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The Valley
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 18, 2021
3.0 stars.
Moderately entertaining story set in a valley in rural mid-Wales.
We meet a number of characters from the region - a gossiping postman, two couples with relationship problems, a philandering bank manager, among others.
There are also the newcomers to the region, including a progressive nudist couple from Manchester getting back to nature, and a young business man with plenty of money who buys a decaying mansion in the area.
There is no one concrete plot, but 32 chapters which one reviewer called set pieces - or vignettes that have a connection to each other. Life in this rustic area of Wales is satirized and it concentrates on how differently things are done in this rural area to the busier urban world outside.
Life is slow here, everyone's "private" affairs are everyone else's business, and for newcomers to the region, it's very difficult to get quick service on anything, especially if you have bought a rustic home that desperately needs renovation, home improvements-a-plenty in order to make it a comfortable place to live in.
The novel concentrates on things in a rural community that seem trivial to most observers from the outside looking in, as well as some more pressing issues - like the local cathedral that is about to topple over, sink and fall into the nearby river.
How well will outsiders fare in this rural abode? Will they succeed in establishing a happy new life there, or give up and go back home?
The book was fast moving, and occasionally amusing, but I felt it could have been better.
The author's prose could be, for want of better terms, a bit labored/verbose at times. There was the propensity to use "fancy" words, and while reading the book's first half, I would keep a dictionary at hand and sometimes look up something unfamiliar to me. If the dictionary couldn't help, I'd go to the computer and Google it. For a simple story such as this, it's best to keep the prose simple, I think.
But having said all that, it's still a light, entertaining read. The author has fun comparing the tight-knit locals with their set ways, their narrow range of interests, to the outsiders who go there thinking they have found a rural idyll, but then find life there not quite as easy and comfortable as they originally hoped. The author knows the country he is writing about, with its rainy stormy climate, and lovely views. If you're in lockdown, you could do worse than to read a book like this.
Moderately entertaining story set in a valley in rural mid-Wales.
We meet a number of characters from the region - a gossiping postman, two couples with relationship problems, a philandering bank manager, among others.
There are also the newcomers to the region, including a progressive nudist couple from Manchester getting back to nature, and a young business man with plenty of money who buys a decaying mansion in the area.
There is no one concrete plot, but 32 chapters which one reviewer called set pieces - or vignettes that have a connection to each other. Life in this rustic area of Wales is satirized and it concentrates on how differently things are done in this rural area to the busier urban world outside.
Life is slow here, everyone's "private" affairs are everyone else's business, and for newcomers to the region, it's very difficult to get quick service on anything, especially if you have bought a rustic home that desperately needs renovation, home improvements-a-plenty in order to make it a comfortable place to live in.
The novel concentrates on things in a rural community that seem trivial to most observers from the outside looking in, as well as some more pressing issues - like the local cathedral that is about to topple over, sink and fall into the nearby river.
How well will outsiders fare in this rural abode? Will they succeed in establishing a happy new life there, or give up and go back home?
The book was fast moving, and occasionally amusing, but I felt it could have been better.
The author's prose could be, for want of better terms, a bit labored/verbose at times. There was the propensity to use "fancy" words, and while reading the book's first half, I would keep a dictionary at hand and sometimes look up something unfamiliar to me. If the dictionary couldn't help, I'd go to the computer and Google it. For a simple story such as this, it's best to keep the prose simple, I think.
But having said all that, it's still a light, entertaining read. The author has fun comparing the tight-knit locals with their set ways, their narrow range of interests, to the outsiders who go there thinking they have found a rural idyll, but then find life there not quite as easy and comfortable as they originally hoped. The author knows the country he is writing about, with its rainy stormy climate, and lovely views. If you're in lockdown, you could do worse than to read a book like this.
March 29, 2026
This is dreadful. I am quitting at page 86. Apparently this is set in Wales in the 80s and according to the quotes on the cover (which you should never trust) it's a hoot and laugh out loud.
Hmmm.
There is no sense of time or place or even plot. What is the point of this? So many characters who are clichés and cardboard cut outs. Maybe this is a description of a sitcom and with settings and good actors it could become something but as a book it is intensely dull.
Really don't care where he was trying to take this. I am quitting.
Hmmm.
There is no sense of time or place or even plot. What is the point of this? So many characters who are clichés and cardboard cut outs. Maybe this is a description of a sitcom and with settings and good actors it could become something but as a book it is intensely dull.
Really don't care where he was trying to take this. I am quitting.
September 13, 2017
Enjoyed immensely. May be biased as live in a place that could be the basis for some of the characters and the setting. Laughed a lot:)
August 13, 2023
Some bits were amusing and if I had been to wales I guess I would’ve appreciated it more but sadly mostly it was a bit boring
February 2, 2025
Dry and witty, very funny. I often had a hard time remembering who all the characters were but I enjoyed it all the same.
June 12, 2022
After experiencing little Welsh towns and villages for a couple of days, very entertaining. :) Thanks to the bookshelves at Bala Backpackers Hostel!
January 12, 2009
On the plus side, this is a quite funny book, with a couple of brilliant set pieces - the antique collector taking a table from a recent widow who is using the table to rest her dead husbands body and the farmer finding his wife in sexual union with the bank manager. However, it really is a collection of set pieces that are revealed chapter on chapter.
It tells the stories of local characters in the nant valley. Starts with the post man finding a suicide but getting into trouble with his superiors for not working effectiently. We also have new money, old money, grumpy landlords, artistic types getting back to nature and a falling down church.
Read it for the laughs, like a slightly superior sit com that you will enjoy at the time but struggle to remember a week later.
It tells the stories of local characters in the nant valley. Starts with the post man finding a suicide but getting into trouble with his superiors for not working effectiently. We also have new money, old money, grumpy landlords, artistic types getting back to nature and a falling down church.
Read it for the laughs, like a slightly superior sit com that you will enjoy at the time but struggle to remember a week later.
August 24, 2012
What a quirky and wonderful little book. It's all about life in a small Welsh valley during the 1980's and rang perfectly true to me - hey,I should know I've been a valley's boy myself.It is on times laugh out loud funny in places and tenderly touching in others. The fact that it hasn't got a plot in the conventional sense makes it reminiscent in parts of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood but filtered through the lens of an Ealing comedY.the narrative is much more modern in style and the characters and well explored.There are one or two stereotypes but I read this book straight through with a smile on my face. What can be better than that?
May 13, 2015
I didn't hate this book, but it didn't impress me. I've given it two stars because I normally only give one-star ratings to books I truly disliked, and there was nothing about this that I actively hated. I just didn't enjoy it or care for any of the characters. It has a nice cover, though.
January 9, 2011
I am wondering whether Barry Pilton was living secretly in my garden shed, as his observation of Mid Walian life is sharp to the point of blood-letting - and an absolute hoot!
March 23, 2012
The book is about the general lifestyle of the people of a small Welsh community trying to cope with the migrants who typically have their own ideas on the country life.
May 3, 2016
Too much explaining, not telling the story, gave up after about 50 pages
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews