Rating: 
Summary: Tortured and Tortuous
Review: On the fiesta Day of Death in Mexico, Geoffrey Firmin, ex-consul, ex-husband, confirmed alcoholic and self-ruined man, is living out the last twelve hours of his life.As his younger brother, Hugh, and his former wife, Yvonne, stand by, powerless to help, Firmin drowns himself in a sea of beer, tequila, mescal and self-pity. The Day of Death (All Souls Day) is one of the Catholic holidays with decidedly pagan influences which defines the peculiarly baroque Christian spiritual culture of Mexico. Its symbolism digs into the very soil where the dead are lying, not consolingly, but with a brutal irony, for on this day, the dead hunger and thirst as the living do, but much more intensely, much like the unquenchable thirst of an alcoholic. The fiesta Day of Death is the perfect backdrop against which to set one man's agonized journey towards Calvary, if indeed, the final deterioration of a drunk can be termed as such. Lowry certainly wrenches terror from the bowels of hell in his description of Firmin's DTs, hallucinations and distortions extraordinaire. However, the book, like its main character, lacks a certain stability and coherence; on this, the Day of Death, the environment itself, not to mention Geoffrey Firmin, are hurtling towards destruction, violently out of control. In telling the story of Geoffrey Firmin, Malcolm Lowry imposed upon himself a twelve hour time frame (shorter even, than the time span Joyce allowed himself for Ulysses). In such a condensed time scale, the leisurely, orderly and coherent unfolding of plot, not to mention character development, can present an enormous problem. Lowry regarded each of the book's twelve chapters as a free-standing, almost poetic, structure with both verbal and symbolic coherence, belonging to one of the book's four main characters. As such, they feel geometric, perhaps even decadent, rather than dramatic. Lowry included passages from his own poems and from part of the Dantesque trilogy, The Voyage that Never Ends, which he did not complete. Although the book can be (and almost always is) tortured and tortuous, Lowry did write in emphatically rhythmic prose. Many of the sentences are extraordinarily taxing to read, for example, the long, convoluted sentence that opens Chapter Three. Several of the novels passages are even more twisting and painful. This is not the fussy elaboration of Henry James whose longest sentences still manage to retain contact with the speaking and feeling voice of each character. Lowry instead, uses syntax as architecture. Despite the prosody, Under the Volcano is not written in conventional, horizontal "flow," but in balanced, vertical units, stilled in time. Much of what Lowry employs in Under the Volcano is unnatural in the novel: the long iambic runs, the elaborate time-schemes, switchbacks and gradual bits and pieces of information that cause the book to finally make sense. Under the Volcano endures precisely because of its tortured and tortuous writing style. Lowry, like Theseus, used this one twisted thread to find his was out of the labyrinth. The language employed, with its root system of symbolic connections and counter-references, its constancy of tone, all contribute to the final weight of the book. Lowery seems to have endowed his book with as much organized complexity as that of his principal characters. From the first page, Under the Volcano has a definitely "static" feel, no doubt due to the static being of its main character. Geoffrey Firmin is not engaged in a battle with alcoholism; he has already surrendered and is simply awaiting the inevitable. For Geoffrey Firmin, there is no epiphany, no moment of recognition. The whole book is really one long dénouement. And therein lies the book's genius. Lowry was able to reconcile a supremely static character with a supremely static writing style requiring enormous concentration and effort. The problem is, Lowry needed to tell us so much more than we needed to know. For Lowry, the creation of Under the Volcano was no doubt compelling and purgative; and, although the book has definitely attained a "cult classic" status, for the vast majority of intelligent readers, it has proven to be far less required.
Rating: 
Summary: The tragedy of a man in the 20th century
Review: Suddenly with a gun or slowly using other means, including alcohol, why does a man(I use the term generically) self-destruct?. Why was there virtually no suicides among occupants of Nazi concentration camps? Camus asserted there was only one important philosophical question and that was suicide. The protagonist in UNDER THE VOLCANO, Geoffrey Firmin ponders " Why am I here, says the silence, what have I done, echoes the emptiness, why have I ruined myself ....................." (p342) Suffused with superstition, mystery, bizarre activities set on the Day of the Dead in Mexico at the foot of a Volcano, with echoes of guitar music, and dead dogs, images reminiscent of an hallucinatory carnival from Alice in Wonderland, colour, horror, sounds, this is a novel rich in atmosphere. " A sound like windbells, a ghostly tintinnabulation reached their ears."(p324) "Three black vultures came tearing through the trees low over the roof with soft hoarse cries like the cries of love." p151 And telling and true insights like " It's amazing when you come to think of it how the spirit seems to blossom in the shadow of the ABBATTOIR".P91 A profoundly moving novel which must rank as one of the great novels of the 20th century so well is it crafted and so telling its story.
Rating:
Summary: Coming to terms with the devil
Review: Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano" can reasonably be called a masterpiece, for whatever that term is really worth. At least it shows my own prejudice in favour of a novel which is probably out of favour today, and not sufficiently read by a new generation in search of, or besieged by, a devil within. A novel that can be read on many levels, it also contains pungent writing that carries the odours of a world that has been all but banished from North America today. It is, if you like, an unclean world, in which much is to be expected, little obtained. Whether from the religious rites, with all their devotions and ecstasies, or the characters who are more familiar to us (and who are sometimes smiling shyly to us from the edges of other novels by Graham Greene or Gabriel Garcia Marquez), much is promised, little given. But, as for the characters themselves, the disappointment that may greet us is only transitory, leaving us to march the march of faith on our own terms, and carry whatever remnant of the garment of civilisation we have managed to save to the last, on our voyage into the heart of this epic novel. And there lies its great strength; it is a novel with a beating, living, enervating heart and those who remain for the journey will surely be marked by it, as by all literature of this calibre.
Rating:
Summary: One of the top 100 novels in all literature!
Review: Has anyone taken the time to delve into the abyss of Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano"? Is it more than the best account of dipsomania in literature? Or is it a somewhat timed portrayal of sick 1920's and 30's Mexico and Europe, a modern anti-hero and the breakdown of values akin to "Ulysses" and "Wasteland"? I read it as a tragedy of disintegration and despair with some very lucid brilliance shining through. The scholars have a good reason to call "Ulysses" the greatest novel of the twentieth century. I didn't get past page 200 and Molly's soliloquy on first attempt either despite good guides. With material like this there's probably no harm in seeing a serious film adaptation to get at least at the plot surface. A university professor once invited her Joyce seminar class to her house in Berkeley to show us a very old black and white "Ulyssses" film. It was terrific. We all enjoyed it. John Huston's "Volcano" is more of a loving tribure to the novel than anything else. After having spent months on the book I looked forward to seeing what Huston would do with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Volcano exudes much smoke, little lava
Review: The first time I ever went to the movies, Bambi's mother said, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." While that may be a national dictum here in America, it's not particularly helpful when writing book reviews. Readers of this review may feel that I'm too negative, too critical, or just trying to "look smart", but what to say when you really don't like a book ? I think I could write two reviews of UNDER THE VOLCANO. The first would be for people under 30 who haven't read a lot of "great" literature. For such readers, especially if they are interested in the wandering thought swirls of people under the influence of great amounts of alcohol, this could be a decent novel of the 4 star variety. There are certainly some brilliant passages. The concept is unusual, the small-town Mexican setting vividly portrayed. These readers can pick up (or get impressed by) large numbers of extremely rare words in the English language--reboant, tabid, winze, floriferous, plangently, crepuscular, imbricated, lithurge, syncope, etc.---as well as numerous passages which will test their knowledge of Spanish, French, or German. When you are just setting sail on the great ocean of literature, a book like this might prove a thrilling ride, so maybe you should give it a try. Read another review or two. If you are over 30 or have read a good amount of "classical" literature, then I have to warn you, Lowry's novel reads like F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway in writing school---before they learned how to cut things down. Joyce and Faulkner got away with run-on sentences containing clauses that had absolutely nothing to do with the original topic, and that can be effective in anyone's work, but Lowry ain't no Joyce or Faulkner. It's a very youthful book, despairing youth perhaps, youth overshadowed by a coming war, by the futility of action at such a time, but youth nonetheless. Though adults, the characters resemble youth too much. They lack a certain resigned cynicism or sense of irony, they are still sincere, ill-focussed, and petulant about the past. Finally, this book lacks much of a plot. The "action" takes place in the last third of the book only. I grew tired of messing about in the minds of Hugh and Geoffrey. It may be, as people say, a novel about the breakdown of values in the 1930s and '40s, but it is most of all a work that needed refining, a work that attempted to be too much, that lost its way in the flood of words.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest novels of the 20th century
Review: This is the only book by Malcolm Lowry that is worth reading, but it is truly a masterpiece of 20th century fiction. It is an agonizingly intense story told with the most richly textured writing I have ever read. However, it is not an easy book. The subject is harrowing and the mood is very dark and existential. To anyone who admires this book, I would suggest renting a copy of the National Film Board of Canada documentary about Malcolm Lowry entitled "Volcano-an enquiry into the life and death of Malcolm Lowry." It captures the essence of the man and his masterpiece far, far better than the shallow Hollywood fiilm with Albert Finney. In the NFB film, there are excerpts from the book read by Richard Burton who is brilliant at evoking Geoffrey Firmin's mocking and self-mocking tone.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books of all time.
Review: Under the Volcano is an amazing novel of despair with some of the most stunning and evocative writing I had ever read. The novel charts a single day in the life of an alcoholic consul in Mexico who is beyond believing in the redemption of life, love or religion. The pace of the novel fits perfectly with its content, slowly tracing the unsteady steps of this incredibly insightful man. I was amazed by the beautiful writing and was transported by its vivid imagery. Stay with this book...it will stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully descriptive, textured text
Review: It's reviews like the below one-star review that compel me to write my own reviews. This is a fantastic, marvelous book. It maintains a wonderfully descriptive nature, and there is a lot of fantastic symbolism under the volcano you have to be sharp about. I'd suggest giving it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Very Slow......
Review: Positives: Lowry writes a very good insight about an alcoholic's existence. Also the descriptions of the scenery make me want to travel to Mexico and view it myself. Negatives: I found myself begging the book to end from the halfway point. Too much imagery and not enough substance to the story. You better be up on your Spanish too.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 20th century's most outstanding novels.
Review: This novel should be considered as one of th 20th century's greatest works of literature and ranks alongside T.S.Eliot's "The Wasteland" in its power to display despair and redemption. Set in 1930's Mexico, it portrays the last day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, British consul, failure, perpetual drunk. Within the chaotic and tortured mind of an alcoholic, Lowry journeys into a landscape that is both perfectly rendered and utterly terrifying. Read Under the Volcano and die.
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