How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
I'm a big fan of classic contemporary literature. I love Steinbeck, Hemingway, and a family favorite, Thomas Wolfe. And since I'm not typically a fan of British authors, I surprised myself by picking up this title. I remember loving the movie when I saw it many years ago, but couldn't remember much about the story other than its set in a Welsh coal mining village. That's what happens with age.
How Green Was My Valley is the story of the Morgan family as told through the eyes of their youngest son, Huw. Due to an accident with his mother in a blizzard, he is confined to his bed for several years. He observes the rigors of mining life and also its pleasures while he recuperates. The family has high hopes that Huw will not go into the pits like his father and his brothers. Huw is given an education but coal mining is in his blood.
What a beautifully written story! The coal miner's life is hard, yet the family that waits at home is happy, food is shared and Sunday chapel is a requirement. But what the mine can give, it can also take away. The slag waste from the mine creeps across the valley, sending Huw's brother's and sisters away to find greener pastures. The black coal dust stamps out the light of the life Huw was born into.
How Green Was My Valley was a wonderful book to start the new year. It's full of characters to love and to hate, scenery that comes alive in the mind's eye, and prose that will carry you away to a nostalgic place in time.
I'm a big fan of classic contemporary literature. I love Steinbeck, Hemingway, and a family favorite, Thomas Wolfe. And since I'm not typically a fan of British authors, I surprised myself by picking up this title. I remember loving the movie when I saw it many years ago, but couldn't remember much about the story other than its set in a Welsh coal mining village. That's what happens with age.
How Green Was My Valley is the story of the Morgan family as told through the eyes of their youngest son, Huw. Due to an accident with his mother in a blizzard, he is confined to his bed for several years. He observes the rigors of mining life and also its pleasures while he recuperates. The family has high hopes that Huw will not go into the pits like his father and his brothers. Huw is given an education but coal mining is in his blood.
What a beautifully written story! The coal miner's life is hard, yet the family that waits at home is happy, food is shared and Sunday chapel is a requirement. But what the mine can give, it can also take away. The slag waste from the mine creeps across the valley, sending Huw's brother's and sisters away to find greener pastures. The black coal dust stamps out the light of the life Huw was born into.
How Green Was My Valley was a wonderful book to start the new year. It's full of characters to love and to hate, scenery that comes alive in the mind's eye, and prose that will carry you away to a nostalgic place in time.
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