The Rabbit Hutch is a modern American story about people who have curious characteristics and have been affected by the horrors of 21st-century life. Its setting is the fictional town of Vacca Vale, Indiana which used to be a thriving car manufacturing town. But, unfortunately, its heyday is over, and widespread poverty and social disintegration prevail. A developer has proposed a rejuvenation plan, but he and his team experience a disturbing interruption to a planning meeting.
Numerous characters play a part in the book, and many live in the Rabbit Hutch, affordable housing where the units have little privacy and mimic the blurred boundaries of modern life. Folks know almost everything about their neighbors in adjacent units, and distasteful events occur regularly.
We know from the novel’s beginning that Blandine Watkins, one of the main characters, an eighteen-year-old malcontent, will exit her body. The reader becomes painfully aware that Blandine IS everything that has wounded her during her childhood in foster care and much angst about religion and the meaning of life. Blandine lives with three male roommates, all aged out of the foster care system. Each carries baggage from the system.
It’s challenging to keep track of the characters. Many are angry and act in unconventional ways to communicate with others. Some of the stories tie to others; others do not. Contemporary concepts and themes run through the course of the book, and rather than trying to tie them together; I offer this list of concepts typical of post-industrial, modern life:
Disposable people
American icons
Abandonment
Decaying towns
Flooding and flooded housing areas
Marxism
Capitalism
Abuse of power
Sexual abuse
Complex villains
Fakeness
Revitalization
Gentrification
Emojis—vulgar and others
Anonymous lives
Social justice
discrimination
Suicide
Opioid abuse
Religion
Fatal flaws
Commodifying people
Mysticism
Truth
Internet
Healing
Trauma
afterlife
Love
Terror
Unwanted babies
Motherhood
Mothers not bonding with babies
American class system
Male dominance
Power structures
Animal sacrifices
Animal abuse
Cancer
Angst
Phobias
