Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics)

published	May 1st 2000 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060955228 (isbn13: 9780060955229)
pages	432
description	Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. Here the consul's debilitating malaise is drinking, and activity that ha...more [close] Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. Here the consul's debilitating malaise is drinking, and activity that has overshadowed his life. Under the Volcano is set during the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938. His wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac to rescue him and their failing marriage, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. Yvonne's mission is to save the consul is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half-brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one day unfold against a backdrop unforgettable for its evocation of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical. Under the Volcano remains one of the most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition and one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him. [close]
date added	01-07-07 edit book

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Trane rated it:

11/24/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: drunks, fantasists, modernists, beatniks, ex-pats, visionaries, wannabees

Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano is a cult piece of literature (if there can be such a thing) that I've been meaning to read for a long time. A friend's effusive praise convinced me to take the plunge, and after finishing the book I can say that the experience was one of long-drawn-out bouts of disappointment interspersed with brief, exciting, and instructive encounters with brilliance.

Part of the problem for me is that Lowry relies for a large portion of this book on the free indirect dis...more Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano is a cult piece of literature (if there can be such a thing) that I've been meaning to read for a long time. A friend's effusive praise convinced me to take the plunge, and after finishing the book I can say that the experience was one of long-drawn-out bouts of disappointment interspersed with brief, exciting, and instructive encounters with brilliance.

Part of the problem for me is that Lowry relies for a large portion of this book on the free indirect discourse of an alcoholic visionary — in other words, the reader is forced into the point of view of a delusional and confused main character who is constantly referencing Hindu mythology, Dante, the Bible, the Aztec deities, and etc., but never really makes any sense at all. It's a bit like being stuck at a bar next to a really smart guy who's been reading Carlos Castaneda and Hero of a Thousand Faces and insists on putting the two of them together as the central core of a theory of life, the universe, and everything that's centered smack in the middle of his 18th martini. I think we've all been there before, and had cause for regret.

The novel is primarily the story of Geoffrey Firmin, a former English Consul who is busy dying of alcoholism in Mexico. The central struggle of the novel is that between a transcendental idealism, on the part of Firmin (a sort of quest for Truth, with a capital T), and the deadening realities of life — including his inability to have a decent relationship with his ex-wife, his inability to write the book that will Explain It All, his own alcoholic debilitation, and the interwar rise of fascist sympathies in Mexico. Firmin's ex-wife Yvonne arrives to give him a second chance, and his half-brother Hugh, who is planning on sailing for Spain to help the Republicans fight Franco, also drops in. As you pretty much can guess from the beginning of the novel, tragedy ensues. Popular tropes include the Garden of Eden, the idea of a descent into the inferno, moments of absurdist madness, visions, and, of course, a bar that is named El Faralito (The Lighthouse).

Lowry can be a fantastic stylist when his prose doesn't get too far gone into the sodden consciousness of Firmin and there are superb jolts of perceptual clarity: "He [Firmin] was reaching the edge of the fair. Mysterious tents were shut up here, or lying collapsed, enfolded on themselves. They appeared almost human, the former kind awake, expectant; the latter with the wrinkled crumpled aspect of men asleep, but longing even in unconsciousness to stretch their limbs." That's nice, indeed. Several passages like this, where you can be given a nice perceptual jolt that really brings you inside the moment, are to be found in the sections that focus on the consciousness of Yvonne or the consciousness of Hugh. With Firmin, however, all too often we're lost in a confusion where myth, philosophy, whether it's 1924 or 1934, and whether or not he should have another drink all blend together. In fact, there are pages and pages where he agonizes over/justifies/rationalizes about the next drink. Maybe interesting if you've never known a true alcoholic, but really dreary if you have.

Okay — there are a few great sections in this book. The bull riding/fighting sequence rivals anything in Hemingway and the sequence where the bus stops and they try to help a dying peasant is unforgettable. These sections are as good as anything I've seen. But there is a lot of wading to be done to get to them. If you're a scholar of modernism, or just really like this sort of thing, then this book is definitely for you. It's an interesting book, just not for everyone. I definitely don't regret having read it, but I probably won't pick it up again.

Finally, this book has one of the most incredible final sentences of any novel I've read. It's shocking in its finitude. BUT YOU'VE GOT TO READ THE WHOLE THING TO GET THE EFFECT OF IT.

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Alex V. Cook rated it:

09/01/07

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

http://alexvcook.blogspot.com/...

Done! I took advantage of an afternoon off and finished it.

Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing book but I am glad to be done with it. Lowry has a very real-time approach to his hallucinatory sense of human suffering, so there are points when it trundles along at the speed of actual life when you want him to jut forth, cut to the chase, but he ne...more http://alexvcook.blogspot.com/...

Done! I took advantage of an afternoon off and finished it.

Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing book but I am glad to be done with it. Lowry has a very real-time approach to his hallucinatory sense of human suffering, so there are points when it trundles along at the speed of actual life when you want him to jut forth, cut to the chase, but he never does it. He makes you suffer the consequences of your voyeurism.

And it managed to surprise me in how it ended. Neither you nor the Counsul see it coming quite the way it comes. More dogs, more noseless peons, more dead and alive intermingling in darkened bars. So much of this book takes place in bars. In fact, it seems the only time we are not in a bar in this book is when we are heading to another bar. Makes you want some mezcal dribbled out from an elephantine gourd while a three-legged dog scampers around the room.

It also makes me (almost) want to see Peter Lorre's 1935 film The Hands of Orlac, since the poster of it is plastered everywhere in the town of Quauhnahuac as the characters and their triangles stumble and stagger around. Almost.

This story is not one that unfolds, it winds itself up into a tight ball and then unravels into nothing. Also, this book is barely about the characters, who in many ways are just thinly-veiled, slightly more heroic variants of those in his own biography. In that regard, its very much like the best work of Charles Bukowski and John Fante, where horrible people get a degree of elevation from the fact that they manage to persist through their own annihilation. Poetically, though, this book plays on the same fields as Ulysses (it bears many structural similarities to Ulysses) and One Hundred Years of Solitude and even Patrick Suskind's Perfume, where time and persona bends around an unseen abyss , a vacuous negative space created not only by human cruelty and indifference, but hollow romanticism and idealistic projection that are the flip sides to that same cruel, indifferent coin.

I'm glad to be done with it, but I suspect this is one of those with which I will never be really done....less

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Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 0452255562)

07/18/08

bookshelves: novels

As with all the great modernist novels, of which this is certainly one, the reading experience is exceptionally difficult and apt to be frustrating on a casual read, yet richly rewarding to an immersive read. Lowry has made the immersive read even harder to attain because the Consul--whose day-in-the-life (his last actually) this novel is about--is perfectamente borracho throughout the novel. So dipping into the passages portraying the Consul's conscious life is a slide into his slurry of...more

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Siobhan added it

04/12/08

bookshelves: gave-up-in-shame

Read in April, 2008

UPDATE: I GIVE UP.

The endless walk to the bus station! The endless portentous references to THE HANDS OF FATE! I CAN'T TAKE IT! GAHHHHHH111111!!!!!!1111!

It is taking me a long, long time to read this.

Not because it isn't good. Every time I pick it up I fall into this kind of weird, semi-amazed trance that makes me a.) wish I was drunk, b.) feel slightly drunk, and c.) feel like I haven't had a drink in years and could really use one RIGHT NOW. All at the same time. Which is n...more

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Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 0452255562)

04/07/08

Read in April, 2008

There's a thin (red) line between tragic and pathetic, and this book definitely walks it. The story concerns a day in the life of an alcoholic named Geoffrey who is, depending on your viewpoint, incredibly tragic or else absolutely pathetic. Yes, just one single day, a day which takes, in this edition, 376 long pages to describe. The writing is very good, the characters are well drawn, but unfortunately if I had to use one word to describe this book, it'd be: boring. Because the writing is so go...more

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Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

01/28/08

Read in January, 2008

I probably didn't read this book attentively enough — it requires a great deal of tab-keeping given the fabric of interwoven backstory allusions and symbolic imagery motifs — so rather than look at Lowery's shifts in perspective and chronology; his modernist incorporation of films and newspaper fragments and tattered signs and other texts; (hindsight-aided) embodiment of prewar politics in his characters and Mexican politics in his milieu; etc., I'm just going to focus on his sentences. Thos...more

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Lewis rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

11/02/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: those who drink

Having known the reputation of this book as classic of 20th Century literature and having had a friend of the author tell me how great the book is, I may have expected something different than what I got. Not that I didn't like the book. The prose, imagery, characters, and depiction of setting are first rate, and at times the idea of being a drunk expatriate in Mexico becomes appealing as an occupation. But the flaws of this work are notable, most of which I won't spoil for anyone wishing to ...more

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Adam rated it:

02/08/08

Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano is a mad prophet’s dream of rising dangers, a masterpiece of symbolism (the animal imagery, Dia de los Muertos, the Volcanoes), a great intertwining of voices (radio, letters, movie posters, remembrances), an encapsulation of the era’s political thought and literature, a surreal, hypnotic journey into the night, and a breathtakingly beautiful book; a sad, half-demented augury. The last 50 or so pages are especially worth it. One the most chilling last line...more

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2 comments

Kira rated it:

10/10/07

Read in October, 2007

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I did not finish a book and this was it. I persevered for as long as possible - after all, it has been called one of THE books of the 20th century by someone somewhere - but it was just too hardgoing. Trying to get through the writing is like trying to wade through a big vat of tar. Dense, shifting back and forth from past to present, from one character's perspective to another's, filled to the brim with deliberately obscure references, with a plo...more

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Will rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

01/25/08

This one was tough, and I'll admit that I skipped around a bit. I'm not sure that I got everything out of it that I was supposed to, either, but here's a brief run-down:

The beginning is stunningly beautiful. The setting is wonderful, as is the language. It made me want to visit Mexico.

Later, though, the book slows down and gets deeply into the process of the main character's alcoholic habits, which seem tedious and sometimes asinine. I didn't like this as much. And it gets really,...more

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Bill rated it:

04/24/08

Read in April, 2008

I really tried to read this book, but I gave up about 3/4ths of the way through. The story of the last day of an unrepentant alcoholic should have been interesting, but the style of this book just annoyed me entirely too much.

I do suppose I can see why it's considered one of the classics of 20th century literature in that it heavily uses a stream of consciousness narrative, often with a single page representing 3 or 4 conversation threads (the one aloud, the one that each of the two speakers ...more

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Roland rated it:

03/05/08

bookshelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, modern-library-s-100-best-novels

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: People who liked Ulysses and wondered what it would be like with Mexicans

While I read this book I was constantly reminded of Joyce's Ulysses. I have never heard of this author before, but I really enjoyed this book and can highly recommend it. In fact, I think this book would be a nice starting point if you want to read Ulysses but think you might not like the structure of it. Both books use "stream of consciousness," both take place during one day, both have two men and a woman as the main focus, both women are "entertainers," and there is a g...more

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Tom rated it:

06/12/08

Read in June, 2008

Reread this strange and disturbing novel. It's a stream of consciousness (with an introductory flashback chapter) set in exotic Mexico, more or less about a man drinking himself to death, which has achieved a certain "cult status". Some will love it, others will find it weird or boring. The novel was the basis for a rather good film (dir. John Huston, who knew something about drinking, starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, 1984). Unusually, I recommend seeing the film first... ...more

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Matilda Lou rated it:

05/18/07

this book must be read more than once to understand it. the first time, the reader struggles through the alcohol, the hurt and mexico. the second time, the reader understands the alcohol, the hurt, and mexico. the third time, the reader (me) falls into the book, stays there and appreciates what lowry did as a writer, he let go of everything, understood that he is in no way like the writers of his time (joyce...etc.) and he just writes. His characters are completely flawed and are in no way looki...more

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Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

01/11/08

i thought this book was incredible--one of the top 20 books i've ever read. it's about regret and guilt and shame and beauty, and most of all how the main character's alcoholism triggers and is triggered by these things. the whole story takes place in one day and nothing of what happens feels the least bit contrived. what most impressed me was lowry's exacting, freewheeling prose and those scenes that showed the moment-by-moment, all or nothing war of the soul that can go on inside people who ar...more

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David rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

05/04/08

Of course it's about so much more than alcoholism: love, idealism, fate, myth, environmental issues, the Spanish Civil War. But, considering how many alcoholic authors there have been, how many have actually captured drunkenness this well! A staggeringly vivid tropical world (30s Mexico) refracted in Joycean fashion through the mezcal-addled consciousness of the doomed, raging Consul. I always put off reading this because it just sounded SO depressing, but Lowry's volcanic prose and the themati...more

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Peggy is currently reading it

08/29/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

'kay, looks like lots of people on this site loved this book, but I dunno. I'm on page 50 and it's been a slog so far. The question that I keep asking myself is how a book about a man destroying his life with alcohol can be so devoid of humor? I should already be laughing my ass off at his misery, people! Not wanting to club him, his wife, and Jacques with a baseball bat. Maybe it's the font, maybe it's my mood, but if I'm going to get through this book, it's going to have start getting fun...more

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Ian rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

04/01/08

This may be the best book I've ever read. Lowry uses details both fractured and mythical to construct what may be seen simultaneously as either a fucked-up washup's life in Mexico and a parable of the imposition of Christian constructs of hell and paradise on the failing ideals of a self-destructive mind. I loved this book for a lot of reasons: It is both thrilling and complex; its imagery is striking and believable; its characters are likeable and disastrous. I can't recommend it enough. I wish...more

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Christine rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120154)

01/09/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Christine by: Kate

I found Trane's review below excellent, this especially summarized what I thought of 'Volcano': "the experience was one of long-drawn-out bouts of disappointment interspersed with brief, exciting, and instructive encounters with brilliance."

The long-drawn-out bits really killed me. The recent New Yorker article about Lowry that gave up the ending also killed me, though you're right Kate, it is quite beautiful.

I'm now reading a Steinbech short story written for teenage boys to c...more

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R rated it:

06/13/08

Read in January, 1980

recommended to R by: Found it in a shop on a "desert island". (New
recommends it for: All adults over 25, especially those who love tequila.

Great novel. Lowry's best. His others cannot measure up to this achievement.
If you have seen the film,or have walked out on it after a few minutes, do not be put off. The film was awful, although it had a reasonable cast as far as I remember. The direction & photography were terrible.
Read the book.
Doesn't matter if you don't know Mexico, or only know its seaside resorts, or are not too fond of tequila. (Of course, each of those facts is your great loss, but will not affect your enjoym...more

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avg rating (this edition): 4.00 (390 ratings)
number of reviews: 107

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"“Under the Volcano” embraces everything from Dante to Freud to the cabala. Here it shambles like Cervantes, there it rages like Ahab, and every page of it pulsates on Out of Body Auto-Reply, that style of pure Lowry that points at once backward, to all European literature, and forward, to the mother of all nervous breakdowns." more quotes »

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Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics)

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