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    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
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    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
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    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

    Written by Anna McPartlin

    Narrated by Caroline Lennon

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Rabbit Hayes loves her life, ordinary as it is, and the extraordinary people in it. She loves her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colourful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye. But it turns out the world has other plans for Rabbit, and she's OK with that. Because she has plans for the world too, and only a handful of days left to make them happen.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateNov 6, 2014
    ISBN9781471274350
    Unavailable
    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
    Author

    Anna McPartlin

    Anna McPartlin, who was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year in the 2007 Irish Book Awards, was formerly a stand-up comedian and a cabaret performer. She lives in Dublin with her husband, Donal.

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    Reviews for The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

    4/5

    83 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What goes through the mind of a terminally ill patient? What happens to her body? How will family and friends react? No one quite knows the answer till the disease smacks you in the face. We witness Rabbit's interactions with her loved ones at the hospice. The poignancy is juxtaposed with humour and nostalgia.
    • 5/5
      The book begins with Rabbit entering hospice. As her family surrounds her with love, coming to terms with her likely death, there are plenty of heartbreaking moments—but it’s not a depressing story. Each member of the Hayes family brings entertaining, heartwarming memories to the story, and I couldn’t help falling in love with every character.
    • 4/5
      Das Buch beschreibt die letzten neun Lebenstage von Mia „Rabbit“ Hayes. Die Einundvierzigjährige hat Krebs im Endstadium und ist im Hospiz. Das Buch zeigt schön, wie ihre Familie und Freunde von ihr Abschied nehmen, wie sich das Ankämpfen langsam in Akzeptieren wandelt. Das Buch ist recht irisch, viel Optimismus („Alles wird gut“), viel Familie, Musik und Kirche. Naturgemäß ist es auch sehr kitschig, aber nicht schlecht!
    • 3/5
      3.5* but just not 4*

      "It was a bright April day and forty-year-old Mia ‘Rabbit’ Hayes, beloved daughter of Molly and Jack, sister of Grace and Davey, mother of twelve-year-old Juliet, best friend to Marjorie Shaw and the one true love of Johnny Faye’s life, was on her way to a hospice to die."

      I have put a spoiler tag on this short piece but really, the fact the Rabbit Hayes is going to die is the underlying premise of this book. There are no surprises about this, the quote above appears on page 1. (Be warned, tho, that the quotations may contain swearing.)

      Nevertheless, this book is different from other books with a similar premise.

      Whilst reading this I was strongly reminded of Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger in which the MC is dying from cancer and recollects her life whilst waning in and out of consciousness and morphine-induced hallucinations.

      Rabbit Hayes also remembers her own story but this in not the main story. Unlike Lively's main character, Rabbit Hayes has not lived a remarkable life. Rabbit is an everyday woman. What the book is driven by instead are the reactions of her nearest and dearest to the inevitable event of Rabbit's death. Each of them going through different stages of grief and realisation.

      "When she was a teenager she’d bought a red clay Buddha in a charity shop, and when her mother asked her why she wanted it, she told her she preferred to look at a fat god laughing rather than a skinny one dying. Rabbit never needed to believe in any god to marvel at the world, to feel joy, hope, love and contentment. Rabbit lived in the moment. She didn’t know what came next, nor did she care. It was likely that death meant a full stop and that didn’t scare her. In fact, when she thought about it, the notion of eternity was far more worrying."

      The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes was not an easy read as it expressly describes living with cancer and also MS. However, the writing style was refreshingly light and, well, just - Irish. It reminded me a lot of Mrs Browns Boys. If you haven't seen the show, check them out.

      On the same note of combining comedy and serious context, The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes could come across as a bit cheesy and over-evocative - but never for long.

      "Her mother’s curses upset many, but not her. She found them entertaining, familiar and comforting. Ma was kind, generous, fun, playful, wise, strong and formidable. She’d take a bullet to protect an innocent, and nobody, not the tallest, strongest or bravest, messed with Molly Hayes. She didn’t suffer fools gladly and she didn’t give a toss about pleasing people. You either liked Molly Hayes or you fucked off."
    • 2/5
      Just before the start of the story, the books begins with a dozen wonderful reviews, almost entirely from women, followed by sending two kisses (xx) to her readers...! From this I think I had a fair idea of her target audience and I don't reckon I quite fall into that demographic...

      Dublin is in my blood and the subject matter of the story is very close to my heart; I was really hoping to enjoy and be moved by this book, but unfortunately I have to be honest, I think this book is aimed squarely at a female audience, but I think that may be only part of the problem.

      The start of the book is I assume, meant to clarify who is who, and what their relationship is to the main character of Rabbit. But with five members of a band involved in the back-story, the parents, the siblings, the siblings' partners, the friends, the friends' partners and the method of placing the myriad characters' stories within their own little sub-chapters just felt disorganized and really quite confusing.

      But, after battling through these initial irritations I eventually fell into the story and did in fact enjoy parts of it. In particular Rabbit's blog charting her treatment, the most genuine part of the book, of which there just was not enough. Had more of the book consisted of this I would have enjoyed it so much more.

      Although portions of the dialogue feel very real, much of it is real in the sense of consisting of rambling conversations and pages of unfocused thoughts most of which we don't really need to share in. However, the black humour throughout the book has a very realistic feel; this is the way we deal with each other, particularly in tough situations.

      As for the characters, a number of them are well described and believable, but in general the book is inhabited more by stereotypes than characters that allow real engagement. A prime example is that of Rabbit's mother (Mrs Hayes), the only voice I can hear when reading her portions of dialogue is Mrs Brown (from Da Movie...)! Also, not everyone from Dublin uses profanities quite so freely as the characters in the book.

      This review does sound quite negative, but I was genuinely moved at times, but with a sincere and sensitively portrayed story of the impending death of a young woman preparing to leave her daughter without a parent, who could fail but to be moved.

      Most importantly, it is a rare book that tackles this subject with such a direct and honest approach and for that alone the author has to be applauded. But the will to produce a story dealing with such an important theme does not of itself make the book important.
    • 4/5
      I've been thinking about this book ever since I saw it after it came out. Finally, I bought it and read it today. You know from the title that there won't be a happy ending. But, from the beginning, I was invested in the story of Rabbit Hayes (Mia) and her family and friends. The story opens with Rabbit on her way to hospice and how she and her family deals with this final step in her tough journey after fighting breast cancer for 4 years. I liked this book, it made me sad but I still liked it. I'm looking at other books by Anna Partlin and will be ordering them as well.
    • 4/5
      I knew what I started this book that it would be a book that would make me cry. I thought that meant that I would be crying by the end, I didn't expect to have tears start by page 10. Other than the obvious tears, this is a beautifully written book about dying. Rabbit, real name Mia, Hayes is being moved into hospice care in the first chapter of the book. Throughout the story, she is surrounded by her family, daughter, brother, sister, mom and dad and best friend and most importantly by her memories. Yes, its a sad book about dying but its also a wonderful funny book about a family coping with her loss as well as the story of a life well lived.
    • 4/5
      The subject of this novel is without doubt a sad one. But, it is much, much more. Not many novels can have you crying on one page and laughing on the next. Also the characters in this novel are wonderful, funny, flawed, trying to figure out who will take Rabbit's twelve yr, old daughter Juliet. When Rabbit gives in to her strong pain killers and falls asleep, she dreams of her past. Her brother David, the boy she has loved since she was twelve, Johnny and the band. So it is also a beautiful love story and believe me it is not a mushy love story.So yes it is sad but amazing nonetheless. It is all the things a life is, lived well, surrounded by so much love. I could have kept reading, loved her dreams and already miss all the characters. Read it and see.
    • 4/5
      Didn't quite hit the spot.Am I just cold-hearted? I expected to be sobbing throughout this book, like I was with Paula by Isobel Allende, but this one just didn't affect me in the same way (possibly because this was fiction, while Paula was a memoir).I enjoyed the characters and the back-story of Rabbit Hayes, her brother's band, Kitchen Sink, and Jonny Faye, the lead singer, but the gradual decline of Rabbit from the time that she was admitted to the hospice, was interesting rather than distressing.There were quite a few family members in Rabbit's life and they all took a part in helping and encouraging her and each other, both in the hospital and out. Various people became stressed and there were a few blow outs, as you'd expect, but I think the style of writing was just a bit too formulaic and matter-of-fact to totally involve me. I can't say I found it as amusing as other reviewers have done either.I would also question the relevance of the death of another character in the story, which distracted from the main plot, in my opinion. In the end it was the situation of rabbit's twelve year old daughter, Juliette, that moved me most.Personally, I think I would have enjoyed this more as an audiobook. The Irish accent didn't always read well and to have had the dialogue read correctly would have greatly improved the flow. One or two phrases meant nothing to me at all; "Dee O'Reilly let me drop the hand the other night" and "She didn't lick it off the stones, Jack observed", I assume they are Irish colloquialisms.Having said all this, I will add that I was in the minority in my book group - everyone else thought it was an excellent read, so take a look at a few other reviews before you make a decision based on mine.
    • 5/5
      Simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, wildly funny and emotionally devastating, The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes is a superb novel from Anna McPartlin.Forty year old, single mother Mia ‘Rabbit’ Hayes has bravely fought the ravages of cancer for four years, but now she and her family are forced to face the truth…she has just days left to live. As Rabbit drifts in and out of consciousness in her hospice bed, recalling the most important moments of her youth, her family and friends struggle to accept their impending loss.A story of heartbreak, joy, love and loss, a novel with heart and soul… I was smiling broadly through it all, despite the tears running down my face.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of the last nine days of Mia 'Rabbit' Hayes, which are spent in a hospice because she is dying. Around her are her family and friends, including her 12 year old daughter, Juliet. We are also given a look back to parts of Rabbit's life, including her love for Johnny Faye, singer in the band her brother plays drums with.I found this book to be a bit cheesy, with a lot of what felt like quite contrived humour. There was also such a lot of dialogue that sometimes it was hard to keep track of it all. For these reasons, what could have been a moving story didn't really do a great deal for me. Not one for me but a light read with a fun side to a sad story.Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy.