Customer Reviews

Down Where the Moon Is Small

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In a book very deserving of a three out of five, Huw here continues his journeys in in Patagonia, Argentina, but inland, in another valley different from the one he grew up in in South Wales, one populated by Indios, Welsh immigrants, Spaniard descendents, and Spanish-Indio mixed. He pursues the love of his life, Lal, and a whole bunch of other women, and ends up marrying Lal, and pursuing a whole bunch of other women. This is the third of four in the How Green Was My Valley series, and it's difficult. In the first novel Huw is a young boy and teenager in a South Wales mining town, and he is very relatable, very sympathetic. But in the second novel, and increasingly so in the third, he's just plain lecherous. Though married, he seems to have no will power, and must have sex with any woman that appears pretty and crosses his path! This makes him much more difficult to relate to. And raises some interesting questions. Up Where the Moon is Small is one thing if Llewellyn is trying to portray Huw sympathetically. Quite another if he is the protagonist but not the hero. The difficulty is that in the first novel, he was very much the hero.

It may be that this novel explores the change that occurs in life, when someone we like very much gradually develops into someone despicable, who we can not relate to, and who lacks real love, thinking only of himself. Repeatedly in the novel, Huw describes his love for Lal, but what he's actually describing is simply his love for women in general, sex, and companionship for himself that he might not be lonely. This is especially seen in the final 100 pages of the novel. Because of the lack of easy character identification, I can easily see why this novel alone of the four is no longer in print, and available used only at high rates.

And I Shall Sleep Down Where the Moon is Small (the alternate title) starts slow in the first 100 pages, but picks up a great deal in the final third of the novel. Llewellyn does an amazing job of portraying the horror of racism and ethnic cleansing as we follow the plight of the native Indios with the emerging modern Argentine government. He also does a great job of getting into the details of the Welsh mind and language, so by the end, you are thinking in Gaelic (or Cambrian) English. But hard it is to understand at times therefore- I still don't know what "Go push thumbs!" means, though I think it's not complimentary.

This book is not as good as "Up Into the Singing Mountain", which itself is not as good as "How Green Was My Valley". I will be reading the final installment "Green, Green my Vally Now" soon, and I expect that it will not be as good as DWTMIS.

Having said this, I still found DWTMIS to be a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing book. It piqued my curiosity about the real-life experiences of Welsh emigrants to Patagonia and caused me to do some Internet research on the topic.

I agree with the previous reviewer about being uncomfortable with Huw's randiness and lack of sexual mores. There were times when I found myself wishing that he would keep his trousers on (although the sex scenes are creatively and interestingly written).

There are many plot threads which had me in tears, although I'd be the first to admit that I'm a sentimental fool. I was on tenterhooks right to the end, hoping against hope that there would be no further deaths.

A more astute, or ruthless, editor would have cut a good 50 or more pages from this book, which would have greatly increased the overall quality of the book and the enjoyment of the reader. There were times when I was bored, particularly during a very long section with the Welsh tailors, and I was tempted to skip a few paragraphs or pages. However, the quality of the plotting and the excitement of the last 150 pages is undeniable.

In summary, this is a very good book that could have verged on excellent had it had somewhat fewer long-winded descriptions.