How Green Was My Valley

Product Information

Gamarekian, Barbara; Times, Special To the New York (October 19, 1990). "Library of Congress Adds 25 Titles to National Film Registry (Published 1990)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved October 30, 2020.

Somewhere near the midpoint the book started to fade for me and I grew lost as family members left home, found spouses, fought their own battles. It just got really confusing. I longed at least for a family tree and a timeline. The verbal round-abouts and endless descriptions began to wear away my patience. When a rather wonderful preacher describes the facts of life to Huw without ever naming a body part I mostly viewed it with astonished admiration for the inventive circumlocutions. Does Huw figure it all out? Well...at the risk of spoilers...I sort of think so....but then again, maybe not.After his father becomes superintendent at the mine, Huw hears some of the miners say that his father and Ivor, who agrees with him, might be beaten or even killed by some of the more violent miners. Frightened, he tells his mother what he has heard. One winter night, she and Huw go to the mountain where the miners are meeting, and she tells the men there that she will kill anyone who harms her husband. On the way home, his mother slips on the bank of a little river. Huw, standing in the icy water, supports his mother on the bank until help comes. After that, he remembers nothing until he awakens in his bed, and his father tells him that he saved his mother’s life and the life of his new baby sister. Huw has fever in his legs for almost five years and never leaves his bed during that time. The script was written by Philip Dunne. He later recalled reading the original novel "in horror, turgid stuff, long speeches about Welsh coal miners on strike." [10] WFMJ Will Broadcast "Spotlight Bands" Show". Youngstown Vindicator (Ohio). September 21, 1942. p.7 . Retrieved December 12, 2020.

How Green Was My Valley". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2009. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009 . Retrieved December 13, 2008. Huw Morgan remembers the days when his home valley was prosperous, verdant, and beautiful—before the mines came to town. The youngest son of a respectable mining family in South Wales, he is now the only one left in the valley, and his reminiscences tell the story of a family and a town both defined and ruined by the mines. I found myself lamenting the loss of the time Huw Morgan speaks of, cursing the slag heaps, mourning Ivor's death, and watched in horror as communism clashed with market forces in the collieries of Wales.

What a difficult book to rate! I found this book to be very atmospheric with beautiful passages of quote-worthy prose and really enjoyed the Welsh dialect. BUT, it just felt so incredibly slow for most of the book, and I found the self righteousness of the characters (and of the time) to grow stale and repetitive. A mixed bag, but overall an enjoyable read simply due to the author's poetic way with words and depiction of Wales. Arwel Ellis Owen, a producer for BBC Wales, discovered a forgotten archive of Llewellyn's papers at the University of Texas in America. Ivor Morgan, Huw's eldest brother, marries Bronwen, sides with the father against the strike, defends Angharad against Iestyn Evans' initial familiarity.