“Women do what needs to be done, they do what is expected, the obligation of their gender … Men mistake the act of submission for the condition of submission. But they don’t know that women split themselves right down the middle, the submitting part and the fuck you part.”
Tagged a literary thriller, Melanie Finn’s new book The Hare tells the story of young Rosie Monroe as she falls for the handsome, worldly Bennett Kinney, an older man whose high society lifestyle is quite a contrast to her naive youth and blue-collar upbringing. Rosie finds it easy to latch on to Bennett almost immediately after a chance meeting in an art gallery, his attention and love filling the void from a childhood spent with her emotionally-distant grandmother after both of her parents died in a car accident.
But then Rosie finds herself pregnant. She considers having an abortion, but cannot bring herself to go through with it. Although Bennett initially appears excited and devoted in his own strange way, things begin to unravel in the relationship when their daughter is born. When Bennett’s latest job — a con job, it turns out — fails, they are forced to flee to an isolated cabin in Vermont. He assures her that the move is a great new opportunity for their family, a wonderful step up in his career to teach at a small but prestigious liberal arts college. And as so many do under the thrall of young love, Rosie appears to confuse what Bennett wants from her with what she wants for herself, so she goes along with his plans.
As Bennett spends more and more time away from the cabin, Rosie begins to quietly question where he goes, what he is doing, and how he is really making his money. The years pass and Rosie finds herself managing the household and raising their daughter practically alone, with few answers to these questions and barely enough money to keep her family fed and warm. When Bennett does return to the cabin, he is increasingly cruel, even monstrous, forcing her to finally face the fallout of her ties to a man she never truly knew. With the help of a neighbour, her only friend, will Rosie be able to survive such a lonely, isolated life?
Finn’s prose has a painful beauty to it, the allure of the writing illuminated by the subtle horror of the plot. From the very start it is clear that Rosie justifies Bennett’s actions to herself. She rationalises why they are “right” or “okay,” why she shouldn’t fight against him. He knows more, knows better, being older and more experienced. She does not find herself to be particularly smart or attractive and therefore does not understand what such a man could see in her. So, she remains in the relationship even as seeds of doubt begin to grow.
It’s a timeless tale, repeated again and again: the cultural pressure that is driven into women to be obedient, to accept their role and what they are given, to finish what they have started even if that requires submission. Rules which are particularly applicable to romantic relationships. Yet Finn gives the familiar a fresh take that is much-needed for the present day, making it clear as the story progresses that Rosie has an inner strength, an instinct to endure and persevere; in short: she will be no victim.
Rosie is an unforgettable character who burrows her way deep into the reader’s heart where she will not be forgotten. You will feel for her, cheer for her, hope for her as you reflect upon how you also have been trapped by your own life decisions at one time or another. The Hare is the type of book you will appreciate even more after stepping away and reflecting upon it, as the tale lingers in the back of your mind.
The Hare is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 26th 2021. Many thanks to Two Dollar Radio for providing me with an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Hare is an affecting portrait of Rosie Monroe, of her resilience and personal transformation under the pin of the male gaze.
Raised to be obedient by a stern grandmother in a blue-collar town in Massachusetts, Rosie accepts a scholarship to art school in New York City in the 1980s. One morning at a museum, she meets a worldly man twenty years her senior, with access to the upper crust of New England society. Bennett is dashing, knows that “polo” refers only to ponies, teaches her which direction to spoon soup, and tells of exotic escapades with Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson. Soon, Rosie is living with him on a swanky estate on Connecticut’s Gold Coast, naively in sway to his moral ambivalence. A daughter — Miranda — is born, just as his current con goes awry forcing them to abscond in the middle of the night to the untamed wilderness of northern Vermont.
Almost immediately, Bennett abandons them in an uninsulated cabin without a car or cash for weeks at a time, so he can tend a teaching job that may or may not exist at an elite college. Rosie is forced to care for her young daughter alone, and to tackle the stubborn intricacies of the wood stove, snowshoe into town, hunt for wild game, and forage in the forest. As Rosie and Miranda’s life gradually begins to normalize, Bennett’s schemes turn malevolent, and Rosie must at last confront his twisted deceptions. Her actions have far-reaching and perilous consequences.
An astounding new literary thriller from a celebrated author at the height of her storytelling prowess, The Hare bravely considers a woman’s inherent sense of obligation – sexual and emotional – to the male hierarchy, and deserves to be part of our conversation as we reckon with #MeToo and the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Rosie Monroe emerges as an authentic, tarnished feminist heroine.
