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‘One day, Bunny Boy’

by
September 2009, no. 314

The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave

Text Publishing, $32.95 pb, 288 pp

‘One day, Bunny Boy’

by
September 2009, no. 314

Although Nick Cave’s second novel makes strong claim to the musician’s skills as a writer, in the end it is too morally opaque to succeed as a work of sustained fiction. There is an overwhelming didacticism to The Death of Bunny Munro that delights too much in its own surety to be persuasive, and leads to a disappointing suspicion that, despite Cave’s renown as a populist intellectual, there is little in the book to consider besides the sexual conscience of its titular protagonist. Bunny Munro is certainly entertaining, and his exploits memorable, if puerile, but the final authorial judgement of the character is predictable, and, worse, leaves little room for readers’ thoughts. Exactly what Munro’s version of family life undone by libidinous desire contributes – even when told with remarkable lyricism – remains moot in the novel.

The Death of Bunny Munro

The Death of Bunny Munro

by Nick Cave

Text Publishing, $32.95 pb, 288 pp

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Comment (1)

  • Great book review Mark!! Very interesting and engaging.
    Posted by Pickle
    25 October 2023

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