The Rabbit Hutch (Large type / large print)

From Monrovia, Indiana To Vacca Vale, Indiana

Reading Tess Gunty's National Book Award winning novel "The Rabbit Hutch" reminded me of "Monrovia, Indiana" an outstanding documentary film from 2018 directed by Frederick Wiseman. I saw the film at the AFI Theater near my home, and it has stayed with me. I would like to see it again. The film is set in the small town of Monrovia, roughly in central Indiana with a population of about 1600. Over its 143 minute length, the film shows the lives of the members of the community at work, play, worship, in serious events and at play. The film had a feeling of realism, without ideology or judging. The primary audience for the film was educated individuals in the urban centers of the East and West, Some of the polarizaion in American life involves the tension between rural and urban areas, a tension that rose in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. Wiseman's film offered a valuable perspective. The official synopsis of the film states:

ââ?¬Å"The film explores the conflicting stereotypes and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity and authenticity are formed, experienced and lived. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a rural, mid-American way of life that has always been important in America but whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.ââ?¬Â? (quoted on wiki page for the film)

I had hoped that Gunty's novel might offer a restrained, thoughtful view of a middle American town in Indiana as did Wiseman's film. Her novel is set in Vacca Vale, Indiana, which, is a larger version of Monrovia, an industrial rather than a farming town, and fictitious. In the novel Vacca Vale is part of the rust belt. For many years, the town was prosperous and the home to many workers in the automobile industry. The auto manufacturer left the town, leaving poverty, crime, loneliness, and severe environmental pollution in its wake. Some less than well-intentioned efforts are underway throughout this story to revive the town and bring back prosperity, at least for some.

The title "The Rabbit Hutch" refers to a dilapidated apartment building which houses a variety of Vacca Vale's poor and lost. The decrepit character of the building allows little room for privacy. The novel follows the lives of several residents of the Rabbit Hutch. Their backgrounds and lives are diverse and eccentric. The stories are extreme and hit the reader on the head with a hammer.

The main character is an eighteen year old, Blandina, who lives in an apartment in the Rabbit Hutch with three young men. Each of the four are former residents of foster homes who are trying to make it on their own. Understandably, sexual tension develops between the three young men and their female roomate. Blandina, a promising and bright student, has dropped out of school and works in a cheap restaurant. She has a mystical temperament and reads about great women medieval mystics including Hildegarde of Bingen and St. Teresa of Avila. The novel follows her life over the course of about a week and her relationship to the roomates and to other residents of the Rabbit Hutch.

In the course of reading I had different responses to the novel. Portions of the book are beautiful and incisive as Gunty describes her characters and their varied backstories. The discussions of mysticism are inspiring. The book captures the poignancy of a once thriving town which has fallen on hard times and which is making some efforts at recovery. Some of the material in the book could form the basis for a portrayal of a rust belt town, along the lines that Wiseman achieved in his portrayal of the farming town of Monrovia, Indiana.

Alas, it was not to be. The novel is long and herky-jerk. It wanders and, with the impressiveness of some of the individual scenes, is difficult to follow and didn't hold my attention. But the problem with the book is deeper. While some of the book shows people trying to live their lives in the face of economic and personal misfortune, the novel, for the most part, doesn't allow the characters to speak for themselves. The book is more of a social criticism of Vacca Vale and of the economic system responsible for the town's present difficult times. The novel is concerned with large ideas, such as the failings of late capitalism, selfishness, pervasive ignorance, male toxic sexuality, male domination, phoniness, cruelty to animals, American class structure, and much more. It is too much to discuss well, takes the author away from her characters, and is preachy and ideological. The book, unlike "Monrovia, Indiana", does not let the characters speak for themselves but instead imposes the author's beliefs and understanding of their lives upon them.

Although there was promising material in "The Rabbit Hutch" it was disjointed,shrill, and ultimately left me with the sense that it was moved more by ideology and by social and political commitments than by the story and the characters. I became increasing dissilusioned with the book over the course of my reading. The journey from Monrovia to Vacca Vaca, Indiana was disappointing.

Robin Friedman