diff --git a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/Gson.java b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/Gson.java
index b02db3fb..fa8c905b 100644
--- a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/Gson.java
+++ b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/Gson.java
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import com.google.gson.stream.MalformedJsonException;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Reader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
@@ -557,14 +558,12 @@ public final class Gson {
       return null;
     }
     try {
-      TypeAdapter<T> typeAdapter = (TypeAdapter<T>)miniGson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(typeOfT));
-      return typeAdapter.fromJson(json);
+      StringReader reader = new StringReader(json);
+      T target = (T) fromJson(reader, typeOfT);
+      return target;
     } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
       // TODO(inder): Figure out whether it is indeed right to rethrow this as JsonSyntaxException
       throw new JsonSyntaxException(e);
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      // TODO(inder): Figure out whether it is indeed right to rethrow this as JsonSyntaxException
-      throw new JsonSyntaxException(e);
     }
   }
 
@@ -641,14 +640,10 @@ public final class Gson {
    */
   @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
   public <T> T fromJson(JsonReader reader, Type typeOfT) throws JsonIOException, JsonSyntaxException {
-    if (reader == null) {
-      // TODO(inder): remove this null check since we didnt have it in a previously released version
-      return null;
-    }
     boolean oldLenient = reader.isLenient();
     reader.setLenient(true);
     try {
-      TypeAdapter<T> typeAdapter = (TypeAdapter<T>)miniGson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(typeOfT));
+      TypeAdapter<T> typeAdapter = (TypeAdapter<T>) miniGson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(typeOfT));
       return typeAdapter.read(reader);
     } catch (IOException e) {
       // TODO(inder): Figure out whether it is indeed right to rethrow this as JsonSyntaxException
@@ -702,7 +697,7 @@ public final class Gson {
     if (json == null) {
       return null;
     }
-    return (T) miniGson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(typeOfT)).fromJsonElement(json);
+    return fromJson(new StringReader(json.toString()), typeOfT);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapter.java b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapter.java
index 3f04234a..c246222b 100644
--- a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapter.java
+++ b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapter.java
@@ -70,11 +70,7 @@ public abstract class TypeAdapter<T> {
 
   public T fromJsonElement(JsonElement json) {
     try {
-      StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
-      JsonWriter jsonWriter = new JsonWriter(stringWriter);
-      jsonWriter.setLenient(true);
-      Streams.write(json, false, jsonWriter);
-      JsonReader jsonReader = new JsonReader(new StringReader(stringWriter.toString()));
+      JsonReader jsonReader = new JsonReader(new StringReader(json.toString()));
       jsonReader.setLenient(true);
       return read(jsonReader);
     } catch (IOException e) {