How Green Was My Valley. Review on How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEYby Richard Llewellyn In my childhood days, I used to see my father reading this book umpteen number of times. And I always wondered why he was not getting bored by reading the same book time and again. He, in fact, had once gone out of the city to see the movie made on this novel when he came to know that the movie was being shown in some distant city. I could never understand this. It was a few years ago when Richard Llewellyn expired, I read in the newspaper that he was the author of the book “How Green Was My Valley” and that this book was one of the bestsellers of his time. I tried to locate the book from my father’s collection of books. But could not find it. Then one day there was a movie How Green Was My Valley on a TV channel. I thought I should see the movie as I was not very fond of seeing English movies at that time. But the movie was so wonderful that I was glued to the TV Screen till the end. Then I got hold of the book and started reading it. I think this book stands the test of time as a literary classic. Set in a coal mining village in the last quarter of the 19th century, its themes of spiritual longing and soaring opposed to physical yearning and bondage are developed in a language that combines Shakespeare’s richness and Hemmingway’s freshness. The author has delighted his readers with incisive ways of observing everyday phenomena that make them seem timeless, as indeed they are. More than a good read, it feeds the soul now as it did when it would have dominated the bestseller lists in the midst of World War Two. Although John Ford’s movie based on the novel won the Oscar as best movie of 1941, and, I feel, it is still better than anything on the average evening of TV, it doesn’t share the novel’s timeless greatness. Ironically, it is like looking at the 1890’s through a glass. You get glimpses but never get transported. If you've never read it, do it now. If you have read it 40 years ago, read it again. It won't be stale. 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. 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. The book proves that ''There is no fence or hedge around time that has gone. You can go back and have what you like if you remember it well enough.'' -- from Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley. ---- Prad Ratnaparkhi 01 November 2005