terms of depicting the darkest deadpan humor possible. Non-Brits should note that some of the jokes depend on being versed in British popular culture. For example, one is only funny if you're familiar with the work of Damien Hirst, another is only funny if you've seen the classic British cult film The Wicker Man, and one requires an understanding of British hand gestures (the "peace sign" being flashed by a bunny lined up with Nazi soldiers cited by one reviewer is actually something rather more rude...). But for the most part, the humor comes from the hilarious juxtaposition of the earnest bunnies and their tools of suicide, example include: windmill + pickaxe, trampoline + helicopter, stapler + angry dog. In any event, Riley's collection of macabre bunny death is pure brilliance, and will doubtless be popping up on t-shirts and postcards soon--in the meantime, the book makes a great gift.

If you are disturbed by cartoons that play around on the dark side of humor, this book may not be for you. If on the other hand you like cartoons like Lenore and the Far Side, then this might be right up your alley. This book is full of spot-on funny drawings of little fluffy bunnies who just don't want to live any more, and find creative ways to end their fluffy little existance. My favorite: The little fluffy bunnie doing the "peace" sign standing in line-up with Fascist soldiers...This book is giving me daily laughs, and I glory in making sane people squirm, then burst out chuckling, shamefacedly admit that they LOVE this book. Oh, and I gave a copy to my professor in "Clinical treatment of personality disorders". It was well received.