Ramar: The Rabbit with Rainbow Wings

Preparing for his first journey to Earth as a human being, a young winged rabbit from the World-in-Between, is befriended by a host of animal spirits who offer him guidance about his forthcoming journey. 75,000 first printing.

"What could a rabbit with rainbow wings know of love or wisdom or the meaning of life?" asks debut author Hare. Very little, it turns out?although Hare shows that he knows how to spin a yarn that's as cottony as his namesake's tail. Ramar is a winged rabbit born into the "World-In-Between," where souls mind their lessons between earthly, human incarnations. Over the course of Ramar's chronicle, the rabbit grasps the meaning of his wings and of his destiny as a spiritual teacher from several animal and human guides. They promote a giddy, make-nice pantheism that touts key New Age tenets like free will, karmic justice and anticlericalism even as it mashes up the core beliefs of the world's great religions. Near book's end, Jesus appears as a radiant white lamb to bleat the praise of Ramar and Hare's theology?and of Ramar, proclaimed as every bit the equal of Moses, Buddha, Muhammad and the Man from Nazareth. And that's a bit of rabbity hubris that even Bugs, a bolder and perhaps wiser bunny, wouldn't have dared. Illustrations, not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A first book and moral fable being compared to Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. The illustrations (not seen here) may suck some preadolescents through this mild, eventless moral teach-in. But it's hard to imagine anyone older--or, in fact, anyone--really being gripped by Ramar the rabbit, who finds himself in the World-In-Between, a way station for his rebirth on Earth. Ramar also finds that he has rainbow-colored gossamer wings, which he thinks absurd. He meets Lydia, a telepathic cat with aqua eyes, and a Dove Who Rhymed With Love, who begin Ramar's indoctrination into serial lives: ``What happens is that when you are ready to be born you scrunch yourself up into a tiny speck of light, not even as big as the head of a pin. Then you concentrate on Earth and the people there, and before you know it, you will find yourself among them. Floating here. Floating there. Looking for the person you want to be.'' Ramar's lessons go on as if listed by William Bennett: Faith, Truth, Love, and even Death: ``Everyone who lives on earth must one day die, but you should not be afraid because death is just like being born except in a different direction. You slip out of your body the way you came in, and soon you are back with all of us who love you. That is all that it ever is.'' Unlike Pilgrim's Progress, however, Hare's debut novel offers nothing for its hero to overcome: He is just talked to all the way, though at one point he must put up with three foolish divines who warn him strongly about hell and punishment. But his chipper teachers pooh-pooh that. For a climax, he meets a lamb called The Shepherd, who tells Ramar about being crucified and the need for God's light in each of us. Neither Bach nor Gibran, though the pictures may help. Pablum either way, however sellable. (First printing of 50,000; Literary Guild alternate selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This feel-good, Jonathan Livingston Seagullish first novel about a flying rabbit will receive a big marketing push.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.