Under the Volcano

Rating:
Summary: Mexico sensed through the skin and released in words
Review: I put this book down last year dismayed by the hero's disintegration but when I picked it up again last month, I was caught as I have hardly ever been in reading fiction. I have never known why anyone would try to write a novel. Now I do. Lowry may not have been the most disciplined writer but he is one of the most interesting I have ever read, whether we're talking about his consciousness of the English language, his sensed experience of Mexico, or his understanding of the erratic but fascinating course of the mind. I didn't expect to like a book about a financially well-off male expatriate but I'm fortunate that I wasn't put off by those traits. I'm sure I will reread parts of this wonderful novel many times.

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Summary: Day of the Dead
Review: Geoffrey Firmin, the protagonist of "Under the Volcano," is the most convincing drunk I've encountered in literature, but the book isn't even about his drinking; his alcoholism is the symptom, not the disease. The disease is his self-isolation, his inability to give and accept love, and, in broader scope, the world's increasing chaos and man's dehumanization over the course of the first half of the twentieth century.

Firmin is the British Consul of Quauhnahuac, a town in southern Mexico deep in the heart of volcanic mountain ranges and the remnants of ancient Indian civilizations. The novel recounts the events on the last day of Firmin's life, which happens to be the festive Day of the Dead in 1938. England has recently severed its diplomatic ties with Mexico and is recalling all their consuls, so he has no reason to stay except to drink his life away in the town's many cantinas.

Firmin's excessive drinking has caused his wife Yvonne, a former movie actress, to leave him, but she still loves him and has come back to town hopefully to take him away and save his life. Her timing is not perfect because Firmin's half-brother Hugh, a failed songwriter, international drifter, and now a journalist of sorts, is currently living with him, and we learn that there is a certain amount of attraction between Hugh and Yvonne. Also residing in town are Firmin's childhood friend Jacques Laruelle, a film director, and the solicitous Dr. Vigil, who try to help Firmin stabilize his life.

The novel's heavy use of symbolism turns this seemingly ordinary day into a kaleidoscopic series of sights, sounds, and images. Firmin, Yvonne, and Hugh's activities throughout the day are narrated as though building to an ominous crescendo of fate: the decor in Laruelle's house, the Peter Lorre movie, the upside-down ride on the "Infernal Machine" at the festival, the dying Indian on the side of the road, the rodeo -- everything seems to be a signpost guiding Firmin, who is too far past the redemption offered by the angelic Yvonne, to his ugly ultimate destiny.

Although to an extent the novel reflects Lowry's disillusionment with Mexico's European-influenced political climate, he has an obvious love of the scenery and the native cultures; Quauhnahuac is described so beautifully and vividly, it's practically a character in itself -- a living, vital part of the story. Using some stream-of-consciousness narration, shifting focus, and internal monlogues, the novel's style is almost impressionistic and adds to its complexity, making it a work of unusual distinction and affirming Lowry as an absolutely stunning writer.

Rating:
Summary: flawed masterpiece
Review: One thing people have not been pointing out about this version of the book is its poor proof reading. There are dozens of typographical errors. In a book like this where the language is such a crucial part of the book, each error is like getting kicked it the gut, it takes a while to get back into the wonderful flow of the narriative. I will let the reviews of the others speak for this book's value as literature, but a through scrubbing of the text is in order to not flaw such a work of art.

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Summary: Haunting rollercoaster ride
Review: The ultimate alcoholic novel, with great language and a memorable location and leading "hero" if you can call a wandering near madman a hero. Gets inside the mind of a drunk very realistically, since perhaps, Lowry wrote many of the passages under the influence himself. Another work to take your time with and savor every drop, sort of like enjoying, well, a good glass of your favorite liquor. Not for the impatient or hard to please reader. There's a reason some books remain classics.

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Summary: a bleak, desolate, entirely mournful novel
Review: This is epic tragedy over a period of a few days. Malcolm Lowry was possibly one of the greatest writers of the 20th century--who knows? He wound up similar to the main character of this novel, who wanders around Mexico remembering that his ex-wife once loved him as he awaits her showing up with her new fella to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Now of course our guy's a drunk: a washed away wastrel who had once quite probably been on the verge of being an important man. Busted romance created side-tracks and then sent him over the edge of concern and into a void of emptiness and giving him an increasing desire to taste death.

The action is sparse and is related in a rambling, poetic language that gracefully lifts these sorrowful musings of a drunken failure into a fascinating insight into the very nature of self-destruction.

One of the best books I have ever read.

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Summary: All the more surprising then was it form him to discovery
Review: I really can't complain enough about the editing of the Harper Perennial edition of this book. As you get near the center of the novel, typos, dropped letters, misspelled and lost words just start to multiply. The title above is just a portion of a sentence I found on page 168, which reads, in its entirety, "All the more surprising then was it form him to discovery it his duty each day to heave vast quantities of this miraculous food over the side." I think vast quantities of the NOVEL have been heaved over the side. Something happened. Whoever did the editing job was either asleep or angry, since the book reads like the task was performed either as an act of somnambulism or willful revenge. (Thankfully I have an older copy to consult when things get hazy.)

That said, Under the Volcano is an otherwise extraordinary book. Just find yourself an old Penguin edition at your local used bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: Under the Volcano
Review: Malcolm Lowry's allegorical novel, Under the Volcano, is a masterpiece of self-examination, self-absorption and self-pity. Lowry follows the final day in the life of a brilliant but dipsomaniacal ambassador, Geoffrey Firmin, as he deliberately sets out to commit suicide by drinking himself into oblivion. Through Lowry's stream-of-consciousness narration, the reader participates in the internal struggles of each of the main characters in excruciating detail, including the protagonist's delirium tremens and overwhelming need for drink. Gradually, it dawns upon the reader that this book is much more than a depiction of extreme alcoholism; it is, in part, a commentary upon a world on the verge of war, about to self-destruct. It is also a spiritual lesson in the efficacy of love and forgiveness. It is a multi-layered maze of allusions which becomes more absorbing and fascinating with each reading.

Rating:
Summary: Nauseating
Review: Bad is too mild a word to define Under the Volcano; brutal would suit it better. The fact is, the book is a good idea gone terribly wrong - as many other "important" works of literature. From the very beginning there's a sense of impending doom, but not as in a Thomas Hardy novel, for, in Under the Volcano, though you know something bad's going to happen, the book is so freakin' boring that you don't really care to read on in order to find out what it is that's going to happen - as you probably would with Hardy. And, besides, you probably wouldn't care to finish the book simply because of the fact that you already know what the hell is going to happen; the introduction, the preface, the postface, the prologue, the epilogue, the forward, the afterward, the abstracts, the acknowledgments, the dedication, the excerpt on the back cover all tell you what is going to happen. Of course, I exaggerate - but you get the picture. Can't the book itself unfold its events?

The man obviously has a mastery over the English vernacular but he just doesn't use it to any effect. And that's lamentable, because really all these fancy words mean nothing when there is absolutely no rhetorics to hang on to. There is little of poetry in this book and even littler of entertainment. The book is dull, slow-witted and slow-motioned - for that's how it seems everything in the book occurs, in slow motion. The characters - these Hemingway-ian animals - are teeming with tedium, to coin a term. And the one character who is SLIGHTLY interesting, the Frenchman Laruelle, seldom appears in the story. All these things make me question the credibility of most of these reviewers hailing the book a masterpiece. I guess sometimes a book's standing in literature renders the reader's opinion without any consideration of the book itself.

There should be a number of editions of this book in circulation, but I would perhaps argue that the Perennial Classics edition is the most popular, it being the first one to come up on the Amazon search and all. Nevertheless, it was the edition I read and I must therefore assert that it was one of the most disgraceful jobs of editing I have seen. There is, no kidding, a minimum of twenty misspelled words. It makes you wonder if this isn't actually the rough draft of Under the Volcano, mistakenly printed and never recalled.

Rating:
Summary: Pass the Gin Bottle
Review: Over-written, self-indulgent, solipsistic, this is still one of the great novels. It's a very English book, written by an Englishman who spent most of his life on the run from the place, and an American reader might find it a bit odd. It's about a man being eaten alive by his demons, and destroyed by them, burnt up and tossed away. Those demons include drink and love, mainly, but aometimes I think that the thing that really destroys Geoffrey Firmin, that prevents him from moving on and that prevents him from escaping and letting go, is that weird notion of duty, that sense that an Englishman has responsibilities to the rest of the world that cannot be avoided. Geoffrey cannot do anything, but neither can he run. Not for nothing do we see Geoffrey half the time through the eyes of others - Americans, Mexicans, French, and his brother Hugh, who seems to symbolise the new, post-imperial Britain, naive and childlike.

Firmin is the man torn between two poles - the ide!a of Empire (look out for Jacques' remark about Geoffrey never ceasing to believe in it - he is, after all, the ex-consul!), and the idea of Tolstoy - his speech to Hugh about not playing God with small countries applies as much to Mexico as Spain, and indeed to the Empire itself.

So, sitting on his bar stool under the volcano, all Firmin can do is defiantly raise his glass to the world - and all we can do is join him, as the tears trickle down our face.

Rating:
Summary: Under the Volcano
Review: Under the Volcano follows the last day of an ex-Consul named Geoffry Firmin in the town of Quauhnahuac, Mexico. The novel slowly lays out the events that have led up to the current time in the book by entering the thoughts of the main characters Geoffry Firmin, Yvonne Firmin, and Hugh Firmin. The detail that Lowry uses to create such a clear picture of everything surrounding Geoffry Firmin is impeccable and brings the story alive. The emotion that the characters are feeling throughout the novel is so moving that at times you find yourself hating Geoffry for his drinking problem while at others you feel sympathetic towards him and his struggle to do the right thing. The novel is not bogged down with boring insights into the characters minds, but instead looking into their thoughts helps portrary the conflicting feelings that each has for the others. Definately a recommended read as it is a touching account of one mans struggle to come to grips with reality and try to overcome his alcoholism while making peace with himself and those around him.