Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Theo Holland

"This is either the funniest dirty book or the dirtiest funny book ever written!" (Isaac Asimov)

Somewhere around 1969, I began to grow dissatisfied with the underlying principle of most novels - that a disembodied voice in the first or third person was telling us a story.

I liked the idea of novels passing themselves off as documents and drew inspiration from Mark Harris's Wake Up, Stupid and Sue Kaufman's Diary of a Mad Housewife, the first, ostensibly a collection of letters, the second, duh, a diary. (One could, of course, go back further, to the very beginnings of the English novel in the works of Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson.) I also found myself interested in writing with greater candor about sexual topics. I had knocked out dozens of soft-core paperbacks, and wanted to try anew with greater freedom and more realism.

I wrote three paperback original novels for Berkley under the pen name Jill Emerson, two of them in diary form, the third a presumed collaborative novel written in concert by the three viewpoint characters. These were fun to do and worked out well, and they led to Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man. I riffed on the experience of my friend George Dickerson, who, like the novel's protagonist, had the magazine he was editing folded out from under him.

George went on reporting to his empty office for several months, until they found him out when they noticed he'd stopped using his expense account. A man of many talents, George went on to serve as a reporter for Time Magazine for several years, then segued into a career as an actor; he had a principal role in Blue Velvet.)

I spliced in an experience of my own, when I drank for hours at the Kettle of Fish on Macdougal Street, emerging only to be picked up by a carful of rich Catholic schoolgirls from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Noroton, Connecticut, who essentially kidnapped me and drove me back to school with them.

These things happen.

I wrote the book in four furious days in an apartment on West 35th Street. I did so, thinking it would be another pseudonymous paperback, and that no doubt gave me the freedom to write it as I did; after it was written, the friends who read it liked it so much that I was persuaded to publish it as a hardcover novel, and under my own name.

My agent sent it to Bernard Geis, a quirky publisher whose editor - Don Preston - loved the book. Bernie had offices on two floors in midtown Manhattan, and had installed a fireman's pole in case one wanted to get from 9 to 8 in a hurry. All I recall of Don is he told me to avoid seeing Carnal Knowledge, which he hated, and that I must hurry to see McCabe and Mrs.Miller, which he loved. Once I'd managed to sit through McCabe and Mrs. Miller, I knew I'd love Carnal Knowledge.

Around the time the story was published, Bernard Geis slid into chapter 11. I can't think this had a salutary effect on sales. Martin Levin in The New York Times book review pointed out that the book was written in the form of a series of letters, which was also the case with Richardson's Pamela, generally acknowledged to be the first English novel. And that, Mr. Levin said, was as much as he had to say on the subject. Well, that's fair.

I had the publisher send a copy to Isaac Asimov, whom I'd met a few times over the years. "That's either the funniest dirty book or the dirtiest funny book I've ever read," Isaac told me. "That would make a wonderful blurb," I said. "Over my dead body," he replied.

Well, okay. Isaac's been gone over 25 years now, and while I wish he were still around, he's not. And so, I'll just remember him fondly, and thank him for giving Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man a helping hand, all these years later.

©1971, 2015 Lawrence Block (P)2020 Lawrence Block

Isaac Asimov was right about this book.

This audio book was recommended to me as a funny and dirty book.  Had someone explained the premise of this book I might have never listened to it, it’s that strange.  I am so glad I did though.  A letter writing campaign that includes his exes (Coworkers, women and friends) and the Mad Poet’s new friends.  The story threads its way through a hilarious and crude narrative with an “innocent” and evil manipulation that was fun to listen to.  I think my favorite letters were the ones that included his ex-boss.  The narration was well done and I enjoyed Theo Holland’s voices and soft southern draw which were very pleasing to the ears. 

Very funny

Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man is a dirty old book that is so cleverly put together and well written that it surprasses what it should be able to achieve. That it can be as ridiculously enjoyable as it is is a testament to Block’s ability as a writer. The scenarios are altogether vulgar, crude, and should realistically be off-putting at some point but everything comes together in a cleverly constructed, tremendously funny book. That it all works and that the should-be despicable protagonist’s antics are positively received by the reader is a master stroke in a book that from a lesser writer would have been long forgotten and possibly hated for some of its comic suggestions regarding the relationship between intimacy and loyalty. Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man does more than cross the border into brazen crudeness, it revels in it. It will make you laugh, it will trap you to the point that breezing through its relatively short page count is a must. Should you be squeamish or easily taken out of what you’re reading by blue content, this will likely not appeal to you, but for the rest of us, this is a rude, hilarious book that is well worth reading.

If you enjoy audiobooks, Theo Holland delivers his usual excellent work as narrator. It is more than easy to fall into the rhythm of his voice as he reads and in this, a comedy, the humour is never lost. Holland’s work makes this a good one to check out if you haven’t listened to a book before.

LB is the man!

Lawrence Block is one of my favorite writers, and as the cover says, it was a quite different novel, some of his letters had me howling and as usual Theo Holland did a fine job narrating....Recommend

A Nasty Little Treat

Nobody does bawdy humor quite like Lawrence Block. Ronald Rabbit is simply another example of a master having fun. Good times.

Hilarious

You'll want to make sure you use your headphones. Hilarious story written and set in a more free-wheeling era, so pack your sense of humor and don't assume you know everything that's going on until the end.