Watership Down

Summary (from the publisher): One of the most beloved novels of our time, Richard Adams's Watership Down takes us to a world we have never truly seen: to the remarkable life that teems in the fields, forests and riverbanks far beyond our cities and towns. 

It is a powerful saga of courage, leadership, and survival; an epic tale of a hardy band of adventurers forced to flee the destruction of their fragile community . . . and their trials and triumphs in the face of extraordinary adversity as they pursue a glorious dream called "home." 

Watership Down is a remarkable tale of exile and survival, of heroism and leadership . . . the epic novel of a group of adventurers who desert their doomed city, and venture forth against all odds on a quest for a new home, a sturdier future.

Review: In doing some research on the origins of this book, I learned that it was written as an extension of stories the author used to tell his two young daughters. I found that surprising, since this strikes me as more of a traditional boy book - light on the character development, heavy on the battles/hardships/adventure plot points. Watership Down is a classic epic that details flight from a troubled homeland, the struggle for survival, and pursuit of the dream of a new home with one big difference - all the major characters are rabbits. When Fiver, a prescient young rabbit who has visions of the future, dreams that their home will be destroyed, a group of rabbits, led by Hazel, lead a hazardous exodus from their home to seek a safer home.

This book reminded me a lot of other classic epics like the Odyssey or Lord of the Rings. I've never been overly fond of these types of novels that feature one setback or ordeal after another - it's always with exhausted relief that I reach the conclusion with the majority of the original characters still alive. 

Ultimately, the whole rabbit thing didn't work for me. I did like seeing the world from an animal's perspective and imagining the danger the world presents to an animal like a rabbit. For the most part, the humans think and talk like humans, and are motivated by human emotions. However, the author has created a random alternative vocabulary for the rabbits, but only for certain words - elil for enemies, silf for outside, etc. I didn't see the function of having only certain words be replaced by rabbit lingo. It would have been more effective if these words were only applied to practices, etc. for which words don't already exist in English. Additionally, the novel is punctuated by tales of El-ahrairah, the rabbit folk hero, whose mischievous misdeeds shape the rabbits' beliefs and society. I found it interesting that the author chose to give the rabbits a mythical cultural history, but I don't know that they added much to the story or captured my attention in any way. 

My favorite part of this novel was when Bigwig (the bravest, toughest rabbit of the lot), enters the hostile rabbit warren of Efrafa led by the cruel General Woundwort, and tries to lead those trapped inside out to Hazel's warren. However, overall I did not particularly enjoy this novel or the conclusion, and was merely glad to be able to say I finished. 

Stars: 3