Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

So, after finishing Watership Down (still not about sunken Navy ships), I was poking around on Amazon and found that there is a sequel of sorts to Watership Down, called Tales from Watership Down, also by Richard Adams (of course).  I asked The Husband to request it from the public library for me.  I started it on March 14 and finished it on April 8.

I sort of expected this to be a continuation of happenings in the warren on Watership Down, it kind of was and kind of wasn't.  I can't give away what happens in Watership Down, but Tales didn't really pick up where the other left off, nor did it fill in any substantive holes in the story.  It really was more rabbit stories.  There were several about El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle and their adventures, exploits, and shenanigans.  These stories were told by familiar rabbits in the warren, like Dandelion.  And, we met some new rabbits that came into the warren.

I wish this were more about the adventures of the familiar rabbits in the warren and less about the "stories" of past adventures.  I was dying to know how the rabbits got on after the big war with General Woundwort.  I was also curious about if General Woundwort would make an appearance.

It was nice to see that a female rabbit became chief and it was kind of annoying that it was controversial among the male rabbits.

     "I'd imagine she'd be a very good Chief Rabbit," said Silver, "as long as she had a male partner to - well, you know - to balancer her when she needed it."

And the doe who accepted the co-position said:

     "I promise to be the biggest nuisance he's ever met in his life, and to disagree with him about everything." 

As I was reading this, I was kind of gagging and rolling my eyes.  OK - so I genuinely thought this was written in yesteryear, the olden days, long ago.  I had to check the publication date as I write this blog - this was published in 1996.  That makes me gag even more.  What's wrong with female leaders and why do they need a male to "balance them out" - ick, blech, gag.  I guess sexism exists in the imaginary animal realm too.  That's a discussion for another time.

All in all, this was a decent read.  I wish it was more about the warren rabbits and not about the mythical El-ahrairah.

On a separate note, I've become a fan of Teespring and get regular emails from them.  Usually, I just hit the delete button (sorry, Teespring), but one caught my eye because they have a Watership Down shop!!!  I couldn't resist, and got shirts for The Husband and me.
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