The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival

By Ken Wheaton

Book Overview

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. . .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758238525
• ISBN13: 9780758238528
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

I loved this book!

I couldn't put it down and laughed until I cried. I hope Ken Wheaton writes many more books - I'll be waiting!

Such an amzing book from page 1!

I had only read a few sentences and I was hooked. The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival starts with this mystery of the main character seeing flashes of red, then gives us one amazing character after another. It's a struggle to put the book down because I did not want the story to end. I savored every page and hope there will be lots more from this Ken Wheaton!

AMAZING!

Grand Prairie almost reads like an autobioghaphical story. I felt like I was there in that town, like I knew all those people, and when I think back on the twenty or so books I've read this year, this one is definately my favorite.

What's Not to Love?

If you've read Ken Wheaton you know his humor is quick, dirty, and deep. If you've been to southern Louisiana, you know it is among the most charming and wonderful parts of the United States. Put Wheaton (a native of Opelousas, Louisiana) and his former setting together, and the result is humorous and magical and fun. What's not to love? Wheaton is an emerging voice in regional literature.

Thanks, Ken

I cracked the cover on this book at 3:15 yesterday and could not put it down until I finished it at ten minutes to midnight last night. The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival had me laughing from the Author's Note all the way through Gumbo For Dummies and Ken's Crawfish Etouffee - which, by the way, had my mouth watering for some good Cajun food at a time when it was impossible to get any such thing, thankyouverymuch, Mr. Wheaton. Back to the story... The Holy Grail of fiction is for an author to take one of the seven basic plots of literature and do something with it that nobody's ever done before. Now, whether or not anyone has ever done this before, I don't know, as I have not read every single book out there. But what I do know is that Ken Wheaton took a creature so far beyond my Southern Protestant understanding - a Catholic priest - that we might as well be a different species, and made him relatable. He told me a story I'd never heard told in quite the same way. He made me laugh and cringe and even tear up when his words reminded me it's time to go visit Ezella, who is my family's Miss Rita. Witty and clever with a strong look at human nature, all wrapped up in a refreshingly well-written package. Time for a sequel, Ken.