Customer Reviews

How Green Was My Valley

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The warmth and love Richard Llewellyn had for his Welsh family and the coal-mining village where he grew up has remained with me for maybe 40+ years since I first read it. Written in 1939, How Green Was My Valley has become a bittersweet coming of age tale of a boy growing up in a large family in a small town, and of his love for his lovely sister-in-law. This is a coal mine story, so you just know there's going to be some tragedy involved, and of course there is. The story is written from the depths of the author's heart and soul. No wonder it won an Oscar when it was made into a movie.
If you've never read it, do it now. If you read it 40 years ago, read it again. It won't be stale.

Within pages, I felt that I was reading a masterpiece. Richard Llewelyn does a marvelous job of introducing his audience to the lush history of Wales. Not only does he descriptively carry us into the past through the home of the Morgans, but slowly introduces readers to Welsh sentence structure; it is not merely an attempt to sound sappy or sentimental, but an effort to share the beauty of language used by the Welsh. The result is undeniable liquid poetry. At first, the unusual phrasing may strike you as odd and make reading difficult, but before you know it, you will be swept into it.

The story itself is gripping as it carries us through the hardships and triumphs that bring a family closer together and at times, tear it apart - told through the eyes of a boy. You will find yourself remembering life's many "initiations" through the eyes of Huw Morgan as well as forgotten sensations of childhood. Because of this, the story holds universal appeal and will leave a long lasting impression on those who partake.

There is beautiful it is!!

From the very first line of this book, I knew I was in for an interesting, unique experience. This novel was beautiful~ the flowing language, the flashes from present time to the past, the intricate detail of each character. The simplicity of the narrative of this story carries the plot line along. The descriptive use of words, especially adjectives, sets the reader right in the middle of all the action. Although the characters seem too "good" a lot of the time, I think the reason for this is because the society which they inhabit is so. They do have their bad qualities which they acknowledge and try to remedy. Llewellyn chose to write this book with simple Welsh language; a wise choice I heartily agree with it. The reader can feel the words coming straight from the heart, and can therefore connect well with the characters. This book had me captivated from beginning to end, and even when it ended, I found myself wishing for more. This book is definitely one that I count among my favorites~ and I do not think it gets the recognition it deserves a lot of the time, which is unfortunate because it is a true classic that is timeless...

For all those who loved How Green Was My Valley, you should definately read the sequel, Down Where the Moon Is Small and the other two books in the series: Up Into the Singing Mountain and Green, Green My Valley Now. Even though they are all out of print, they're worth tracking down. Many people are unaware that the story doesn't end with How Green Was My Valley. I recommend them all.

This melancholic elegy for departed loved ones and the vanished way of life of a Welsh coal mining town is one of the most beautiful books ever written. The narrator, Huw Morgan, tells the story of the lives and loves of his extended family and their townfolk as their closeknit community disintegrates under the pressures of modern life and the decreasing profitability of the mine--from brothers who have to move to America to make a living or others who are killed in the coal pits, to the widowed sister-in-law who Huw loves for years but never tells, to Mr. Gruffudd the local minister who helps Huw through childhood paralysis & becomes his tutor, to Dai Bando who teaches him to box and most of all to the beloved parents who suffer long but love greatly. The language itself is lyrical and haunting, the story ineffably sad. But always, Huw reminds us that these remarkable people live on in him:

Courage came to me from the height of the mountain, and with it came the dignity of manhood, and knowledge of the Tree of Life, for now I was a branch, running with the vital blood, waiting in the darkness of the Garden ....to bring forth sons and daughters.

I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who were to come. I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond.

And their eyes were my eyes.

As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever.

Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end, and the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was, to Time That Is, and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one, born of Woman, son of Man, made in the Image, fashioned in the Womb by the Will of God, the Eternal Father.

It is the permanence that these mortal souls gain through the medium of memory that ultimately makes the book uplifting.

GRADE: A+

"How Green Was My Valley", the story of a boy growing up at the
turn of the century in a Welsh mining town, is a fabulous
read. My book club read it because we had heard it was lyrical.
Although we are a bunch of moms of young kids who hardly ever
finish book-club books, not one of us could put it down.
Compelling, beautiful, wistful. .. it gave occasion for our
best attended book-club meeting yet.

I have one thing to say about this book: I have NEVER had to go back and re-read so much of any book just for the sheer enjoyment of the passages as I have this one. Mr. Llewellyn's words are so powerful that I wept as I read certain passages, they are so beatiful. As elevated and perfect as human language can possibly get. Read this simply for the joy of words. The story takes a backseat to the storyteller in this one.

The reviewer Tom from Texas reflects my exact sentiments. The prose in this novel is so achingly lovely, one's eye keeps returning to previous paragraphs, just to see how a certain effect was achieved. The author's words are so gracefully, so musically wrought, I caught myself again and again, reading passages out loud to myself. Llewellyn was a writer of the first rank and this book, his finest work, is among the most beautiful prose creations in English fiction.

Lyrical, nostalgic tale of Huw Morgan's boyhood in the coal fields of south Wales in the late 1800s. The reader is impressed by the simple, vital pleasures of the life that the Morgan family experiences. Industrial capitalism takes its toll on the family and community, proof that capitalism is often not conservative in its effects. The several Morgan boys are driven from their family home because of the stresses and wild cycles of early industrialism. The town in which the Morgan's live, once a community of friends, gradually becomes a mean, more brutal town by book's end. Think not, however, that the author, Richard Llewelyn, is some sort of foaming-at-the-mouth Marxist. He is critical of industrial capitalism from a conservative point-of-view.

Read this book and you will forget about all other books you read so far. There is absolutely no match for this book. Once you start reading it, you just cannot keep it without finishing it up. The author takes all the credit by his style of expressing the thoughts. I bet, no one has ever expressed their thoughts in such a beautiful manner. Had there been an option for giving 100 stars, I would have given it 100 out of 100. Go for the book, you will love it.