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The Rabbit Factory
In an ambitious narrative structure reminiscent of Robert Altman's classic film Nashville, Larry Brown weaves together the stories of a sprawling cast of eccentric and lovable characters, each embarked on a quest for meaning, fulfillment, and love -- with poignant and uproarious results.
Set in Memphis and North Mississippi, The Rabbit Factory follows the colliding lives of, among others, Arthur, an older, socially ill-at-ease man of considerable wealth married to the much younger Helen, whose desperate need for satisfaction sweeps her into the arms of other men; Eric, who has run away from home thinking his father doesn't want him and becomes Arthur's unlikely surrogate son; and Anjalee, a big-hearted prostitute with her own set of troubles who crashes into the lives of the others like a one-woman hurricane.
Teeming with pitch-perfect creations that include quirky gangsters, colorful locals, seemingly straitlaced professors, and fast-and-loose police officers, Brown's spellbinding and often hilarious story is about the botched choices and missed chances that separate people -- and the tenuous threads of love and coincidence that connect them. With all the subtlety and surprise of life itself, the story turns on a dime from comical to violent to moving. Masterful, profound, and full of spirit, The Rabbit Factory is literary entertainment of the highest order.
Set in Memphis and North Mississippi, The Rabbit Factory follows the colliding lives of, among others, Arthur, an older, socially ill-at-ease man of considerable wealth married to the much younger Helen, whose desperate need for satisfaction sweeps her into the arms of other men; Eric, who has run away from home thinking his father doesn't want him and becomes Arthur's unlikely surrogate son; and Anjalee, a big-hearted prostitute with her own set of troubles who crashes into the lives of the others like a one-woman hurricane.
Teeming with pitch-perfect creations that include quirky gangsters, colorful locals, seemingly straitlaced professors, and fast-and-loose police officers, Brown's spellbinding and often hilarious story is about the botched choices and missed chances that separate people -- and the tenuous threads of love and coincidence that connect them. With all the subtlety and surprise of life itself, the story turns on a dime from comical to violent to moving. Masterful, profound, and full of spirit, The Rabbit Factory is literary entertainment of the highest order.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
26 people are currently reading
624 people want to read
About the author
Larry Brown
99 books642 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
May 1, 2018
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
The Rabbit Factory got added to my TBR due to David Joy’s recommendation. I don’t know if you’ve had the privilege of experiencing Mr. Joy’s stuff, but if you like it dark and gritty his books top the charts. I’m a charter member in the Church of Joy and after reading not only his own works, but now also his recommendations, I know if he’s passing out the Kool-Aid my response will definitely be . . . .
The library only had the audio version, but that was alright because I listened to this while sitting at this . . . .
To say The Rabbit Factory is a one-of-a-kind type of story is an understatement. I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something to compare it to and the closest thing I can think of is Pulp Fiction, but in the most generic manner possible. There’s 100 chapters and about eleventy-three characters that you follow - some who know some others, some who will interact with some others, some who are just thrown in there to keep you guessing maybe because they don’t have anything to do with the others. None of them are real pillars of society – and some are downright criminals and lowlifes, but when you mix them all together into a story without either a real beginning or ending, somehow it’s magic.
This one gets all the Stars and I’d give it a bonus 5 if I could for Tom Stechschulte’s narration. Simply brilliant. Dick lit at its finest and proof that cyberstalking pays off! Now someone approve me over at NetGalley for David Joy’s new book before I go apeshit on yo ass . . . .
The Rabbit Factory got added to my TBR due to David Joy’s recommendation. I don’t know if you’ve had the privilege of experiencing Mr. Joy’s stuff, but if you like it dark and gritty his books top the charts. I’m a charter member in the Church of Joy and after reading not only his own works, but now also his recommendations, I know if he’s passing out the Kool-Aid my response will definitely be . . . .
The library only had the audio version, but that was alright because I listened to this while sitting at this . . . .
To say The Rabbit Factory is a one-of-a-kind type of story is an understatement. I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something to compare it to and the closest thing I can think of is Pulp Fiction, but in the most generic manner possible. There’s 100 chapters and about eleventy-three characters that you follow - some who know some others, some who will interact with some others, some who are just thrown in there to keep you guessing maybe because they don’t have anything to do with the others. None of them are real pillars of society – and some are downright criminals and lowlifes, but when you mix them all together into a story without either a real beginning or ending, somehow it’s magic.
This one gets all the Stars and I’d give it a bonus 5 if I could for Tom Stechschulte’s narration. Simply brilliant. Dick lit at its finest and proof that cyberstalking pays off! Now someone approve me over at NetGalley for David Joy’s new book before I go apeshit on yo ass . . . .
May 5, 2018
"...life was sometimes measured in small but critical increments."Author Larry Brown has created a full cast of characters and drawn an intersecting storyline for each...and yes, each of their critical moments are showcased in funny, violent, and sometimes jaw-dropping ways. I was so entertained by this book. Sometimes when reading a story with multiple POV's, it becomes a chore keeping up with everybody but not with The Rabbit Factory. The ways these characters happened to intersect with each other was the carrot I was chasing and I could not wait for each moment. This was my first Larry Brown book but absolutely will not be my last. Check it out!
July 30, 2014
When you ask yourself "Should I read this Larry Brown-"
Yes.
It doesn't matter which of his novels it is, the answer is always yes, you should read it. "The Rabbit Factory" is no different, but in terms of Larry Brown books it is a bit different. In this there is a score of different characters each getting there own POV short chapter that weaves in an out of the others. Some of them don't have anything to do with each other, whilst most interact in some creative way or another.
One of complaints I read in another review was "there is no ending!" I can't imagine they had been reading Larry Brown books prior to typing their criticism. There is just about as much of an ending to this book as there is to "Fay," or "Joe" for that matter. Larry Brown doesn't write a book and deliver it to you with a bow on it. He doesn't sit you down and spoon feed you his view points either. He is very much the author who allows you to feel and decide. I argue his style to be "life" in the truest sense. For the most part life goes on. People die, yes, but others live. I was quite satisfied by how each story ended. There is room for more to be written for some of the characters, but in any story where a person doesn't die that will always be true.
I give this book 4 stars on the Larry Brown scale (closer to 5 on all other scales), unfortunately they do not offer that scale. I can't say its as good as "Fay," so to give it 5 stars would feel disingenuous. It is, however, a fantastic read.
Yes.
It doesn't matter which of his novels it is, the answer is always yes, you should read it. "The Rabbit Factory" is no different, but in terms of Larry Brown books it is a bit different. In this there is a score of different characters each getting there own POV short chapter that weaves in an out of the others. Some of them don't have anything to do with each other, whilst most interact in some creative way or another.
One of complaints I read in another review was "there is no ending!" I can't imagine they had been reading Larry Brown books prior to typing their criticism. There is just about as much of an ending to this book as there is to "Fay," or "Joe" for that matter. Larry Brown doesn't write a book and deliver it to you with a bow on it. He doesn't sit you down and spoon feed you his view points either. He is very much the author who allows you to feel and decide. I argue his style to be "life" in the truest sense. For the most part life goes on. People die, yes, but others live. I was quite satisfied by how each story ended. There is room for more to be written for some of the characters, but in any story where a person doesn't die that will always be true.
I give this book 4 stars on the Larry Brown scale (closer to 5 on all other scales), unfortunately they do not offer that scale. I can't say its as good as "Fay," so to give it 5 stars would feel disingenuous. It is, however, a fantastic read.
March 21, 2009
I picked up The Rabbit Factory after it got good reviews from my online book group. It sounded like a good mystery. Imagine my surprise when about 80 pages into the book, I realized this was not the book I expected. In fact, it was the wrong The Rabbit Factory. Go figure. How many authors title their book The Rabbit Factory?
After getting over my initial surprise of reading the wrong book, I realized I was actually enjoying this one. Brown's Southern tale, set in Memphis, is full of quirky, flawed characters. This book is all about character development. The usually short chapters are each centered on one of several eccentrics. There's Helen, an alcoholic, looking for love and sex, since her much older husband is having an issue with erectile dysfunction. Anjalee, a loveable prostitute, finds herself in one jam after the next. Arthur, Helen's husband, befriends Eric who desperately needs a father figure. One-legged Ms. Muffett tends house and dog sits for Mr. Hamburger, a shady mobster. There are also ex-cons, cops, a college professor, sailor and mob figures that add plenty of grit to the story. Brown masterfully blends all their stories together for a satisfying read.
The book tackles issues of the choices we make in life, and how one seemingly innocuous action can set forth a whole chain of events. It also deals with issues of loneliness and the search for love and acceptance. The story includes lots of animals: lions, dogs, cats and rabbits. We see how people deal with life issues in the way they relate to animals.
This is not normally a book I would pick up, but found it to be a satisfying diversion. I don't know how I would relate to these characters if I met them on the street, but I found them highly entertaining on the page.
After getting over my initial surprise of reading the wrong book, I realized I was actually enjoying this one. Brown's Southern tale, set in Memphis, is full of quirky, flawed characters. This book is all about character development. The usually short chapters are each centered on one of several eccentrics. There's Helen, an alcoholic, looking for love and sex, since her much older husband is having an issue with erectile dysfunction. Anjalee, a loveable prostitute, finds herself in one jam after the next. Arthur, Helen's husband, befriends Eric who desperately needs a father figure. One-legged Ms. Muffett tends house and dog sits for Mr. Hamburger, a shady mobster. There are also ex-cons, cops, a college professor, sailor and mob figures that add plenty of grit to the story. Brown masterfully blends all their stories together for a satisfying read.
The book tackles issues of the choices we make in life, and how one seemingly innocuous action can set forth a whole chain of events. It also deals with issues of loneliness and the search for love and acceptance. The story includes lots of animals: lions, dogs, cats and rabbits. We see how people deal with life issues in the way they relate to animals.
This is not normally a book I would pick up, but found it to be a satisfying diversion. I don't know how I would relate to these characters if I met them on the street, but I found them highly entertaining on the page.
September 22, 2010
I'm a huge Larry Brown fan. He was one of the few "Southern" writers that I've run across that could believably capture the self destructive and desperate people of the deep south. Having grown up in the south, his characters were like friends from back home or shady relatives that I had lost touch with. His work was authentic, vividly and truly authentic. That's why this one was such a mild disappointment. It is an episodic sprawling mess of a book about an unfaithful wife, her husband who can't get it up, the pet store clerk / surrogate son he befriends, a guy in the Navy that weeps as he gets sucked off by a hooker with a heart of gold, an ex-con cook who hits a deer, a college professor who loves weed, his cop girlfriend, a little white dog who jumps out a window and a lonely house sitter with one leg. You get the idea. There is a lot of humor and it's entertaining, but it just didn't pack the punch of some of his other earlier books. If you want to check him out, start with Father and Son, Joe, or Big Bad Love and enjoy one of the best writers the South has to offer.
March 13, 2012
This was suggested as a can't-put-it-down read and after reading the first chapter (who wants to read about a 70 year old guy contemplating his need for Viagra?) and putting it down a few times I finally read past the slow start and really enjoyed it. This is not the type of book I normally read---there's not much in the way of literary merit here. And yes maybe the characters are a bit cliche, but they are funny and the plot sweeps you up, and about a third of the the way in I didn't really care that this book probably falls more in the category of beach read. I was into it. So put your snobbery aside and pick this up, take it to the beach, and try telling someone about the intertwined plot lines---they'll look at you like you're nuts. If you want to get all high faultin think about the symbolism of all the dogs and various animals, English major.
June 1, 2017
How in the world did I forget to add this quirky Brown book to my stack of read-a-million-years-ago stack? Quirky, funny, and not what you'd expect from the king of grit lit. He had me in the pet shop! Just a fun thing to read but dosed with splats of his trademark darkness, this isn't going to be for everybody's taste, but if you are a Larry Brown fan and are up for actually grinning while reading his work, these oddball interconnected characters deliver.
May 18, 2024
3.85/5
Audiobook best at increased speeds.
What a wild time.
Don't read if you are bothered by animal death, sex work, general criminal activity, animal neglect and cruelty, drug use, human death, and basically anything else you'd see in a G.o.T. episode but make it white trash.
Loosely involves rabbits.
Audiobook best at increased speeds.
What a wild time.
Don't read if you are bothered by animal death, sex work, general criminal activity, animal neglect and cruelty, drug use, human death, and basically anything else you'd see in a G.o.T. episode but make it white trash.
Loosely involves rabbits.
March 19, 2016
It's sort of like walking in on six or so various stories - all of a sudden you're there and watching these characters begin to develop for you through all the little things they do in the course of their regular days. Once you get a handle on each of them they start to grow on you and you're beginning to feel and live their little dilemmas and the weirdness of their personalities - then it becomes hard to put the book down as you want to see what's going to happen next. At times gritty, things are infused with much subtle humor. The author's storytelling offers the reader a chance to glimpse inside the souls of these characters; their real selves and real lives and how it affects each of them deeply. It's life, you know.
December 13, 2014
Structurally, I think this is one of Brown's most interesting novels.
October 30, 2019
This book is just vulgar for vulgarity’s sake not to move plot along. Every female character is looking to get laid to solve their problems. ANd the male characters are horrible. When an entire “chapter” was devoted to the dog having a wet dream I gave up. I mean, this is like some 14 year old decided he had enough of a world view to write a book. Just awful
March 20, 2025
Crazy, entertaining multi viewpoint book with all kinds of goings on. Funnier and more creative than some of his I've read. He was taken from us too soon.
August 12, 2025
There's three pages dedicated to a dog having a wet dream. That's at least one too many.
July 9, 2014
The first few chapters of The Rabbit Factory introduce us to characters who are on the verge: on the verge of something very bad happening, on the verge of finding or losing love, on the verge of losing something very valuable. The tension between the sets of characters starts early: Helen's (maybe) dalliances press hard on Arthur to fix just that. Anjalee casts a spell on Wayne Stubbuck after, in a fit of do-what's-right, she risks what little she has.
And so it goes as the cast of characters grows, each with their own problems, or perhaps each being their own problem. But the interconnections between characters bind this together as a novel rather than a collection of vignettes: Arthur sees Frankie, Frankie knows Anjalee, Frankie gets on the bad side of Mr. Hamburger, Mr. Hamburger employs Domino, Domino runs amok while seeking his venison steaks, and so it goes.
Brown is a master of putting the reader smack-dab in the middle of the characters' thought processes. It is eerie how well he does this. We find ourselves mulling over choices and looking for a shred of hope through the eyes of one of the characters, even while part of us stays enough within ourselves and views the scene from afar.
The violence in this book sprouts up suddenly and surprised me with its swiftness and fierceness; for instance, didn't see the the scene in Merlot's house coming.
This is the work of a talented writer, and talented listener. I've read some reviews of this book by people from the Memphis/Mississippi region, and Brown's works seem to resonate especially loud with them. I am a native of Upstate New York, and for years I thought that one day I would write the story of the large characters in washed-up small towns in that region. I then stumbled onto the works of Richard Russo and discovered that not only had it already been done, but it had been done better than I could have ever imagined. And so it seems to be for Brown and his beloved Mississippi. He knows the people, knows how they act, knows how they think. A wonderful read!
And so it goes as the cast of characters grows, each with their own problems, or perhaps each being their own problem. But the interconnections between characters bind this together as a novel rather than a collection of vignettes: Arthur sees Frankie, Frankie knows Anjalee, Frankie gets on the bad side of Mr. Hamburger, Mr. Hamburger employs Domino, Domino runs amok while seeking his venison steaks, and so it goes.
Brown is a master of putting the reader smack-dab in the middle of the characters' thought processes. It is eerie how well he does this. We find ourselves mulling over choices and looking for a shred of hope through the eyes of one of the characters, even while part of us stays enough within ourselves and views the scene from afar.
The violence in this book sprouts up suddenly and surprised me with its swiftness and fierceness; for instance, didn't see the the scene in Merlot's house coming.
This is the work of a talented writer, and talented listener. I've read some reviews of this book by people from the Memphis/Mississippi region, and Brown's works seem to resonate especially loud with them. I am a native of Upstate New York, and for years I thought that one day I would write the story of the large characters in washed-up small towns in that region. I then stumbled onto the works of Richard Russo and discovered that not only had it already been done, but it had been done better than I could have ever imagined. And so it seems to be for Brown and his beloved Mississippi. He knows the people, knows how they act, knows how they think. A wonderful read!
Want to read
July 12, 2015Larry Brown's idiosyncratic and powerful Southern novels have earned him widespread critical acclaim. Now, in an ambitious narrative structure reminiscent of Robert Altman's classic film "Nashville, " this "true original" "(Chicago Tribune)" weaves together the stories of a sprawling cast of eccentric and lovable characters, each embarked on a quest for meaning, fulfillment, and love -- with poignant and uproarious results. Set in Memphis and north Mississippi, "The Rabbit Factory" follows the colliding lives of, among others, Arthur, an older, socially ill-at-ease man of considerable wealth married to the much younger Helen, whose desperate need for satisfaction sweeps her into the arms of other men; Eric, who has run away from home thinking his father doesn't want him and becomes Arthur's unlikely surrogate son; Domino, an ex-con now involved in the drug trade, who runs afoul of a twisted cop; and Anjalee, a big-hearted prostitute with her own set of troubles, who crashes into the lives of the others like a one-woman hurricane. Teeming with pitch-perfect creations that include quirky gangsters, colorful locals, seemingly straitlaced professors, and fast-and-loose police officers, Brown tells a spellbinding and often hilarious story about the botched choices and missed chances that separate people -- and the tenuous threads of love and coincidence that connect them. With all the subtlety and surprise of life itself, the story turns on a dime from comical to violent to moving. Masterful, profound, and full of spirit, "The Rabbit Factory" is literary entertainment of the highest order.
Read
December 2, 2015I don't think it's fair that I give this book any stars considering I never finished it, but it still played a key role in my adolescent development. My mom bought this book for me when I was 11 and told me it was about "a crazy family." I hated reading things my family thought I would like, so I waited till I was 12. I can say with confidence that since I hadn't discovered the internet yet, this book was the first time I read the word "fuck." I showed it to all my friends. While the adult themes were fun for a while, they couldn't hold my attention unless they were helping me understand the mechanics of sex, so I eventually started skipping around. I remember four things clearly: a chapter about a girl with a prosthetic leg told from the POV of a chihuahua, a man narrating being eaten by lions, a dog that specialized in safely capturing kittens, and some sick fuck whose girlfriend shot his dog because he refused to euthanize it even though it had, like, two working legs. I probably wouldn't finish this book, to be honest. With age I've become even more sensitive to books featuring heavy animal abuse. The hooker character was funny though.
August 28, 2011
I was a little disappointed in this one even though I think it's above average for your paperback fiction. I thought it was funny and overall well written but it definitely didn't enrich my life in the long run, teach me anything new, or inspire me in any way. Basically, I would put this novel in the category of books to read when you need something a little smart, a little funny, and quite engaging that will help you fill space in your life if you can't handle anything with a deeper, richer meaning. It's strengths are that it does a good job satirizing Hollywood, a Disney-like company, and it is written with an active voice. It's main weakness is it's formulaic plot in terms of the police detective investigating a series of amusement park murders.
Within a certain frame of mind, this book may be just the break your life needs but I was hoping for something that left me with a deeper impression. I expect a great deal from novels, unfortunately, and I am easily disappointed. This, I know well.
Within a certain frame of mind, this book may be just the break your life needs but I was hoping for something that left me with a deeper impression. I expect a great deal from novels, unfortunately, and I am easily disappointed. This, I know well.
June 16, 2016
3.5 stars. I enjoyed Joe so much, that I thought I would try another one of his books.
I believe Joe Brown writes similarly to Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey. They take a bunch of unrelated people with zany, wild, unusual, jobs or personalities and throw them into a pot with a little spice and stir...and viola!
Out comes this unpredictable, interesting, imaginative, slightly dark, tale.
I believe Joe Brown writes similarly to Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey. They take a bunch of unrelated people with zany, wild, unusual, jobs or personalities and throw them into a pot with a little spice and stir...and viola!
Out comes this unpredictable, interesting, imaginative, slightly dark, tale.
July 17, 2016
Life goes on. . . . . At this juncture I realize that Larry Brown's books pretty much just end and there is no closure, nor indicators of what lies ahead. So be it. I do enjoy his characters, humor and story lines. A goodread indeed. Light.
November 18, 2008
wacky, moving, funny, satisfying reading experience. odd characters lives tangle together in Memphis and environs; i will definitely read this again one day!
August 29, 2020
L'histoire est originale, mais je n'ai pas plus accroché que cela, trop de personnages selon moi, on s'attend à ce qu'ils se croisent mais en fait pas du tout, au final, j'ai un sentiment d'un joyeux bordel.
Il y a de bons moments, des personnages plutôt pathétiques, mais l'auteur a une plume sarcastique avec beaucoup d'humour, certaines scènes ont dû être écrite sous l'emprise d'une drogue pour être aussi loufoques et heureusement qu'elles sont là.
Mais honnêtement, je n'ai pas été suffisamment embarqué pour avoir envie de lire d'autres livres de cet auteur, ou alors il faut savoir à quoi s'attendre avant de commencer notre lecture.
Il y a de bons moments, des personnages plutôt pathétiques, mais l'auteur a une plume sarcastique avec beaucoup d'humour, certaines scènes ont dû être écrite sous l'emprise d'une drogue pour être aussi loufoques et heureusement qu'elles sont là.
Mais honnêtement, je n'ai pas été suffisamment embarqué pour avoir envie de lire d'autres livres de cet auteur, ou alors il faut savoir à quoi s'attendre avant de commencer notre lecture.
March 6, 2021
I have to think long and hard about giving a book a 4 or the very rare 5 but this book moved me in parts and thats what it's all about for me. I can't break down the literary science that makes Larry Brown a wonderful writer. He is like a really solid 3rd line centerman. Not flashy in the top 6 forward group, but always delivers a solid performance and is dependable when you need a good read. This is only my second Larry Brown Novel (Father & Son being the other) and I am not sure why it takes me so long to go back to him. Solid writing style that appeals to me, interesting characters that you care about, simple yet compelling story.
September 12, 2021
Actual rating 9/10
Another excellent read from Mr. Brown. One I've had on my shelf for years before Mark introduced me to him with the short stories. Another gritty point in time story with a much larger cast of characters than I'm used to. An older rich man struggling with his marriage to a younger woman who is out looking for younger men, including a homeless hunk working at a pet store. There's also a prostitute/dancer with a heart of gold and the navy seaman who becomes a little bit obsessed with her, with plenty of other ancillary characters living their lives in and around the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
Quote:
The nice was coming off her like heat off his granddaddy's stovepipe.
Another excellent read from Mr. Brown. One I've had on my shelf for years before Mark introduced me to him with the short stories. Another gritty point in time story with a much larger cast of characters than I'm used to. An older rich man struggling with his marriage to a younger woman who is out looking for younger men, including a homeless hunk working at a pet store. There's also a prostitute/dancer with a heart of gold and the navy seaman who becomes a little bit obsessed with her, with plenty of other ancillary characters living their lives in and around the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
Quote:
The nice was coming off her like heat off his granddaddy's stovepipe.
August 3, 2020
I read this because one of the challenges in a program at my library was to read a "Southern" book. It is well written and difficult to put down, but I begin to see why many people have poor opinions of people from the south. As one who was raised and currently lives in the south, I wonder where the heck Larry been hanging out (so I can avoid the place).
June 1, 2021
If a book could be described as eccentric, "The Rabbit Factory' would be the book. Larry Brown weaves together the stories of a variety of people, never fully bringing them together but their lives intwine in small ways. Each story is a compelling tale of ordinary people trying to find their way.
August 4, 2025
4 for 4 with this guy, (books read and really enjoyed)
makes u laugh and want to cry at the same time.
His style to me feels like a JJ Cale song,
written by Richard Brautigan.
A large cast of very rememberable characters,
that leave you constantly thinking,
this just ain't gonna work out right.
But like life things work out, sometimes...
makes u laugh and want to cry at the same time.
His style to me feels like a JJ Cale song,
written by Richard Brautigan.
A large cast of very rememberable characters,
that leave you constantly thinking,
this just ain't gonna work out right.
But like life things work out, sometimes...
January 29, 2020
Several unconnected stories of sad eccentric sex starved alcoholic characters told in alternating chapters. Lots of detail about every thought they have as they go through their sad lives. Despite all that, sort of interesting plots, and character sketches.
April 15, 2022
It was just ok. I'm not sure I'll read another from this author. The most interesting part of the book, quite frankly, was that it takes place in Memphis, TN ( which is where I am from) and parts nearby.
November 29, 2022
audiobook.
a high 3~
we all know in grit lit the dog(s) don't usually come out on top... but man oh man! this dog death was certainly unexpected. made me actually gasp!
i think i liked this best of Larry Brown's work that i've read so far. a little of something for everyone..
a high 3~
we all know in grit lit the dog(s) don't usually come out on top... but man oh man! this dog death was certainly unexpected. made me actually gasp!
i think i liked this best of Larry Brown's work that i've read so far. a little of something for everyone..
Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews