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Ken Wheaton
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First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival Paperback – September 25, 2012

by Ken Wheaton (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 90 ratings
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Welcome to Grand Prairie, Louisiana--land of confounding accents, hard-drinking senior citizens, and charming sinners--brought to hilarious life in a bracing, heartfelt debut novel simmering with Cajun spice. . .

Father Steve Sibille has come home to the bayou to take charge of St. Pete's church. Among his challenges are teenybopper altar girls, insomnia-curing confessions, and alarmingly alluring congregant Vicky Carrier. Then there's Miss Rita, an irrepressible centenarian with a taste for whiskey, cracklins, and sticking her nose in other people's business.

When an outsider threatens to poach Father Steve's flock, Miss Rita suggests he fight back by staging an event that will keep St. Pete's parishioners loyal forever. As The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival draws near, help comes from the strangest places. And while the road to the festival may be paved with good intentions--not to mention bake sales, an elephant, and the most bizarre cook-out ever--where it will lead is anyone's guess. . .

"A sparkling debut."

--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America

"Delightful. . .Wheaton writes with an infectious energy, and his affection for the characters and culture is authentic."

--Publishers Weekly
Previous page
  1. Print length
    306 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Kensington
  4. Publication date
    September 25, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 1 x 7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0758287615
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0758287618
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

From Publishers Weekly: Authentic Cajun touches (and recipes) spice up Wheaton's delightful debut yarn about faith and the yearnings of the flesh. ... Wheaton writes with an infectious energy, and his affection for the characters and culture is authentic without being overbearing or cheesy.

From Booklist: *Starred Review* Readers need to hold onto their hats because Wheaton's roller-coaster ride of a book has hilarious highs that plunge to soul-baring angst, then zoom back up to the top.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington; Reissue edition (September 25, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0758287615
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0758287618
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 90 ratings

About the author

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Ken Wheaton

Ken Wheaton

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Ken Wheaton was born in Opelousas, Louisiana, and raised deep in the heart of Cajun Country. He is the author of “The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival,” “Bacon and Egg Man” and “Sweet as Cane, Salty as Tears.”

Wheaton has been a Pushcart nominee for fiction and in 2016 was awarded the Jesse H. Neal Awards for commentary and the 2016 Crain Communications Editorial Excellence Award for Commentary. He was also included in the recently-released "Voices from Louisiana: Profiles of Contemporary Writers."

Previously the editor of Advertising Age, Wheaton now pays his bills as a content strategist and editorial consultant.

After living in Brooklyn for almost 20 years, he and his wife Cara (also from Louisiana) packed up their two tiny poodles and moved to the mountains of Colorado.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
90 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joseph Trussell
5.0 out of 5 stars A Showcase of Wit, Narrative, and Character Studies. Read it!
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023
Verified Purchase
An extremely intuitive writer, Ken Wheaton has a knack for creating vivid, believable, deeply considered characters. His talent recalls Tom McGuane (one of my favorites) with Louisiana as the fertile backdrop instead of Montana. Wheaton remains true to the culture, mannerisms, and environment that he presents--he knows South Louisiana inside and out, and it shows.

Throw in a fantastic narrative, one that kept me engaged throughout, and you have a splendid novel. Tragedy, humor, and passion go hand-in-hand here; the wit and irreverence is non-stop. It's a testament to Wheaton's skill that a great book does not have to be about the end of the world; it can be about tiny conflicts in a tiny place and be every bit as powerful. I could not put it down.

Is it weird that I found myself slightly in love with Vicky? Probably. But it's a testament to how lovely these characters are drawn. Highly recommended!
One person found this helpful
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Foggy Bottom Girl
4.0 out of 5 stars The hungriest read ever
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2010
Verified Purchase
Full disclosure: I know the author, I refuse to finish books that I don't enjoy, and I normally prefer a serious read to really good yarn.

My honest opinion? This is a really good yarn, one I read to the end within three days. It would have taken LESS time if it hadn't inspired so many damn trips to the kitchen.

The main character in the novel is Grand Prairie, Louisiana, a place you can see, smell, taste, and feel the sleepy heat of in these pages. There are a handful of truly delightful descriptive passages - including one of a cookout that draws directly on the feast preparation scene from Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal's "I Served the King of England" - but usually this is accomplished with impressive economy of words. The place doesn't need description - its textures emerge naturally as the narrator moves through different local scenes. The other characters are vivid and engaging, and their conversations are the book's best plot drivers.

Occasionally, I felt the story got bogged down by the plot itself, which wrestles with every issue from small-town politics to Catholic church doctrine to alcoholism to racial tension, coming out on top but sometimes by way of a shortcut. That's a lot to ask of a story that's so driven by images and conversations, and sometimes I found myself wishing that the darker themes had been written with a lighter hand. Because Father Steve is the narrator, his self-absorption at some point is inescapable, and I occasionally wished that I was off dancing Zydeco with Mark and Vicky instead of cooped up with Father Steve and his whiskey.

Then again, there I was, wishing I was off dancing Zydeco and eating crawfish etouffee in some tiny Louisiana town. This book was tough to put down, full of color and life, the kind I'd be tempted to describe as a "great summer read" or "the perfect airplane book" were it not also the ideal after-work escape on a miserable winter day. If you're looking for serious philosophical literature, this ain't it. But if you love a really good yarn about a really special place, you won't regret picking up a ticket to the First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival.
3 people found this helpful
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A Happy Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll want to give this book to everyone you know
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2010
Verified Purchase
I was only halfway through this book when I went out and got copies for my best friend, my cousin and my boyfriend; when I finished I went out and got another one for my dad!
Caveat: this book is NOT for you if you have no sense of humor or are dogmatically sanctimonious about Catholicism (reading the few negative reviews, it seems like those readers suffered from the former or the latter and were projecting their personal TMI on this book).
However, this book IS for you - and everyone you know - if you want to laugh out loud repeatedly while reading it and fall in love with an extremely well-written cast of characters set amidst the backdrop of a small Southern Louisiana town.
The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival is a great read! The writing is witty and fast-paced and it deftly covers many complex issues and sub-plots while never getting mired down by these.
The book is completely unique: a slice of life from Southern Louisiana about a Catholic priest struggling with what it is to be a celibate man of the cloth in contemporary America; what it is to be a white man who had parts of his identity shaped by a black woman who is old enough to remember when people were still being lynched; what it is to be a religious man who does not truly have faith in himself. Pepper in terrific supporting characters, a fierce competition - of food and faith - with the local Pentecostal leader, two cats named Chase, and an elephant (!), and you have the most original book you are likely to read this year. I guarantee you that you are going to want to recommend this to, and get this for, people you know who love to read. Enjoy!
4 people found this helpful
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judith lysaker
3.0 out of 5 stars Light, sometimes disturbing read!
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
Verified Purchase
Entertains but very bizarre. A "Fargo" for the rural south. A look at a juvenile parish priest who struggles to grow into his role.
One person found this helpful
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Trinity
1.0 out of 5 stars wishing for zero stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
This book is tedious, stupid, lifeless, painful to read and that's the good part. I really tried, I got to Chapter 5. I can't believe it even got published. I really hate to read "I was so offended". Literature is supposed to challenge us, entertain us, make us think, certainly even fiction. But, if it were a better book, I would be terribly offended. I lived 55 years near this town and I am Catholic. There's tons of hilarious material about growing up Catholic, in Catholic parishes, festivals, Southern food and in small and large Southern towns. There's just none here.
3 people found this helpful
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