When God was a Rabbit by
Sarah Winman is told by Eleanor Maud, born 1968, in two parts, one starting
1975 and the other from 1995. Elly is an observer and eventually a writer. Most
of the action happens to the people around her. She begins as a precocious
girl, cynical and sassy. As she ages, life becomes more somber and serious. She
lives and overcomes numerous obstacles following this advice, “You can hold on
to anything…to make you carry on.”
Eleanor Maud has a brother five years her senior,
a mother, and a father. Her best friend is Jenny Penny. Her father’s sister,
Nancy, is a lesbian movie star. Nancy is in love with Eleanor’s mother, her
brother’s wife. Eleanor’s brother’s boyfriend is Charlie Hunter. Elly uses
their personal crises as inspiration for a weekly newspaper column, cementing
her role as an observer.
These people suffer breakups, being kidnapped,
imprisonment, amnesia, blindness, death… Through it all Elly observes, carries
on, and finds humor and hope,
As a young girl, she is her own person. When
cast as the innkeeper in the school Christmas pageant, she ad-libbed…
“Yes,” I said, “I have a room, with a little
lovely view at an excellent rate” … two thousand years of Christianity was instantly
challenged as I led Mary and Joseph towards a double en-suite with a TV and
minibar.
When she met a family friend who could “read
anything,” palms, tarot cards… Eleanor wondered, “books?”
A story of perseverance and victory with
themes of religion, sexuality, and struggle.
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