The Rif Raff Book Club's September reading was Down Where the Moon is Small by Richard Llewellyn.

Down Where the Moon is Small by Richard Llewellyn

The writing of this book was pretty "old school." I don't know if it holds up over time. The subject matter was rather interesting. There was a lot of character development that fleshed out the main players. I liked the setting and the time period. It's not very often you read about native South American "Indios." The politics that affected these people's lives was an insightful commentary about the times. The best part was when the main character was drugged and dominated by the beautiful Indio Lliotro. Oh, and I liked the part about the sister dying when she got bit by the banana spider. All in all, it was a little hard to get through, but made for an interesting read.

This was somewhat of a chore to get through, but at the same time I wanted to complete it to see what happens to Huw and his family. The South American local was a surprise, as I was expecting the lush, green rolling countryside of Wales, as in How Green Was My Valley. Learning about the culture of the Indios, especially Lliutro and when she drugged and sort of held Huw captive was interesting. I did struggle somewhat with the names and had to back track to keep track of who was who, but overall, it was a good story and used symbolism and euphemisms pretty well when describing Hew's somewhat randy behavior in the sexual relations department. Today, those parts would probably read like soft porn. And the fact that he marries Lal's little big-foot, raised Indio's sister was sort of odd, given the social morays of the time, but when in Patagonia, do as the Indios do.......