The book, Rabbits and Moons, by L. Wendell Vaughan, is a multidimensional story. The story is told through the eyes of the protagonist, Eleanor Abernathy, a thirty-year-old American female. Eleanor is in Mexico, and then Central America, in order to learn Spanish so she can graduate from college. Eleanor volunteers at an orphanage along a river in a rainforest, she believes working there will help her become fluent. While at the orphanage, she meets lots of interesting characters. The children are well cared for; she falls in love; the relationship is complex; someone is murdered; she leaves to go off on another adventure. However, the inner depth of the storyline is much more complicated. Eleanor's journey begins with her on a bus heading to the orphanage. The reader is introduced to a very atmospheric and vivid landscape, along with the indigenous people who populate the land, and the oppression they live with on a daily basis. Before arriving at her destination, she reads about a young local boy having been murdered, and government officials who are trying to steal land from the indigenous population. While at the orphanage, a place that is sealed off from the rest of the world, Eleanor rarely practices her Spanish due to the other volunteers only speaking English with her, and the locals who mainly speak their indigenous languages. This bothers her, but she enjoys the simplicity of raising kids with the other volunteers, and the 'routine and consistency.' The character development of the individuals at the orphanage draws the reader in with subtle humor and absurdity. The self-imposed leader, Jack, is writing a dissertation about the benefits of raising children with multiple parents in a commune-like environment. He adds chapters to his dissertation as issues arise, and he tries to solve them. There are three characters from England, one from Canada, two from America, a Belizean, and Harry Van Cleef (a complex character who likes to tell people he is Dutch). The group is very colorful, but due to their imaginations, they accidentally cause the death of a female volunteer and her friend. Eleanor, who wants nothing to do with sex or romance, finds herself falling in love with Harry. Harry tells her he is engaged to another, and despite their attempts to throw the other off course, they become romantically involved. Eleanor is also dealing with the death of her father, and her mother being in a mental institution. These issues make her aloof and suspect of becoming vulnerable. Harry's life is intertwined with land sales, oil being discovered in the area, and the government trying to take the land back (steal). He is also involved with the man who murdered the boy and the boy's family. Rabbits and Moons paints a picture of a troubled third-world country, disrupted family life, and people searching for normalcy in an environment that will not permit it. The book's in-depth descriptions of life in an orphanage, the economic difficulties stressing a third-world country, romance, murder, and intrigue is a masterfully written page-turner.
