A ‘Bunny Munro’ Nick Lit Fix

Updates on The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave, published 3 Sept 2009, Canongate Books Ltd, in Hardcover & Audio CD formats.  Order UK edition  |  View US edition

Death of Bunny Munro Reviews:

‘Put Cormac McCarthy, Franz Kafka and Benny Hill together in a Brighton seaside guesthouse and they might just come up with The Death of Bunny Munro. As it stands though, this novel emerges emphatically as the work of one of the great cross-genre storytellers of our age; a compulsive read possessing all Nick Cave’s trademark horror and humanity, often thinly disguised in a galloping, playful romp.’  IRVINE WELSH, Trainspotting

‘Cocksman, Salesman, Deadman; Bunny Munro might not be Everyman, but every man ought to read this book. And read it half in stitches, half in tears, and with the same horror and the same recognition that you usually only face in the mirror on the morning after. Or maybe that’s just this man.’  DAVID PEACE, The Damned Utd

‘Cave stands as one of the great writers on love of our era.’  WILL SELF

MORE BUNNY, A NICK INTERVIEW RETROSPECTIVE & PHOTOS UNDER PAGE CUT

Limbo 19th Mar | Limbo and Canongate Books present IRREGULAR #1

Last week saw the launch of Limbo’s new IRREGULAR collaboration with Canongate Books and highly irregular it was …. The lights went down for this bit; Nick Cave has made videos of himself reading passages from his not-yet-published novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, a hellish and madcap story about a salesman in search of a soul. Filmed by acclaimed directors, with custom-made soundtracks (never publicly screened before last Thursday), the projections show Nick in an unfamiliar guise – the novelist, but also the actor. Rolling Stone’s comment that ‘Nick Cave will obviously live forever, just because the Devil’s scared of him’ is called to mind – but even so, Bunny went down a storm and mesmerised us into thrilled, open-mouthed glee. It takes a lot to shock IRREGULAR people. (Account of the first gathering of Jamie Byng’s ‘Irregulars’)

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Nick Cave and Byng’s Irregulars(Textualities.net)*
• Jamie Byng’s ‘Irregular Night’ at the Voodoo Rooms Edinburgh (The Scotsman)
• Edinburgh publisher leads the way in digital books revolution (Sunday Herald)
• The pen is mightier than the axe (The Guardian)
• Death of Bunny Munro Covers(Black Crow King Blog)
• Read Along, Sing Along with Nick Cave(Electric Alphabet Blog)
• BUNNY ROOTS MOJO- Diario di BlackCoffeeDuck (Last FM)

*Ed note:  Hannah Adcock’s blogpost is cited in Nick News (6 April 2009).

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NICK CAVE by Lindzee Smith, BOMB Magazine, Issue 31 Spring 1990

 INTERVIEW Retrospective: And The Ass Saw the Angel

LS I wrote down the word ecstasy. I got this feeling of being ex stasis—when I was reading the book… I felt some kind of ecstasy was driving the book along.

NC I wrote in a very disciplined manner, really considered. I wrote with a pen first and organized each sentence to the very best I could and then typed it out and worked on the next sentence.

In the actual realization of the story, in terms of the character, I found myself becoming more and more obsessed with Euchrod. More and more becoming his character. There was a definite change in the way I related to to other people. The more I concerned myself with writing the book, which I had to do in four-month chunks, and then go off with the band, the more I became involved and obsessed and like him in my habits: more and more reclusive. It became like “method writing.”

LS You become the character and the character becomes you.

NC I had this situation in Berlin when I wrote this book. I had this room which was so pungent with obsessiveness toward the book. In ways which you can understand. It was very insular. I can’t talk about this too much in that it opens up lots of things I don’t really want to talk about. It was a very obsessive period for me.

LS I’m really impressed by the use of language. The book reads like a long lyric sheet from one of your albums. The song “Mercy Seat”—the driving insistence, its relentlessness—driving, driving, driving. The book has a similar quality. Can you see it as a long song? You constantly work with onomatopoeia, alliteration—other poetic devices.

NC I can’t help but do that. I’ve been writing songs for a long time and I definitely have that feel with words. I understand that that might be difficult to tolerate over a long period of time. I enjoy books that are written in a matter of fact, unpretentious style. At the same time, I wanted to write a book with my own voice. The whole process of writing a song is very different, very different. GO TO ARTICLE