Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287815 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

One of my favourite books ever!
This book is extraordinarily well written. It is the only book to make me cry whilst reading it, and the issues it raises are both though provoking and significant to the present day. Before people condem the issues as fabricated fiction, I would like to point out that in my copy of the book,at least, the author states that every experiment described in the book has been performed in real life. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, and it takes a little while to get into, so don't give up on it until you have at least read the first hundred pages.

Nothing short of an absolute masterpiece.
This, Richard Adams' third book after 'Watership Down' and 'Shardik', is probably his best. The book dismisses 'Watership Down''s relative sentimentality for more brutal subject matter but still manages to champion animals over humans for a happy ending. It's also a very philosophical work, as the story goes beyond the escape of the principal characters of Rowf and Snitter into the human and political world to show its rank underbelly. Brilliant.

if only i could call it a romp....
Rowf - a Labrador highly cynical about the human race - and Snitter – a black and white Jack Russell sold to Animal Research and subjected to brain surgery which dampens his ability to differentiate between subjective experience and objective reality - both escape the lonesome confines of the experimental laboratory they are held in and break out in the countryside of the Lake District region. Roaming the fells, they both fluctuate between the desires to have a master and to go feral, that is to fend for themselves andto brave the conditions which are presented to them.

Interwoven plots - implausible in their content but effective in their delivery - ensure that numerous groups of people are on their trail. A self-seeking journalist wishes to whip up a storm of controversy for higher political means; the local farming community, armed with shotguns and strong Scottish accents, wants to end the dogs they consider to be hounding their sheep; the Animal Research Centre, aware of the perennial delicacy of itself and its need to keep a positive media image, wants its name out of the paper and the dogs forgotten; add to that a further plot surrounding the owner of Snitter – which I won’t refer to as it is the only one with an unpredictable conclusion - and you have a compelling, page-turning novel bound to please children, young readers and animal lovers alike.

It is true that the human characters are types, and appear as cartoonist, reduced versions of human beings. The complexities of human behaviour and personality is not explored and each character has a strict role – with predefined thoughts and action - which renders them as rather one-dimensional. Their actions move seamlessly with the plotting of the novel, there is no natural human conflict as the story unfolds and meanders the mountainous landscapes, and this only compounds the feeling of simplicity which pervades the story. They are like the villains, or the heroes, in an episode of Scooby Do. This is more of an observation than a criticism, as it is clear that a story which starts from the premise of talking animals is not aiming for a hyper real, psychological epic. Indeed, Adams does not real explore the issues which interest him through probing individual thoughts and behaviour but through outlining, explicitly and implicitly, the bonds which connect his literary archetypes.

RowfandSnitter are not only more believable, but are also of greater depth. Although I would not go as far to say Richard Adams captures the raw, animalistic feeling which exists in nonhumans and underneath human consciousness (not many writers can), he does go some way to provide insight into what it is like to be a dog in a world increasingly dominated by human values, and, it must be said, human cruelty. Tod, the red fox who appears one-third into the story and who has an infectious way of thinking, adds an interesting element which was surely intended. Here we have the animal which comes third after the chicken and the cow as the most abused, dismissed and tortured animal at the hands of us humans, next to dogs, one of only two animals the majority of the human race are willing to acknowledge as having any worth. What Adams does is show the reader that the fox and the dog may exhibit slight differences in their behaviour and look, but in fear, pain and sentience they are equals. Throughout the book, a true friendship develops between the three animals, but the Tod ends up being cornered by egged-on hounds, and the unpredictability of the outcome does not lesson its emotional effect. By this stage in the book the reader will either hate or love the fox and his ways, and the unceremonious death of the fox – which Adams leaves deliberately vague to capture the sense of indifference - demands our reflection.

It could be said that Adams communicates in the symbols we understand (words) what all sentient beings, to some degree or other, feel and cannot express due to having no vocal chords, nor the higher intelligence to symbolise their consciousness. In this he tells the reader something which an awful lot of humans need to learn – that no being wants to be experimented on, eaten or hunted. He tries to give a voice to the voiceless, and whether he is effective or not is the individual decision of each reader.

His antivivisection stance is implicit and subtle. I estimate that in total there are 40 or so pages of material relating to the subject, and most of that is matter-of-fact description. This novel does not warrant being considered as one in opposition to animal experimentation, as Adams only tells the reader of the reality (the absurdity) of vivisection and the view of the animals about the practise. His view is not biased, but representative, and I suggest that those reviewers who have accused him of being one-sided should realise that they are in fact being presented with the inescapable, and inevitable, ridiculousness of animal experimentation. This book may be complemented by reading Slaughter of the Innocent, or the excellent Vivisection Unveiled, both of which reveal the scientific futility of the horror Rowf and Snitter were fortunate enough to escape.

The simplicity of the book does mask a complexity. On one hand we have a simple, enjoyable tale for child of all ages, and on the other we have the relationship between man and animal played out on a literary setting; a plea for a less hostile, arrogant and divorced view of nature; and a call for self-reflection. Like all great books, we can either read it whilst tucked in bed with cocoa, or studied it in a library. Irrespective of his method of doing so, in urging us humans to stop treating the world as our ashtray and anything which is not human as worthless, Adams deserves our respect.