Rabbits For Food

Written by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Narrated by Hillary Huber

From master of razor-edged literary humor Binnie Kirshenbaum, a devastating, laugh-out-loud funny story of a writer's slide into depression and institutionalization.



It's New Year's Eve, the holiday of forced fellowship, mandatory fun, and paper hats. While dining out with her husband and their friends, Kirshenbaum's protagonist—an acerbic, mordantly witty, and clinically depressed writer—fully unravels. Her breakdown lands her in the psych ward of a prestigious New York hospital, where she refuses all modes of recommended treatment. Instead, she passes the time chronicling the lives of her fellow "lunatics" and writing a novel about what brought her there. Her story is a hilarious and harrowing deep dive into the disordered mind of a woman who sees the world all too clearly.



Propelled by stand-up comic timing and rife with pinpoint insights, Kirshenbaum examines what it means to be unloved and loved, to succeed and fail, to be at once impervious and raw. Rabbits for Food shows how art can lead us out of—or into—the depths of disconsolate loneliness and piercing grief. This is a bravura literary performance from one of our most witty and indispensable writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684418541

Binnie Kirshenbaum

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.

[bogopea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the book, hated the ending.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“People who are not easy to like have feelings just like nice people do.”

Bunny is not easy to like. An erstwhile novelist in the grip of a profound clinical depression, she has little patience for social niceties and superficial people. Unfortunately, she is surrounded by them. When a regrettable incident at a New Year’s Eve dinner party lands her in a psychiatric unit, she copes as best she can, by writing her sardonic observations on her legal pad and making alliances (not actually friendships) with a ragtag bunch of fellow patients. She wants nothing more than to go home to her devoted husband Albie and cat Jeffery, but to do so she’ll have to give in to the doctors’ insistence that she cooperate with them. What will she do?

I imagine that how much you will like this book depends on the extent to which you can understand the main character. Bunny is sharp-tongued, stubborn, and self-absorbed, a misfit in her family and in most social groups.

I liked this book so much I finished it in two days and wished there were more of it.

[dablackwood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this audiobook as an Early Reviewer. In some ways I was surprised. At first I was put off by the reader, Hillary Huber. I found her voice abrasive and annoying. But I relaxed and let the story come to me and by the end I would have to say Huber’s reading was spot on. Yes, the book is a bit of a downer with no fixed resolution but I was caught up in Bunny’s life. In many ways she is privileged, but her depression clouds all she has. I was glad when she decided to try ECT as it is sometimes just the right treatment. I admired her husband who stood by her and tried to help. There was humor to temper some of the most depressing parts. I think the writing was good. Four stars!

[andrea58_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this audiobook from LTER. As other reviewers have said in so many ways, this is a depressing book about depression. And while it is a work of fiction, it reads like non-fiction. The first part of the book, pre-hospitalization, dragged a bit for me and I found Bunny to not be a sympathetic or even likeable character. She has no life to speak of and sleeps her days away unbathed. The book is brutally accurate about depression, but that doesn’t make it an enjoyable read. It is humorous at times as Bunny is witty, intelligent, and sarcastic.

[andsoitgoes_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Received the audio version of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I did not like it it at all because I did not find that it lived up to its description. I normally would not have requested to review a non-fiction title but the description intrigued me. i did not find it humorous and I could not relate to the author. It became a chore to listen to so I stopped at the 3rd disk. Maybe it gets better.

[shadow123_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received the audio version of this book and thought it was pretty great. I've long been a fan of Binnie Kirshenbaum's writing. If you're looking for a plot-heavy novel, this is not it. But if you're looking for beautiful and insightful writing and a delightful way with words, then this is the author for you, and this book did not disappoint. The narrator did a wonderful job of capturing Bunny's unique and sardonic voice, and this is a really compelling portrait of what it's like to live with depression. Definitely recommend.

[kyurenka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Depression. Though fictionalized, this is an amazing insight of what it is like to live with depression. Sometimes funny, always compelling.

[mm_jones · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The writing is entertaining, but the premise of this book just seems so wrong. If a person is truly depressed, enough so to require hospitalization, they are not going to write an entertaining story about it. Is the author siding in the argument that depression isn't really an illness? Just a case of exaggerated self-pity? Is the protagonist just faking it to get attention? No conclusions reached.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bunny is depressed and has been depressed her entire life, although she was usually able to function in the world. She hasn't left her apartment in weeks and bathing is an unsurmountable chore. But she is going to make it to the regular New Year's Eve dinner out with their friends and to the gathering afterward, even though her patient and kind husband tells her, over and over, that she doesn't need to.

This novel tells how Bunny's life has been derailed by her chronic depression, which she can't escape, no matter how many therapists and doctors she visits, no matter how many drugs and combinations of drugs she's prescribed. The novel follows Bunny's experiences and thoughts closely, but this isn't a sad instructional tale. Bunny is too much herself for that - she's not a very likable character, although one can see that she's witty and sarcastic when she's at her best. As she spirals down into needing to stay at a psychiatric facility (not a spoiler, it's revealed in the opening pages) she finds herself making a drastic choice, a choice make believable by how well Kirshenbaum has described Bunny's lived experience.

Kirshenbaum is a talented writer and I'm not sure many authors could have kept me reading about a woman whose life is reduced to a few shades of grey, occasionally colored by annoyance. I thought the final sentence reduced the impact of the novel and I wish it hadn't been there, but complaining about a single sentence is to be looking very hard for things not to like about this unusual and extraordinary book.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from the Early Reviewer program of Library Thing in exchange fo an honest review, and I have to say that, while extremely well written, this was a horribly depressing book. Bunny, the protagonist of the book is clinically depressed and probably has been so for years. She is also an extremely unpleasant woman to be around. Push comes to shove one New Year's Eve, while dining with friends when she stabs herself with a fork and finds herself institutionalized.

While the hospital Bunny finds herself in is clearly once that is both private and expensive, it is still a chamber of horrors. Bunny struggles to cope but finds that her natural inclination for privacy is at odds with the hospital's prescription for wellness - group activities. And while Bunny eventually connects with some of the other patients, it clearly isn't enough and loneliness and depression never seem to leave. This book is just sad.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Her name is Bunny, and yes as she is quick to say, that is her real name, not a nickname. She is a writer, a very depressed one. One who at a New Year's Eve dinner with her pretentious friends, does something that lands her in a mental hospital. The reader watches her descension, from depression to not be able to cope at all.

Although it sounds rather depressing, and yes parts are sad, but it is also humorous, witty and told with a great deal of sensitivity. Wry humor at times seems like the only weapon available,and she uses it to great effect. The stories of the other in the institution, alternately humorous and despairing. Sometimes her observations were so spot on I wondered who was the person in her of help.

It provides great insights to those who suffer from depression as well as what goes on in an institutional hospital. It is a meaningful book, well told with glimpses into the past life of Bunny. It is hard not to take this humorous but suffering woman into ones heart. I did.

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"The dog is late, and I'm wearing pajamas made from the same material as Handi Wipes, which is reason enough for me to wish I were dead." - and so it begins. After her prior novel, the near-perfect The Scenic Route, this is quite a shock to the system (a spoiler would tell you how that's a bad pun). Protagonist Bunny (Binnie?), a failed writer, is mired in a terrible depression and plunges over the edge during a miserable hilarious New Year’s Eve party with some "friends" who'd seem pretty awful even if you weren't on the verge of a breakdown ("Bunny wonders how long she can sit at a table with five people engaged in passionate discourse about balsamic vinegar, the answer to which turns out to be three seconds."). There's a bit of awful family background, provided by a message sent by her younger sister: "and you wonder why we don't like you". There's the two debilitating deaths of a close friend and a cat ("To replace lost love, the way you replace your broken computer with a new one or replace the battery in your watch, is not an option."). And there's Bunny's dispiriting stay in a mental hospital, which proceeds without resolution. The flashes of wit here do not redeem the entire effort. Maybe it should have been put into a drawer and left there. Maybe it's about the author's life or maybe it's pure invention. Maybe that matters but it shouldn’t. Sad, sad, sad doesn't mean that art emerges from it.

Quotes: "The Girl Scouts, a socially regimented youth group ripe for totalitarian indoctrination, spend their weekends goose-stepping along mountain trails."

"To try to read the look on Bunny's face is like trying to figure out what a napkin is thinking."

[miss.mesmerized · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Things have been getting worse for Bunny, given this name because her parents raised rabbits, and now, New Year’s Eve is approaching. Like every year, Bunny and her husband Albie will take part in the mandatory dinner with people they call their “friends” even though they don’t see them any other evening of the year due to obvious reasons. Albie would be fine to stay at home, but Bunny knows that even though she feels depressed, she needs to play along. But then, the worst case happens: she breaks down and finds herself in a psych ward.

The novel is divided into two parts: before and after, just like people who have a breakdown or have to live through a life-changing event, divide their life. For me personally, the two parts are so different that it is not easy to come to one conclusion in the end. I’d say: thumbs-up for the first half of the novel, but a strong trigger warning for the second.

Even though the protagonist is highly depressed and struggles with the smallest everyday actions, I found the beginning of the book often very funny since the author is a master of irony and a humour that I really liked. There are so many brilliant phrases, it was a great joy to read even though Bunny’s suffering is almost overwhelming. You slowly approach the climax, New Year’s Eve, and you know that something big is going to happen, thus the suspense becomes almost unbearable.

When Bunny is hospitalised, her welcome there still has some funny aspects, but only until the laughter gets stuck in your throat and Bunny’s life becomes utterly horrible. I have read several novels about psycho wards, “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Girl, interrupted”, which were not easy to support, but admittedly, more than once I was close to just stopping reading because I could hardly stand what the nurses and doctors there do to the patients. I hope that this is not reality – even though I fear that it might come much closer than anybody from the outside world would dream. No, what Bunny has to endure in hospital is not something nice and there is no need to embellish anything, but admittedly who could ever turn to such a place to find help?

Binnie Kirshenbaum surely is a remarkable and highly gifted writer, yet, this novel definitely should be accompanied by a warning.