Rabbit Back Literature Society Review
I
read this book recently, it told me about the way I think. It told me about how
nothing makes sense whilst being very entertaining and not trying to tell me
anything. Afterwards, I went outside and slept under the apple tree wearing my
story-trimmed cape. This is the time of nonsense. The time when the stories all
mix up and flirt and dance and go home with the wrong person. This is the time
when Helene Cixous whispers about earth and shit and sex all being one and
Eleanor Roosevelt does the Hokey Cokey to a tuneless orchestra all dressed in
lavender branches. In the garden is a phantom, but he’s only there when the
rain drizzles and the frost gathers in the bird bath and the sun breaks through
grey storm clouds. He seeks the cool, dark-green upper reaches of the conifer
trees in the summer; where the crows perch. But for now, he is spinning through
the un-pruned upper reaches of the apple tree and rubbing himself against the
twisted lichens, chasing the passerines as they scatter. He ignores me, my face
covered in moss and only the stories visible. Only when I wake up, do I try to
grab the strands of his terrified tale. ~ Me
Set
in a small Finnish town, The Rabbit Back
Literature Society is a book about ghosts real and metaphorical. It’s also
a brilliant dissection of the process of writing. A famous author takes nine
school children she deems talented enough for her attention and teaches them
how to look at the world from a writer’s point of view. Writing becomes their
lives and at times their ruthless devotion appears pathological, they cannot
conceive of any other career. Outside this small group are hundreds of other
Rabbit Back inhabitants who write and form book groups, writing groups and fan
clubs for the famous authoress Laura White and the successful writers. The
Society is deemed a sure-fire way into the literary world and the rumour is
that they’re looking for a tenth member. Ella, our heroine with the
lovely curving lips and defunct ovaries, becomes that tenth member, but just
before she has the glory of meeting her idol, Laura White, the famous authoress
disappears in a tragic and wonderfully unbelievable accident. White is the
ghost of the novel; she haunts the lives of the Society members she’s scarred with
years of emotional abuse. The whole town is having dreams about her Zombie body
coming to call and the books that were once loved by the children of Rabbit
Back are getting thrown out, to exorcise the ghost of the writer. Ella
starts to unravel the secret lives of White and the members through their own
invention, The Game and you begin to see the misery, the selfishness and the
dirt that goes into making these great writers. The Game hollows you out,
allows the other player to steal your experiences for the purpose of writing as
they “spill” everything, the truth; no embellishments; robbing you of your
defences.
Not
only does the book analyse what it means to write and the psychosis behind
writing but it also explores the hyper-real of invented worlds and how
sometimes they take on a lifeless life of their own. This reminded me a lot of
the Moomin stories. Jannson’s beautifully surreal and expressive stories are
often overshadowed by the cartoons and merchandise. The woods and gardens in
Rabbit Back are full of wooden carvings of sprites and beasts that hide the
real sprites and beasts that lurk there. There was a review on the dust
jacket, comparing the book to Twin Peaks. It has the same uncertain horror of
where it’s going to go and the mix of everyday “cup of Joe” ordinariness with
the supernatural. Jääskeläinen invented the term Reaalifantasia to
describe it, an off-shoot of magical realism.
Photograph by
Luke Thompson
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