How Green was my Valley

The past few years have been spent reading some pretty heavy stuff. I decided to lighten it up a little and read something more modern, up to date and “pop”. I carefully chose two books that sounded promising, Where the Crawdad Sing by Delia Owens and The Horse Whisper by Nicholas Evans. Both held promise of a worthwhile read.

Both books held the potential of greatness, each in its own way. Yet both, while beautifully written with real insight, contained unnecessary gratuitous and graphic sexual descriptions. The kinds of stuff one used to have to buy from a seedy and disgusting “adult” bookstore back in the 70’s.

These incidents served no purpose to the story other than to destroy the work. All the great classic books of the past managed to relate uplifting and important issues to the reader without pornographic scenes. Two potentially great books were unnecessarily destroyed.

I’m glad we can read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, How Green was My Valley, The Yearling, O Pioneers and other great books without the filth thrown in.

Gotta give the public what they want. That's how you make money.

That's why so many Marvel movies end with a big fight around a skybeam.

I know you are correct, it's just such a sad statement of where we are as a society.

I saw that was popular in the bookshop but never got round to reading Where the crawdads sing. Wasnt a movie made of it?

Never heard of the Horse Whisper

I have read Uncle Toms Cabin which was quite a huge novel for its time back in 19th century.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a christian. It changed peoples minds regarding slavery.

Never finished How Green was My Valley...the author who wrote it apparently was not even Welsh, but the problem of coal mining is still around today (or mining of any sort) and unions are still active pushing for better working conditions...

The Yearling I would say is more of a childrens/middle grade novel. Have read and enjoyed that one.

Not read O Pioneers. But Little House on the Prairie series is worth reading..for the historical detail

A lot of adult novels do have really badly written sex scenes in them unfortunately. It can put you off reading when its like that. Danielle Steel, Jane Auel probably worst offenders lol

Blame the popularity of 50 shades of Grey., which Ive never read but the bane of bookshops and public libraries. At least the Da Vinci Code was relatively clean.

It became the thing to celebrate pornogrpahy/erotica when 50 shades of grey was published. Before that most smutty novels came with a warning on the cover, and if they were in the public library, kept in the restricted section. And if it was a Mills and Boon, it was made obvious by the cover and title what kind of content it would have.

I thought "Crawdads" had the potential to be a really phenomenal work but the explicit sex brought it down. The problem is, this was all so unnecessary. Love can be a significant part of the plot, it has been in most profound works; but it can also be included without the more base elements graphically described. Great writers have been doing this for centuries.

if you like animals, James Herriot wrote some lovely autobiographies of his life as a country veterinarian.

i recently got them as audiobooks. i can listen to them while accomplishing some small task.

Hmm, yes. I read all four of those.

They're not strictly autobiographical though. All that stuff did not really happen to him. They should be regarded as works of fiction.

no kidding? i had read he kept extensive journals about his work and the books were derived from them.

welp, you learn something new everyday, as i once read here, whether you like it or not.

Oh there was a LOT of his life in the books. But his journals were source material, not literally transcribed to the books. For example Sigfried (his boss) did not make him full partner on the day of his wedding. And although the author's own career places the events of his first two books in the second world war, he preferred those stories be set in a quieter environment so he moved the chronology a bit.

thank you, Isaac. you're a good man.

Abusive men whom women think ok as long as he is rich., thats the plot of Liane Moriartys novels pretty much

Big Little Lies anyone?

Also Gone with the Wind..Rhett Butler. He was rich and deifnitely abusive.
I dont know what Scarlett saw in him, though she was abusive to him as well.

Though mercifully the rape scene in that novel wasnt overly graphic.

I have read The horse whisperer but it was years ago. Got me from the first page. I do agree with your review tho, its the reason why I dont read romance novels, no Mills and Boon for me lol. Are the other books American classics? I tried to read To kill a mocking bird once but I found that style of writing hard to get into.

Yes, they are classics.