jml's notebook

Published

2020-08-29

As Jasper Fforde points out more than once in the text, The Constant Rabbit is a satire. This isn't a new thing for Fforde. Almost all of his books are set in some alternative Britain that satirises the current one.

If you are familiar with Fforde's other works, not much in this novel will strike you as, well, novel. If you are not, then you have probably read nothing quite like this, and you should immediately purchase a copy.

The satire is at its best and most pointed about foxes, how Britain treats its rabbit population, or human nature. The environmental aspects seem weaker to me.

If you've seen the film The Court Jester, you will appreciate the book more, You should watch it anyway. It's very good. but it's not at all necessary.

I have never read The Constant Gardener, which I assume the title alludes to, and if I missed anything as a result, I couldn't say.

There's also a bit about circles and crosses as religious iconography which might have been a nod to Chesterton's Orthodoxy, but since I understood neither Chesterton's point nor Fforde's, I think it's probably fine.

This is also not the only Fforde book where he deprecates himself or the text in the text. I wish he wouldn't do that. It takes me out of the story, makes me feel embarrassed for him, and there's absolutely no need for it.

I laughed out loud several times while reading the book, and wished I had a reading companion to, err, rabbit with about the book. Give it a read. You won't regret it.