Under the Volcano: A Novel (P.S.)
Under the Volcano: A Novel (P.S.)
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Product Description
Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead, 1938—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.
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Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead, 1938—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.
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Rating
I’ve read this book a number of times, over a number of years and what continues to amaze me is that each reading seems like an entirely new one and in no way conforms to the previous memory.It’s a complex work! If you have read about Lowry’s extended work on his ms.(17 drafts!) it becomes more understandable why this should be so. Overall Lowry’s work is brilliant, but very uneven – this novel is his masterpiece, but read ‘Forest Path to the Spring”.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Under the Volcano chronicles the last day in the life of the British Consul to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. The surface story recounts how his ex-wife, Yvonne, and his half-brother, Hugh, try to pull him from the alcoholic funk he’s fallen into, and in the course of the day, they visit several locations in and around Quauhnahuac.
The descriptive prose makes the setting come alive, and you’re left with the feeling of actually seen some of these places. The mini parks, the ruins of Maximilian’s Palace, the cinema, the backyard of the Consul’s house, and the great volcano, Popocatepetel, which keeps appearing and disappearing, growing and shrinking, as they wander around the landscape – all these things become very real under Lowry’s brilliant examination.
Inspired by Joyce, Lowry’s book has several parallels with Ulysses. Except for the first chapter, it all takes place in a single day — November 1, 1938 (the Mexican holiday called “The Day of the Dead.”) There are three principal characters, two male, one female, who wander around the landscape, etc. However, Ulysses is an extremely difficult read, and all the interesting parts are below the surface; Under the Volcano is an easy read, and quite satisfactory without looking deeper.
A lot has been written about the deeper meanings of the book, of course, but the most obvious seems to be the allegory to Europe on the edge of war. In this view, the Consul represents the old Europe heading to its destruction despite the efforts of idealists to save it. Or perhaps more accurately, the senseless decline of the Consul to his death parallels the senseless descent of Europe into the destruction of World War II. Likewise as the day proceeds the bright hope of the morning darkens as the sun declines into the hopeless dark and storms that come with the night. And the very first chapter – the one set exactly one year later – is darkened by a tremendous storm — a storm which seems to represent the European war then already in full career.
A powerful book, thoroughly enjoyable, and meriting repeated reading.
Rating
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.
Rating
Geoffrey Firmin, the former British consul to Mexico, is a prisoner of alcoholism. A victim of the shakes, he hears voices, talks to people who are not there, and hallucinates, though he is often able to hide the extent of his drinking. “True, he might lie down in the street, but he would never reel.” On The Day of the Dead in 1938, his recently divorced wife Yvonne returns to Quauhnahuac, over which two smoking volcanoes loom, to try to persuade him to reconcile.
Coincidentally, Geoffrey’s half-brother Hugh, with whom Yvonne apparently had a brief affair, also arrives that day, and the three share quarters, each hoping to recapture the past. When they take the bus to Tomalin to a bull-riding event, they see a wounded peasant dying beside the road, the peasant’s horse with the number 7 branded on its rump, a tricky pesado, and a group of vigilantes, all of whom play a role in the climax which follows.
Rich with details, both of the external world of Quauhnahuac and the internal world of Geoffrey, the novel, first published in 1947, reflects Lowry’s own experiences as an alcoholic. Geoffrey, a fully-rounded character, knows that he must stop drinking in order to function effectively, but he is unable to function at all without drinking. He both loves and despises Yvonne, wants to leave Mexico but wants to stay, and wants to find peace but creates chaos.
As Lowry reconstructs this one day in Geoffrey’s life, the Day of the Dead, the pervasive symbolism adds to the feeling of overpowering doom–the smoking volcanoes ready to erupt, the “hideous pariah dog” that follows Geoffrey and Yvonne to the house, a barranca (chasm) which exists beside the house and which contains a dead dog, an Indian carrying “the weight of the past,” vultures in the forest, Yvonne’s release of an eagle in a cage, and sudden storms. All add weight and intensity to this powerful story of dissolution.
Despite the depressing subject matter and a frustrating main character who cannot or will not help himself during the novel’s four hundred pages, the novel is breath-taking–elegant both in language and construction. Carefully plotted, filled with unique imagery, and enhanced by symbolism which brings it alive on new levels, it overwhelms the reader with its impact and approaches classical tragedy as the inevitable, doom-filled events play out. Though the novel includes peripheral political issues of the day–Mexico’s instability and the philosophical conflicts between fascism and socialism–it is primarily a variation on the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man–full, rich, dense, and rewarding, despite its pervasive sadness. Mary Whipple
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An excellent novel, and well deserving of its place among the top fictional books of the last century. Lowry’s Under the Volcano is hindered only by the horrendous copy edit job done by Perennial Classics. I am not a grammar stickler, but it was jarring to see how frequently typos sneaked past the editor’s desk. A major character, Hugh, is misspelled High several times, and there are other blatent copy errors, such as this one on pg 295 “He had himse;f”. Clearly a slip on the keyboard to insert a semicolon for an “l” but these errors occur so frequently that it can pull a reader out of the haunting experience of observing the sun-baked squalor of Quauhnahuac. I strongly recommend the novel, but advise you to seek out a different edition. It is downright unprofessional, given Lowry is clearly keen (like his peer Joyce) on using prose and punctuation as a part of the portrait. Nothing worse than getting sucked into an interior monologue, only to suddenly feel the need to pull out the red pen.
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Those books are rare indeed that get branded with the “masterpiece” label yet elicit such strong contrasting reactions among its readers; Under the Volcano is such a work – it seems one either loves it or hates it. Perhaps many readers are turned against the book by the convoluted and labyrinthian manner in which Lowry wrote the novel, embellishing a stream-of-consciousness technique with alcoholic hallucinations, interior-exterior dialogue, passages insinuative of Mayan mysticism as well as cabbalistic symbolism and numerology; or perhaps it is simply that the reader gets overwhelmed with the Consul’s dipsomania and underwhelmed by the plodding nature of the book. But to those readers who consider this book a masterpiece, it is seen as one of a dozen or so of the most powerful novels ever written in the English language. It is a book that stays with you long after you have read it and one to which the reader returns to re-read passages simply for the beauty of the extraordinary prose.
Since the book has been reviewed over seventy times, there is no need to rehash the plotline; indeed, it might be argued that the plot is secondary in the total impact of the book. Seldom has a book invoked such a powerful sense of place and time. Mexico, the fiesta of the Day of the Dead, 1938 – one day – is re-created with such realistic attention to detail and flecked with phantasmic images and sounds that the reader is transported both consciously and unconsciously to the streets of Cuernavaca. It is a time of uncertainty: war is looming in Europe as the preliminary fight in Spain is coming to a close; even the inconsequential nation of Mexico is preparing itself for the coming struggle as the military carries on senseless gunnery practice, a sound, with that of thunder, which forms the bass line to the novel’s soundtrack. Fascist instigators abound; newspaper headlines warn of the impending death of the Pope as well as political and military collapses in Europe; public signs warn of destruction and its consequences (!Evite que sus hijos los destruyan!); a wooden sign with a pointing hand shows the way (to salvation or hell?) – and over this nightmarish scene looms the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, presently dormant, but insinuating – almost leering – to the population below the trapped destructive forces which each contain.
The novel can be read on many levels. Lowry, in a letter to his publisher, remarked, “it is superficial, entertaining, and boring, according to taste. It is a prophecy, a political warning, a cryptogram, a preposterous movie.” It is a purposefully complex work, one that requires the full attention of its reader. While reading, I was aware that much symbolism and allusion was beyond my grasp, and that the recurring patters of numbers, cabalistic references and myth were indicating an intricate foundation on which the novel was created. But being one who is ignorant of the Cabbala and does not know his Sephiroth from his Tzimzum, and even less understanding (or interest) of numberology, this was lost on me. Regardless, I was able to garner enough of value from this work to rank it as one of my most amazing reading experiences.
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This is a complicated novel that I found hard to start, but once reaching page 50 or so, things become much easier. This particular version has an introduction by Stephen Spender and an afterword by William Vollman. Frankly, they should be avoided until you have read the book. I bought and read this exact version and I read the commentaries after finishing the main text. Those two commentaries that come with the book tend to reveal the plot, and the plot should remain a mystery until you read the book.
The novel takes place over one long day, and it is told as it is remembered by the narrator, who is himself a secondary character. At 7:00 a.m. on the Day of the Dead, 1 November 1938, one of the main characters, Yvonne, returns to Quauhnahuac, after a year’s absence and her divorce from the Consul. The town is a small town in Mexico. The Consul is the primary character and the character most like Lowry himself.
She finds him at the Hotel Bella Vista bar drinking. That sets the scene for one day of drinking and action that follows. The book moves slowly at first, then faster towards a dramatic climax. There are many hints and coincidences along the way that relate to movies, politics, and choice in life. In short, it is a myth about obsession – like Moby Dick was an obsession about a whale, but there are no whales here.
It is narrated by a character, Laruelle, who is leaving Mexico the following day. He recalls the events of the day a year earlier. He remembers meeting the Consul’s half-brother, Hugh, and how despite his initial dislike for Hugh, he remembers the day together one year ago; and he remembers Hugh’s attraction to Yvonne.
What does it all mean? That is part of the enjoyment and mystery about the book. Some critics describe the novel as the best ever written about an alcoholic. It is rich in symbolism on the struggle of man against obsessions and self destruction, and his control or ability to control his own life.
Also, it is rich in descriptive prose, hence it is often referred to as the following or similar: “Under the Volcano remains one of literature’s most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition.” Some compare Lowry’s writing to Joyce, but in Lowry’s world the characters can control their lives. It is an interesting and an unusual read. Also, one does get some insight into how an author can effectively write about the meaning of life and the soul from different perspectives, and a different approach is used in the novel.