How Green Was My Valley

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His famous first novel How Green Was My Valley (1939) was begun in St David's from a draft he had written in India, and was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film by director John Ford.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The writing is very dreamlike and evocative of a time long gone, with Huw’s observations interspersed with the retelling of stories from his past. A great deal of the book covers the hard life of the coal miners and their struggles with mine owners to earn a livable wage and the unsafe conditions they work in. I had seen the film but years ago and I was struck when reading this by the similarities to the more recent film "Brassed Off" about the colliery closings in northern England (Yorkshire? Yes there is welfare and food stamps today, there are food pantries and clothing ministries but mothers are the ones who must go stand in line and fill out the humiliating forms and take the charity that they often do not protest.This brought me to a familiar literary territory, the portrayal of human suffering in the face of economic victimisation of workers². In one dramatic chapter, this change is symbolised in the crime that shook the town and the village over the mountain.

I bought this especially for the challenge as I’d agreed with Mallika from Literary Potpourri that we would do a buddy read of it (we both read it at the same time and are sharing each other’s reviews but didn’t discuss it separately to these, mainly for reasons of my holiday! Thankfully, Huw for the most part spent his time banging on about other more interesting coming-of-age stuff. Işte bu kitapta da yıllar sonra, çocukluğumda yaşadığım o doymak bilmez bir merakla takip ettim akışı. The valley and mining community was portrayed so vividly and beautifully, it was easy to see why Huw loved his valley/home.I read this aloud with my husband (then-boyfriend) and I really can't overstate how beautiful it is read aloud. Her whole relationship with Owen occurred over the course of a few days, they didn't have a long romance or a deep connection of any kind. This is a book which covers a great deal of ground from personal and family dynamics to broader social commentary and one that had me reading all the way through. Companies today give great lip service to saving the environment while trading in air pollution waivers and similar. It was no doubt a true enough refection on how badly miners and other such workers were treated in those days, it really made me glad not to live in such crappy, hopeless times.

As I commented on Liz’s review of this, I am gradually overcoming my reluctance to give this modern classic a go – I think I’ve pushed against it merely because having lived in Wales for around twenty years it feels like a book I *ought* to read, doubtless an aspect of pathological demand avoidance which it’s suggested I suffer from! Growing up in a mining community in rural South Wales, Huw Morgan is taught many harsh lessons - at the kitchen table, at Chapel and around the pit-head.I hate you,' she said, and wrapped her cloak round her so that she was a black pillar, with a white face and her eyes with glitter and shine to make you afraid. Llewellyn explored the dark side of a small community whose moral tenets are largely shaped by the fire and brimstone understanding of Christianity.