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Review
"The book obviously belongs with the most original and creative novels of our time." -- --Alfred Kazin --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead, 1938—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.
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Two mountain chains traverse the republic roughly from north to south, forming between them a number of valleys and plateaus. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating author,
By
This review is from: Under The Volcano: A Novel (Paperback)
This is the kind of book that you either love or hate. There are already tons of reviews on this site about the book itself from both camps, but if you want to learn more about the author, Malcolm Lowry, the National Film Board of Canada has a fascinating documentary about him called Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. It's available for (free and legal) viewing online at NFB.ca [[..]
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The free will of man is unconquerable.",
By
This review is from: Under The Volcano (Paperback)
Under the Volcano represents the ultimate oxymoron: a fun classic. For those who enjoy stellar, if not unpredictable, imagery and use of literary tools to the hilt, this book will energize you. Conversely, for those who are just looking for an engrossing read, this book fits the mold as well. Lowry, in what is still a truly seminal and novel approach, employs an amazingly diverse array of literary elements in a semi-autobiographical manner that make the read more rewarding for the more serious reader. In the first chapter, which begins on the fittingly gloomy Day of the Dead in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, Lowry immediately sets the tone of the entire novel as we encounter our anti-hero, The Consul, in a perpetual drunken stupor. Chapter 2 begins, oddly enough, on the same day -- one year later in 1939. For the remainder of the book, one follows in the wobbly footsteps of the drunken Consul for what amounts to be 12 hours. The reader is led on a meandering, if not convoluted, path between lucid sobriety and hazy drunkenness, between the past and the present, & between an ominous and foreboding sense of impending doom to a renewed feeling of hope -- all in an extraordinarily masterful way. For those who discount this book as simply "a book about a drunk," you do nothing more than flaunt your ignorance; it is, instead, a book that speaks uniquely of the human condition, free will, remorse, reconciliation, duplicity, and the duality of despondency and hope. "The novel can be read simply as a story which you can skip if you want. It can be read as a story you will get more out of if you don't skip. It can be regarded as a kind of symphony, or in another way as a kind of opera--or even a horse opera. It is hot music, a poem, a song, a comedy, a farce, and so forth. It is superficial, profound, entertaining, and boring, according to taste. It is a prophecy, a political warning, a cryptogram, a preposterous movie."
4.0 out of 5 stars
Joyce on mescal,
By A Customer
This review is from: Under The Volcano (Paperback)
This is a difficult book to read, and in the first 50 pages or so I didn't think it was too interesting. But after a while you start getting into the drunken mumbling and you start enjoying it. I did, anyway. The book is a labour of love, and I think every idea the writer has ever had has found its way into the book, . There are certainly aspects about the book I didn't get (I have a limited intellectual background) but the overall experience of reading this book was pleasant and inspiring. The mescal, the atmosphere, lost love, failure, selfloathing,...I've read a review from some soulless individual who says you have to be an alcoholic impotent self pitying person to enjoy this... I say you don't have to be, but it helps.... The film is also very good.
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