Watership Down

I've always thought of Watership Down as the sort of funny animal book my son reads, and it had about as much appeal as one of those books.  (Evan Hunter's "Warriors" books, for example).  This even though I've been told more than once that it's really not, there's more depth to it, and so on.

But I decided to give it a try anyway.  About three hours in, I was ready to throw in the towel -- it was just a funny animal book about rabbits after all.  But for whatever reason, I decided to give it another hour, and it somehow came into focus, and I ended up really enjoying it.  I loved the rabbits' folk stories, and also felt like the story of Hazel's growth into a real leader was very effective.

I know that people like to read allegories into it (particularly the fascism angle), but I'm not sure those parallels make this a better book.  Instead, read as an adventure story with real depth, it's a charming success.