Author Tess Gunty appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to discuss her National Book Award-winning novel The Rabbit Hutch.
Gunty’s book, published last year by Alfred A. Knopf, follows the residents of an affordable housing complex in the fictional town of Vacca Vale, based on Gunty’s hometown of South Bend, Indiana. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the novel “a stunning and original debut that is as smart as it is entertaining.”
Robert Costa interviewed Gunty in South Bend, a town that was thrown into economic depression after the 1963 closure of the Studebaker automotive plants that employed much of the city’s residents.
“I was born 30 years after Studebaker closed,” Gunty told Costa. “I think that the kinds of consequences of economic decline become extremely personal. They’re anchored in the beating hearts of those that you know and love.”
Costa asked Gunty if she was Blandine Watkins, the chief protagonist of The Rabbit Hutch.
Gunty laughed, and replied, “No, and yes. I’m Blandine insofar as I am every single character in this book. I don’t think you can write without putting much of your emotional experience into every single character. I may not know what it’s like to have a baby, but I know what it’s like to feel fear; I know what it’s like to feel out of control.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
