How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn; narrated by Ralph Cosham | 2011; originally published 1939 | Blackstone Audio | Audiobook $ 24
As the slag from the valley’s coal-mining shifts slowly over Huw Morgan’s home, he relives his life in this once vibrant Welsh community. When the valley was still green and vibrant with life, the youngest son witnesses the events that rock his traditional family of five other brothers and two sisters.
Through Huw Morgan’s eyes, we see family members grow into adulthood and leave home, the development and death of the coal-mining industry in his valley, the laborious birth and growth of a union, the racial clash between the Welsh and the English, and his own personal experiences as he grows into manhood.
For my list for Classics Club, I wanted to have a good selection of books from non-American and non-English authors. Although Wales is part of the UK, Welsh culture is its own unique thing, and it has a long and complicated story within the greater history of Britain; so, it made sense to me to make an effort to include at least one or two books from this country on my to-read list.
However, I learned after reading that even though this book is widely considered an essential entry in the literary canon of Wales, its author somewhat misrepresented his own level of Welsh-ness. Though his parents were from that country and he served in the Welsh Guards during WWII, Richard Llewllyn was in fact from London; he never personally experienced life in the kind of coal mining village as described in this book, though he claimed to have based the story on his own upbringing.
Though this truth-fudging is annoying, I can sort of sympathize with the author’s desire to latch on to his ancestral roots as part of his identity. After all, many Americans heavily identify with the cultures of their immigrant ancestors — Chinese-Americans, Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, and so on are all groups of people with strong attachments to their national heritage, even if the actual physical removal from the homeland is multiple generations removed. For example, I enjoy imagining the lives of some of my own forebears who were Cajun, a distinct cultural group from Louisiana… but I would never consider writing a novel based on their experiences and claiming the story as my own!
Setting that disappointing author behavior aside, I will say that the story was really engaging. A really long, biography-esque novel has the potential to be a bit of a slog, but while listening to this one during my commute to and from work, I never encountered any overly boring or slow sections. I found the framing of the story — that of a man recalling his childhood and the gradual destruction of his hometown as he retrieves a few keepsakes from a family home that is soon to be demolished — to be really poignant; it cast a sense of melancholy over even the most fun or hope-focused episodes.
I will also say that the excellent narration of the audiobook added to my enjoyment of the story; the Welsh accent and vernacular was new to me, and very much appreciated.
This could be a good choice for the to-read list of anyone who is interested in stories of everyday life in a late-19th century rural village turned industrial town, or Welsh history more generally, or really anyone who’s into really long, detailed coming-of-age stories.
Links:
- Author obituary from the Washington Post
- “Welshness and Britishness: The Case of Richard Llewellyn” article from the Social History Society
Publication information: Llewellyn, Richard. How green was my valley. Ashland, Oregon: Blackstone Audio, 2011. Audiobook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
