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Rating: 
Summary: Capitalism a Century Ago
Review: Another famous classic by Joseph Conrad, "Nostromo" was written a century ago and is still interesting today as a comment about Latin America and foreign involvement. Conrad's tale is set in the harbor town of Sulaco in Costaguana, an imagined place in an imagined country somewhere in South America, plagued by revolutions and greed. Alongside the larger group of natives and other people of color or lower class there is a small core group of Europeans, among those the Goulds. In spite of being third generation South American Charles Gould still goes to England to find a wife. Later when he decides to develop the silver mine he inherits from his father he goes to the United States to find a rich investor. The silver mine becomes a huge success, only to become the target of political revolutionaries, and the story really begins when there is an attempted coup and takeover of the silver mine. Much attention is given to inner conflicts and tough moral choices that individuals are forced to. Detailed descriptions of both characters and settings makes this novel quite a dense reading experience, particularly the first section which contains very little dialogue and reads like a documentary. Only the final section of the novel seemed deserving of the title Nostromo, part one is about Costaguana, part two the Revolution and only in part three does the reader finally become fully acquainted with Gian' Battista, or Nostromo as he is named by the upper class of Sulaco.
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Summary: haunting allegory
Review: Another thick complex Conrad adventure has a great vivid setting and his usual playful narrative style that exposes the same story at different times through several different points of view, all which clash over the big silver mine in the center of everything, which seems to control every action in the plot. The most riveting aspects of the tale (outside the revolution and the tortured bonds between the characters) happen but briefly on the water. Comparisons to Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness are inevitable though this one stands out on its own, provided the over detailed writing doesn't off put the casual reader. Once again, as with every Conrad piece, you have to read carefully, and be on the look out for abrupt changes in time, place and thought, which he purposely intertwines to expose a larger picture: a rather effective way to unleash the English language, considering that it wasn't Conrad's original native tongue. Title character Nostromo stands out as the key tormented romantic "hero" but the rest of the abundant cast each have their dramatic moments near and around, and before and after him as well. JC weaves all their lives into the same colorful pattern. The silver mine by the time all is finished has power over each of them, a very hypnotic and manipulative symbol of greed and loss. Don Martin Decoud, next to Nostromo himself, makes an impression as the story's most heartbreaking character. He becomes the most tragic person in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: Nostromo is a novel much like War and Peace. Often seen as Conrad's greatest work, it contains clear - one might say appalling - insight into the human condition in the century that was just beginning. Conrad's father had served time in Siberia-like exile with his young family in tow, for participating in revolutionary, patriotic Polish politics. The experience had shortened his parents' lives and left Conrad an orphan at an early age, giving the writer a personal preview of what the new century was going to be like for so many others. The novelist's modern insight was not only on the political and social front but also into man's sense of identity. With Godot-like despair, Decoud, the character closest to Conrad in Nostromo, "beheld the universe as a succession of incomprehensible images." Stranded by himself for several days he becomes suicidal, realizing that "in our activity alone do we find the sustaining illusion of an independent existence as against the whole scheme of things of which we form a helpless part." At the same time it is beautifully written and is a gripping adventure - so can work on many different levels. Anyone who reads novels should read this classic. Revolution is a fertile ground for nascent ideologies, and neology is perhaps the richest algar on which emerging heroes feed upon. Costaguena is a territory existing only in the unparalleled imagination of Conrad, whose mind was perpetually stimulated by an abstract, unknown, and merely projected world. Nostromo is his instrument of oscillation; ultimately a pendulum caught in the momentum of change, he falls into the precipice that separates the glory of selfhood and the danger of vanity. From the beginning, Conrad sheds equally heavy recognition on a string of characters. Charles Gould an European capitalist trapped in his father's tragic political enmeshment, Decoud an uprooted native who dies proving his credential, and Antonio Avellanos an audacious aristocrat who carries the torch of her generation are have the protagonist make-up. But following the Greek formula, Nostromo is the true hero who fumbles into falsity because of his one défaut: hubris. The enormous vanity develops into his temptress, and in a way, Nostromo makes the conscious choice to let his incorruptible pride corrupts his morale. The fatality of Nostromo, very much like many of Conrad's protagonists, marks the inability of men, in the utmost bleakness of mental solitude, to reconcile to the goodness of nature.
Rating:
Summary: "Costaguana will always be run by butchers and tyrants."
Review: Often regarded as Conrad's masterwork, Nostromo is also Conrad's darkest novel, filled with betrayals at all levels and offering little hope for man's redemption. A novel of huge scope and political intrigue, it is also a novel in which no character actually wins. All must accept the ironies which fate has dealt them. Setting the novel in the imaginary South American country of Costaguana, the story centers around a silver mine in the mountains outside of the capital, Sulaco, vividly depicting its allure and the price each character pays for its success. When Charles Gould, returns from England to claim and reopen the rich silver mine he has inherited from his father, he has good intentions-- to provide jobs for the peasants and contribute to the economy of the town at the same time that he also profits. Soon, however, he becomes obsessed with wealth and power, and as the political climate gets hotter, he must pay off government officials, bandits, the church, and various armed revolutionaries to be able to work. Each of these groups is vividly depicted as working for its own ends and not for the good of the people, and with their goals focused on the real world, these characters have no self-awareness, nor do they develop it during the novel. In contrast to these "unrealized" humans, Conrad presents several characters who develop some self-awareness through their experiences. Nostromo, a local legend, is a man of principle who has always kept his word. Martin Decoud, a newspaper man, is a nihilist who has editorialized against the revolution, though he has yet to test himself. Dr. Monygham, captured during a past revolution, broke under torture, and is now seeking absolution by fighting against this revolution. And the good and long-suffering wife of Charles Gould, Dona Emilia, who has lost her husband to his silver mine, now devotes her life to helping others. When Nostromo agrees to protect a load of silver from revolutionaries by taking it out to sea, he takes Decoud with him, leaving him on an island with the silver when they almost sink. Decoud's reaction to his isolation, and Nostromo's reaction to the treasure that is suddenly "his," provide a dark commentary on idealism and human nature. In the conclusion, which includes a love story that feels tacked on, Conrad's darkest self is revealed, offering little hope of change and even less hope for man's redemption. Rich in atmosphere, vibrant in description, filled with characters representing all walks of life and philosophy, and set in a country where revolution is a way of life, the novel is full of dark portents and bleak political outcomes. Mary Whipple
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