©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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Review by Clay Stafford
Richard Adams has once again succeeded in transforming a human world into a warren of rabbits. Twenty-two years ago, his Watership Down sold over five million copies and was made into a feature motion picture. Tales from Watership Down is its sequel and begins with items "omitted" in the previous book and concludes with further information on the future of this unlikely band of misfit bunny heroes.
In the sequel, Adams uses the three storytelling devices he used in the original: a collection of "rabbit" short stories, several narrations of the mythological adventures of El-ahrairah (the rabbit folk hero), and the continuing experiences of the main characters themselves. In the first book the short stories and mythological adventures are intertwined with the escapades of the main characters. In this sequel, they are divided into separate segments. Recognizing this from the onset eliminates the confusion caused by trying to find a common flow among the sections.
In the first part of Tales from Watership Down, the rabbits are telling unrelated stories in their warren much as young Scouts do around a campfire. As with children circling eerie embers, the ghost story will probably prove to be the favorite. For those not familiar with the characters, a brief summation is given in the first two paragraphs of the first chapter and sprinkled casually throughout. It is hardly a Cliffs Notes synopsis, but enough to get the reader involved and avoid confusion. These chapters would make appropriate bedtime stories for older children.
For the next two sections, it is helpful (and at moments mandatory) to have read the initial book. It is possible to enjoy the follow-up without having read the first, but like any sequel, the more one knows about the past relationships of the characters, the more one can appreciate the present situation and subsequent events. Reading the original first makes sense as Sections II and III are continuations of stories which began in the primary book. For example, in Watership Down, El-ahrairah finally makes it home after his visit to the Black Rabbit. In Section II of Tales from Watership Down, Adams details how El-ahrairah did it.
The real treat is the last section. For those who read the original and can't forget the feeling of wanting more, Adams skillfully delivers. In terms of the archetypal character roles, there are several surprises in store including the introduction of several new characters.
The Watership Down volumes together are allegories comparable to Winnie-the-Pooh, Animal Farm, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. And like Milne, Orwell, and Carroll, Richard Adams weaves a narrative that makes it easy for the most sensible of adults to become lost in a reality which does not exist. Maybe that's why the original Watership Down is now on many school reading lists. In times of happiness, sadness, love, and anger, the reader shares these emotions with the characters as if they were contemporaries. These books are fairy tales for a modern age.
Clay Stafford is a writer living in Franklin, Tennessee.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.