1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
17. Bossypants by Tina Fey
18. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
19. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
20. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Well, its a book about rabbits. They are sort of like humans, but they poop a lot more. And they have a very different perspective in regards to mating.
When Fiver has a vision that their "warren" (rabbit city) is about to be destroyed, his brother Hazel and a few other rabbits escape to start a new warren. This is not something that happens often in rabbit world. Much like you would expect real rabbits to, they travel in a constant state of terror, "bolting" at the slightest noise. After many close calls with such menacing enemies as streams and birds, they find a hilly area called Watership Down (apparently a real place in England) and rebuild.
Why it took them so long to realize that their group was made up of exclusively male rabbits we humans can probably not understand. But they hatch a scheme to...shall we call it rescue? some female rabbits from a nearby warren that is overcrowded.
After finishing the novel and reading some reviews of it, I was relieved to find out that it was a) intended for children and b) Richard Adams did not mean it to be allegorical. It had the simplistic language that often exemplifies allegory, and there is nothing more annoying to me than trying to read an allegory that I just do not get. Sometimes we just want to read the story for what it is: a book about rabbits.
As you may already sense, I found the protagonists of the novel somewhat annoying. Even though they were doing things that no rabbit had ever done, such as making friends with the seagull Kehaar, they were quite stupid by human standards and struggled with the simplest concepts. It was exhausting to read about their constant fright. Every few hops they would signal danger to each other with a stamp of someone's paw and everyone would freeze. I got the point after the first few stamps and was ready to move on.
Not surprisingly, a great deal of a rabbit's time is spent eating, sleeping, and pooping. Again, I got it after the first hundred grass nibbles. I didn't need to keep reading about it.
It was definitely a unique story and the plot had some exciting moments. It is also somewhat surprisingly Penguin's best-selling novel of all time so I may be alone in my lukewarm feelings about it.
And if you're wondering, my finishing this book on Easter was just a timely coincidence. Happy Easter everybody! And may the Easter Bunny be sweeter to you than General Woundwort was to the Efrafans.
No comments:
Post a Comment