Watership Down by Richard Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rereading a book I loved when I was younger is always risky. My memory of the emotional experience I had long ago creates an anticipation that is often the foundation for disappointment.
Not this time. This time, my experience was even richer than the memories.
I suspect that years of life have allowed me to feel more deeply the underlying power of Adams' mythopoetic vision. While Adams claims that Watership Down has no deeper mythic or thematic meaning--that it is not allegorical or metaphoric--I experienced it both as allegory and extended metaphor displaying the importance of growth in culture and in the individual.
At one point, I found myself thinking how odd it was that Adams claimed it was just a transcribed tale he told to his children on a long drive. To me, it seemed a perfectly crafted representation of the mythic functions of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. A few pages later, Adams' narrator described a character with a reference to Campbell, actually naming Campbell in the text.
Ah, I thought. Hours and hours of hard work made to look effortless.
Perhaps the tale told extemporaneously during a long drive was transcribed, but I suspect much crafting and conscious consideration went into that transcription.
A wonderful ride. A wonderful tale. It has brought new life to world I live in and, most especially, to the bunnies I see on my morning walks.
View all my reviews
