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adam613 's review for:
Rabbit Foot Bill: A Novel
by Helen Humphreys
"There's always a place outside of a story from where that story is told. It can't be told from the inside."
Rabbit Foot Bill begins with meeting Leonard who is a lonely boy in Canwood, Saskatchewan in 1947. He has befriended a local man known as Rabbit Foot Bill who lives on the outside of town and has no desire to connect with anyone in town except for Leonard. After Leonard witnesses Bill commit a violent crime, the story flashes forward to the Weyburn Psychiatric Hospital thirteen years later where Leonard is now Dr. Flint the Psychiatrist, and Bill is a resident. This is where the story begins to unfold as truths about Leonard and Bill are discovered and revealed.
"Childhood seems remote, like a landscape seen from the window of a speeding car, blurry and inaccessible."
I finished this book a few days ago and have not been sure about how to review this book. There were parts that were very enjoyable and interesting such as the doctors running experiments on patients and testing themselves with LSD. With these being actual facts, the characters were not sympathetic or even well understood. The story felt rushed at the end to wrap up details and disclose some very important information that would have better served the story if the book was a tad longer.
"And what is a soul? Something between the inherent nature of an individual, and their desires - a tangible truth and a reaching, all bound together. Like the movement of a rabbit in flight, how it runs so fast that its feet don't touch the ground."
Besides these critiques, I did enjoy this read. There were some interesting characters and delightful passages and a unique setting being in a psychiatric hospital in rural Saskatchewan in the early 1960s. As a reader, perhaps I expected more and after reflection, I would recommend this book as an absorbing and appealing read. Rabbit Foot Bill is a riveting read about the attachments we develop in our youth and how they play out in adulthood until tragedy propels us into figuring these things out. Helen Humphreys has written a solid piece of Canadian historical fiction with themes that are still relevant today.
Rabbit Foot Bill begins with meeting Leonard who is a lonely boy in Canwood, Saskatchewan in 1947. He has befriended a local man known as Rabbit Foot Bill who lives on the outside of town and has no desire to connect with anyone in town except for Leonard. After Leonard witnesses Bill commit a violent crime, the story flashes forward to the Weyburn Psychiatric Hospital thirteen years later where Leonard is now Dr. Flint the Psychiatrist, and Bill is a resident. This is where the story begins to unfold as truths about Leonard and Bill are discovered and revealed.
"Childhood seems remote, like a landscape seen from the window of a speeding car, blurry and inaccessible."
I finished this book a few days ago and have not been sure about how to review this book. There were parts that were very enjoyable and interesting such as the doctors running experiments on patients and testing themselves with LSD. With these being actual facts, the characters were not sympathetic or even well understood. The story felt rushed at the end to wrap up details and disclose some very important information that would have better served the story if the book was a tad longer.
"And what is a soul? Something between the inherent nature of an individual, and their desires - a tangible truth and a reaching, all bound together. Like the movement of a rabbit in flight, how it runs so fast that its feet don't touch the ground."
Besides these critiques, I did enjoy this read. There were some interesting characters and delightful passages and a unique setting being in a psychiatric hospital in rural Saskatchewan in the early 1960s. As a reader, perhaps I expected more and after reflection, I would recommend this book as an absorbing and appealing read. Rabbit Foot Bill is a riveting read about the attachments we develop in our youth and how they play out in adulthood until tragedy propels us into figuring these things out. Helen Humphreys has written a solid piece of Canadian historical fiction with themes that are still relevant today.