Watership Down

After having read nothing in the last month due to a lot of personal crap that has been going on I'm ready to get back into the reading fray! And I'm doing that by starting with updating where I'm up to right now...

So far I have only read two books and I'm being sponsored $2 a book so I've only made $4... Not such a tremendous effort I know but I am officially getting my butt in gear again and getting on with the challenge.

Title: "Watership Down"
Author: Richard Adams
Plot: This book was originally a narrated tale off the top of Adams's head as he was driving with his two daughters and eventually at their persistence he did indeed write it down.

The tale follows the journey of Fiver, a rabbit with extra sensory perception and his brother Hazel. Fiver feels that at the burrow where they are living in the start of the story has got something bad coming for it and so he convinces his brother Hazel to help him tell the Owsla (rabbit chieftain of the burrow) that something bad is coming and that they need to leave.

They aren't believed and so they end up forming a merry little bands of strays and run away. The rest of the novel follows their perilous journey and search for a new and safe home that they can call their own.
This search finds them in dangerous situations where those they thought friends were manipulation them merely for the extension of their lives at the possible cost of the lives of those in Fiver's band as well as them nearly losing rabbits in their band because of attacks on their emissary by rabbits of other warrens.

My favorite parts in the book were the relation ship between Fiver and Hazel in which Adams showed a sense of real friendship and brotherly dedication. I felt like I really knew the two of them.

My other favorite part was the fact that this story reminded me of Orwell's "Animal Farm" with the under currents of failing communism, and also my other favorite of Orwell's  "1985" in terms of the lack of allowed free speech, and the militarised overreaction against whoever exercised the right of free speech and thinking for themselves. With the Owsla not believing the visions of impending doom that is also reminiscent of the Greek tragedy Agamemnon, written by Aeschylus, featuring Cassandra foretelling the doom and destruction of Troy by her brother Paris and having her father, King Priam, who didn't believe tell the city of Troy that she was spreading falsities and was poisoning people's minds.

Rating: 3 out of 5 bunny paws (for the slow going)

"Watership Down" was quite complex and I took a long time to try and get into it. I found it took me quite a lot of concentration just to stay focused on it and I could only read a few pages at a time. Hving said that though it was a great read.

Now with book two done and dusted I'm ready to get well and truly stuck into book three which is titled "Halo" and written by Alexandra Adornetto.