Watership Down-Review by Valerie

We had a great meeting on Friday and had a great turnout! For those of you who couldn't make it, we missed you. Liz, our newest member, was there and fit right in to our crazy conversation.  Once again, welcome Liz!

Watership Down was written in 1972 by Richard Adams.  He has said that this was based upon stories he would tell his girls as they were driving through the English countryside.  They then told him he should turn it into a novel.  His book was rejected by numerous publishers before being picked up by a small publisher. Over the next few years, Watership Down sold over a million copies worldwide and became a modern classic. 

It was not easy to find book club discussion question as the bulk of online material is geared toward literature classes, breaking down each chapter in detail. We all agreed that this is not a children's book although teens (especially boys) may like it. Some of the main concepts in the book revolved around friendship, courage, villains and heroes. Adams was posted to the Royal Army and military structure is seen throughout the book.

Now for the review....

We were all over the place on our ratings, ranging from a 1 to a 5 and averaging 3.25.  We pretty much loved it or hated it, with a few in between. Most of us agreed that the first part of the book was hard to get through but it did pick up. Those who did not like the book felt it was way too wordy, especially the descriptions of the countryside, flowers, trees, the warrens, etc. Another criticism was regarding their rabbit language. Why did they know certain English words yet had to make up rabbit words for other things, such as "hrududu" for car? Some also never felt like they connected to the rabbits and never gave a second thought to those cute little bunnies (Kellie!) There was a nice which was too tidy for those who like hard, painful, deadly endings (Kellie!) The legendary stories told about El-ahrairah, the rabbit folk hero, were hard to get through.

Those who liked the book were able to connect to the characters and root for them throughout the book. The story was poignant and touching and had great character development. It made you want to know what was going to happen to each of the rabbits. The perspective was interesting and different from the norm. Most of us would have liked to have had more female rabbits involved in the plot. It was a male dominated story although females were the driving force behind most of the action! The language issues were not bothersome; after all, this was published as a children's book, which is very scary! Why do I keep thinking of Rosie eating all those baby bunnies?

All in all, it was a good discussion and another classic completed!

We discussed the possibility of reading "Regret Not a Moment", by Nicole McGehee, Lisa Fournier's neighbor, and discussing it in January. Nicole would come speak to our group that month. We would push all books back one month to accommodate this book. 

We are now reading "Revolutionary Summer" by Joseph Ellis.

Happy reading! Looking forward to seeing you all in October.