Under the Volcano

lowry writes a drinking binge with the symbolic grandeur of moby dick. read this one drunk.

My goodness what a slog. Never an easy page. Not that I need easy, but this is not a masterpiece to make it easy. I’m at chapter 9. I know the ending already. Lowry’s writing is over written.. every word stapled down. Hammered down. It’s stifling to read and this does not represent the heat of Mexico either. Nor does it represent the psychology of the characters. In the documentary Malcolm Lowry: An Investigation into his Death and Life, (You’ll find this brilliant documentary on YouTube.) we hear Richard Burton reading Lowry’s letters - now here we have the true voice of the writer. Lowry was writing after Conrad and Hawthorn. And his stilted prose are forced and almost lifeless. About half way through Lowry turns to Firmin’s brother Hugh. And spends unnecessary pages describing his life. It adds nothing to the story at all - as you wade through the endless wanderings of a character that purely distracts from the main theme. Firmin’s wife Yvonne is the most empathetic character in my opinion. The others bar the local doctor are all a bit wooden and I have no empathy for the alcoholic Firmin at all: a bloated child-man full of self pity and booze.I’ve given it 5 stars because I empathise with Lowry the man, the writer and his dogged determination to complete this novel. Watch the documentary. It’s brilliant and beautiful. And you will get a good feeling for the very troubled Lowry. You’ll also here his real voice too, spoken lovingly by Burton. And not the wooden prose voice of a writer trying to ‘be’ a writer.

Un capolavoro assoluto della letteratura... inebriante, intossicante. Oltre che la storia qui quel che vale è come è raccontata, lo stile. Il suono. Da leggere e rileggere, è un romanzo che stupisce sempre, stratificato, pieno di simboli nascosti.

Great book. But avoid the Grapevine India 2022 hardcover edition; it's missing a good chunk of the original novel.The Main Reason To Avoid The Grapevine India Hardcover EditionA quick flick through the pages shows all kinds of formatting snafus, the worst of which are in Chapters 10 and 11. Here, the original timetables and menus have been removed completely and replaced with empty tables. See the photos accompanying this review for a comparison between the abysmal Grapevine India hardcover edition (empty tables) and the Penguin paperback edition (all original text present).Other Reasons To Avoid The Grapevine India Hardcover Edition1. Grapevine India has changed the novel's opening line ("tableaus" instead of the original "tableaux"). How much of the remainder has been tinkered with? Don't bother to find out.2. Grapevine India has omitted the author's original dedication and epigraph.3. The casebound cover image is low resolution -- too low for a book cover. It's so crappy that the author's name on the front cover is blurry. And the letters in the book title show aliasing (stair-stepping effect). This lack of care is reflected throughout the book. (Strangely, Grapevine India has used the same cover as the award-winning 2015 YA novel "Archivist Wasp: A Novel" by Nicole Kornher-Stace.)Please check the photos for more and avoid this disastrous edition of a fine book.

Envoi rapide et produit conforme.Il est très difficile de s'immerger dans ce roman lors de la première lecture et l'on reste assez imperméable au monde dépeint par Malcolm Lowry dans les premières pages. La prose est assez chaotique, ce qui est notamment expliqué par le comportement du personnage principal, le Consul Geoffrey Firmin, mais au final on se laisse emporter par la spirale infernale jusqu'au dernier chapitre qui s'achève en apothéose.Afin de mieux apprécier cette œuvre, je conseille de relire le premier chapitre (dont la dernière page est la plus belle de tout le roman à mon sens) après avoir terminé le roman car c'est comme cela que l'on arrive à tout démêler.Merci Amazon !