Customer Reviews

Under The Volcano: A Novel

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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 [[..]

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."
- Malcolm Lowry to his publisher Jonathan Cape, January 2, 1946

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.

Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano" is one of the best books I've read in a while. Published in 1947, it's today considered by many (and recently, myself) to be one of the greatest novels written in the English language; Lowry combines elegant poetic prose, first-hand perspectives, and cultured differences to present a mastery of celestial writing in what I found to be a quick read.

To give a brief synopsis; a self-deposed Consul living in Mexico becomes an alcholic, and is ignorant to his cheating wife and two-faced friends. This much is assumed when the story starts---it picks up from a point where his wife who has left him returns to Mexico in hopes of pulling him out of his dilemma that he can't do on his own. The whole book takes place on Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, a Latin holiday when all give respect to friends/family/people who have died), 1938, in a town shadowed by two volcanos.

"Under the Volcano" is by no means an action book, although it is one of the quicker reads I've had in a while. To quote the afterword given, it is a book that "addresses universal values of love, individual integrity, faith, and brotherhood," while at the same time enveloping the reader in a story that cannot be put down.

Some previous reviewers mentioned that the style of writing was difficult to understand. Certain aspects can complicate, but by no means impede, comprehension of his writing. For instance, since the story takes place in Latin America, there is a lot of Spanish used. Being multilingual helps, but I found that had I not understood Spanish, the general idea would have still been portrayed. Then there is also the occasional lack of punctuation, which signifies the "voices" in the Consul's alcoholic psyche. When reading these excerpts, you can find that it not only makes sense, but sheds light on an area that none of us would have been able to understand had we not read it from someone who has experienced these things first hand.

As for the actual book, it's quite well put together. It has an attractive cover, an informative introduction and afterword, and an easy to read typeface (I read it in a weekend). One thing that did confuse me was the constant spelling errors. As I mentioned before, there are many times when the books withdraws from normal action into a mental state where confusion in the writing is intended, but I also noticed at least 20 instances where certain words were misspelled, letters were left off, et cetera. By no means does this detract from the book, however.

Overall, this is an amazing book, and one that you should definitely purchase---it might even change your outlook on life.

Where to begin? I finished reading Under the Volcanop three months ago and I am still uncertain about my reaction. On one hand I admire the depth of the novel, but am somewhat disconcerted that it eludes me like a drunken mumble. I am excited by the characters, but I am drained by the plot.

Since I am not a moron (I hope), I can only surmise that if the book had less than a compelling effect on me, then this was due to a flaw of creation rather than to a deficiency in my ability to perceive deftly written word, poignant themes and nuanced emotions before me on the page. Thus, I will not accept that this is implicity a "brilliant" book merely because I am frightened to appear otherwise.

It is a difficult read, but one that may pay off for the reader if he/she has a tendency to behave in a self-pitying and self-destructive manner. Alcoholic impotence sufferers who have a special affinity for third world dive bars will be especially pleased with a reading. Symbolism about fascism and the coming war in Europe is as graceful and insightful as a patriotic musical written by Soviet copyboys.

I also caution the would-be reader that reading this may induce at least one ill-fated experiment with the rough beast of Mescal. Enjoy and bring napkins.

Under the Volcano is one of the towering literary achievements of the 20th century. It is what Ulysses would be if Joyce had been capable of expressing his emotions. Set in Mexico against the backdrop of that country's Day of the Dead Festival, Malcolm Lowry's work focuses on one day--the last day--in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a man whose past--a past about which we learn very little--has led him to torture both himself and the people who love him through acute alcoholism and by hermetically sealing himself off from human contact. He is a man who set out in his life to make a difference and finds himself in a Hell of his own making instead. This book is complex, containing numerous references and parallels to Dante's Inferno and to the Bible and to God only knows what other heady books, but it is surprisingly fast-paced. The characters and their respective fates will haunt you long after you've put the book down. Don't ignore this neglected masterpiece. Also recommended: I, Claudius by Robert Graves, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

I think this work is a real masterpiece; poignant, dark, strange, rich and even very humourous sometimes. It is not an easy read (especially for me it wasn't because my native language is Dutch and not English) but give it some time, read it carefully and then I think you will enjoy it. It's a multi-layered and rich book so it might help/be intersting to read some secondary literature on it.
So: take some time and explore this treasure.

NB: it seems that this edition is not very good. I don't have it but I read some complaints in a customer review about typographic errors on nearly every page. The Pinguin edition is excellent so maybe try to get a copy of that one, inspite of the fact that it's hard to get or even out of print.

Through his stream of conciousness prose, Malcolm Lowry does a great job of getting inside the head of a hopeless alcoholic, British ex-consul Geoffrey Firmin. That and the vivid backdrop of a fictitious Mexican town in the 1930's made this a great read. It was amazing to so vividly experience the insanity of alcoholism. Lowry struck home on the utter confusion associated with being a black-out drunk, whether it be confusion in terms of one's sense of time and place and sequence of events, or the utter self-delusion of one's importance and place in the universe. All this was achieved by Lowry's very "abstract" and fractured writing style, through which he created the extremely amazing, complicated and intriguing character of Geoffrey Firmin. Lowry definitely wrote from experience. The book only gets 4 stars because two of the three main characters (Hugh and Yvonne) were a little one-dimensional for me, and I didn't really get into the book until about halfway through. But it is definitely well worth the effort and was well-deservingly included among the Modern Library's Top 100 novels of the 20th Century.

This books deals brilliantly with the self-destruction of consul Geoffrey Firman through excessive drinking and clinical depression; it takes place in the space of one day, and in this regard is similar to Joyce. The denouemnet is expected and indeed necessary to allow the novel its circular structure. Along with CAMUS. a great existential ovel; no one is writing existential novels any more --just trash. The book oprates on many levels; the haunting symbolism and fabulous interweaving of plot lines is wonderful. All of the characters, indeed the book itself, oprates on a literal, metaphorical, symbolic, and cosmological level. The only authors who can come close to matching Lowry are the great Russian writers, particularly Dostoevsky. Don't bother with Mr. Lowry's other novels; this was his one GREAT work, and that's all he had in him. The paperb ack edition is o.k., but I like hardcovr.Shell out a few dollars for the first edtion, if you can afford it; rather pricy, but well worth it.

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Sorry, that was me banging my head against the keyboard. This was a painful book to read. The person who wrote the afterword claims to have read Under The Volcano more than 30 times, each time more and more pleasurable. Perhaps there are people out there like that, but my guess is that the average reader is not one of them. This is certainly great literature - don't get me wrong - but I wouldn't consider it eminently readable. It's a classic in the tradition of James Joyce - the kind of book that you have to work at, sometimes struggle with, in order to enjoy.

And it's not just the prose that is a chore at times, with its frequent meanderings and obscure literary references. The subject matter is difficult, also. Geoffrey, our main character, is searching for his identity and salvation amongst a thousand empty and broken bottles. He is so far lost in alcoholism that he has to drink himself sober each day simply to survive. So in a very real sense, his daily survival depends on his perpetuating an addiction that is not-so-slowly killing him. He is dsyfunctional in every sense of the word - physically, socially, emotionally. And his wife, Yvonne, and brother, Hugh, accompany him on this day-long journey which seems certainly headed for destruction, at times appearing to help him, at other times doing little more than enabling his drinking problem.

If you're going to give this book a try, be patient with it. Give it your full attention, read it closely and carefully, and don't expect the words to just jump off the page. You'll need to roll up your sleeves and go in there after each sentence, each paragraph, wrestle with them, and drag them out. If you do, this can be a satisfying read. But if you approach it casually, you could end up just staring at 300 pages of words that give you little satisfaction in the end.