Malcolm Lowry Books

This book consists of thousands of explanatory notes to Malcolm Lowry's brilliant but labyrinthine novel. The notes are arranged in chapters corresponding to those in Under the Volcano. Each note is headed by page references to the Penguin and Signet Plume paperback editions as well as the Reynal & Hitchcock and Lippincott hardback editions. The Companion features maps of Cuernavaca and the Morelos Valley, a glossary of Spanish, French, German and Latin terms found in Under the Volcano, an index and a bibliography.

Malcolm Lowry liberally used obscure and archaic words and double entendre in his writings. He frequently employed foreign phrases as well. The Companion defines, translates, explains and contextualizes all of these unfamiliar terms. Throughout Under the Volcano, Lowry weaved in allusions to mythology, religion, literature, history and pop culture. Sometimes the allusions are direct, but more often than not, they are hidden. The Companion is very useful in identifying and understanding these allusions. For example, Lowry repeatedly uses the term "coxcox" as an adjective. The Companion offers plausible interpretations for the passages containing this term, points out that Coxcox was a figure in Aztec mythology corresponding to Noah in the Bible and provides verifiable references.

The Companion takes particular care in explaining the recurring motifs and allusions, such as the abyss, the stray dogs which seem to follow the Consul everywhere, Los Manos De Orlac, the horse with the number 7 branded on its hip and "no se puede vivir sin amar." In this respect, the Companion is well worth its price. The explanatory notes are fascinating and, occasionally, poignant. Don't be surprised if the Companion leads you to explore some of the obscure and long-forgotten literary works to which Lowry alluded.

about 'Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid' Douglas Day, Malcolm Lowry's biographer writes: "in early december 1945, malcolm and margerie bonner lowry flew from vancover, british columbia, to mexico city. they traveled by bus down to cuernavaca, where lowry had lived with his first wife, jan, in 1936, and where he had begun Under the volcano. on new year's eve lowry heard from jonathan cape, to whom the completed manuscript of under the volcano had been sent, that they could not accept the noel as it stood; many revisions were needed.
this much is the matter of 'dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid'. during the entire trip both lowry and his wife made notes as they went along-dialogues, descriptions, copies of signs along the way, all sorts of random obervations. some short time afterwards, lowry looked through all the notes of the mexican journey, exclaimed, 'by God, we have a novel here!' and fell to work on 'dark as the grave'.
seven hundred pages of notes and drafts were left by lowry in 1952 and not returned to before his death in 1957.
now, this book is no 'under the volcano'.

This two act play dramatizes the unusual relationship between Malcolm Lowry and Conrad Aiken. The story is seen through the mind's eye and memories of the 85 year-old Aiken who is confined to a nursing home in Georgia. The ghost of Lowry haunts the old Aiken without mercy.

The audience sees the 19 year-old Lowry seek out the middle-aged Aiken. The young Lowry asks Aiken to be his literary "father". Aiken is drawn to Lowry and agrees to teach him to write. Eventually Aiken accepts legal responsibility for the dissolute Lowry and becomes his foster father as well as his mentor and drinking companion.

This play studies the tangled, conflicted, intimate and strangely oedipal-flavored relationship between these two great writers. The play is consistently intense and is disturbingly emotional. Most of the scenes in this play have a factual basis. Playwright Michael Mercer was inspired to write this play after visiting the elderly Aiken, reading Aiken's autobiography and reading the Lowry/Aiken correspondence. I came away from this play with a new appreciation for Aiken, his work and his influence upon Lowry. I also came away with a renewed sympathy for both men, one of whom consciously set out to destroy himself in order to write a single, truly magnificent work of art.

I heard excerpts of this book at a symposium for Lowry in 1996. The person reading this memoir said it would only be available after Gabriel's death so I'm assuming she has passed on. I was very moved during the reading in 1996 and I was no less moved when I finally was able to read the entire book. Gabriel has a very poetic and flowing style of her own. She is very honest throughout the book as she writes about her tragic relationship with Lowry. This book won't make you happy but it will give you insight into their relationship that you can't find anywhere else. On that level, it is as equally important as Pursued by Furies. In the end, we get to see a sympathetic character in Jan Gabriel that counters Lowry's portrayal of her in Under the Volcano. We also get an insights on Lowry from the most important period of his creative life.

It is no doubt Lowry initiates, scholars and afficianados at whom this book was and, therefore, this review will be, primarily aimed. I have no inkling as to why only Volume II is included here. It may be simply a slip on Amazon's part (I didn't realize myself that there were two volumes amounting to almost 2,000 pages until I ordered it) or that the first volume is listed as out of print. But this review applies to both volumes which, by the bye, may be ordered as one, if not from Amazon, from Edward R Hamilton booksellers.

It is difficult to put into words the boundless joy that accompanies the reading of these letters. Here is Lowry at his most winkingly self-deprecatory, literarily allusive and, above all, charming and downright funny. For anyone who values the English Language and English literature highly; as, in fact, necessary to life, as Lowry did, these letters will hold you spellbound. Here is indeed the record of a man who, quite literally, lived and died for language and literature. As his most famous letter here, the one to his publisher which ultimately led to the publication of Under The Volcano, has it, "...but just the same in our Elizbethan days we used to have at least passionate poetic writing about things that will always mean something and not just silly ... style and semicolon technique: and in this sense I am trying to remedy a deficiency, to strike a blow, to fire a shot for you as it were, roughly in the direction, say, of another Renaissance: it will probably go straight through my brain but that is another matter."

It is clear from almost every letter here, that Lowry was trying his damnedest,in all his writings, to live up to this manifesto; that, despite the continual tragedies of his life, he was always picking himself up and wringing from his life "passionate poetic writing", which, it is clear from these letters, was, to a great extent, lived as a literary endeavour.

That the shot did eventually go through his brain, so to speak, was not entirely unexpected by Lowry or anyone who knew him. - But neither was Sir Walter Ralegh's unjust execution. - Ultimately then, these collected letters live up to the title: Sursum Corda!-Lift up your hearts!-Here is page upon page of writing about things that will always mean something: Love of life, literature, words and a delight in language in and of itself.-

Unrealistic though my expectaation of their reading of these two massive tomes may be, I would recommend them to anyone who suffers from the peculiar fate of being human.

Along with Sometimes a Great Notion, An American Tragedy and From Here to Eternity, this is the greatest novel I have ever read.

This is probably the best book I have ever read and I have been reading for over 40 years. I don't even know where to begin. So much of what blew me away by this novel is close to impossible to put into words. I agree that it took a few dozen pages to get used to the style but then it just started to flow and I mean flow. I confess I did not understand all of the literary and political references but those I did were amazing. It is a sad book, especially in that it made me think that current world politics reflect man's inablilty to learn from the past.

Goes right up there with Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, Pamuk's Snow, and Miller's Tropic of Cancer as an extraordinarily over-rated, self-indulgent, unreadable mess.

Under the Volcano takes the reader through the troubled thoughts of Geoffrey Firmin, a British ex-Consul who destroys his life with alcohol. Firmin's wasted brilliance is exposed in between drunken musings and misapprehensions. He is accompanied in his travels by his ex-wife (who, in trying to save him, in a way does the opposite) and half-brother.
Some passages can be hard to get through (at least one sentence took half a page), but they are well worth it.

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.

Hear Us O Lord contains a variety of story forms which Lowry attempted, and some themes which will be familiar to readers of his other works. Such stories as The Forest Path to the Spring and others are an integral part of his ouevre. A wonderful story about the dungeons of Pompeii - forgive me forgetting the story name for I've lost my copy - is the other highlight of the book. Even where the story is secondary to the form, as in Through the Panama, Lowry achieves some success - we must remember the time at which these stores were written, and I don't think I've seen this type of experimentation dating from this period. On the whole HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, I've only given just 3 stars because of its flaws. If you;re lucky enough to find a copy, maybe you;ll get the beauiftul cover of a woodcut with Christ ushering in the rainstorm in the distance.

Although I read this book years ago I still think of it often. The Forest Path to the Spring, read today, is very much a story about how to live out of the media, out of consumerism, out of materialism that consumes contemporary society. And suggests how to be content; suggests alternatives to corporations or churches defining your life and your happiness for you(Selling you a life, as Marcuse would say). And this is exactly why we read isn't it? We read to seek the answer to lifes most important question - "What is worthwhile?". In a beautiful story Lowry tells us what he found worthwhile on The Forest Path to the Spring.

I have been staying for the past three weeks a few hundred yards from where Lowry wrote Under the Volcano, which I had already read and which was all I knew about Lowry, when somebody suggested I read The Forest Path to the Spring - the last of these stories - which described this area as it was 50-60 years ago. He and his wife were squatters, owning only the house they had built for themselves, but not the land. The FPTTS is the story of how they first came here, how and why they stayed and describes many things that are unchanged: the inlet, the seabirds, the trees the sky and - of course - the mountains. I go home to London tomorrow, but am so glad to have read this whilst being in this landscape.

It's self indulgent in parts, but that can happen when a writer is aiming for honesty and originality, there's nothing derivative about any of it, not a cliche anywhere. It's an inner journey too of course: the real path through the forest contains other journies: his work, his marriage his growing self knowledge and sobriety.

Now the area is full of ugly suburban housing with garages and the sound of seabirds is often drowned by the hum of power tools. Much of the forest is now covered in concrete, but the inlet, the mountains, trees and sky remain of course. It's great here if you don't look down!

Certainly the centerpiece of this collection is the novella "The Forest Path to the Spring," perhaps Lowry's only work to offer redemption. It's the counterpoint of his Under the Volcano, the Paradiso to Volcano's Inferno. In a "northern paradise" like that daydreamed by Yvonne in Under the Volcano, (and like the Lowrys' own Dollarton beach shack) the narrator faces his demons and routs them. Like Thoreau, he learns to live deliberately, to see the world itself. Lowry's descriptions of the Canadian wilderness are lyrical without being fanciful; instead of the internal phantasmagoria of Geoffrey Firmin's haunted mind, "The Forest Path to the Spring" gives us a real forest, real stars, a real spring. The story can be read as fiction and as a meditation on the nature of reality. It's Lowry's most mature work and, if not his best, a close second to UTV. The other stories in the collection, often featuring Lowryesque writer-protagonists, play with conjunctions of art and life. In the metafictional "Through the Panama," snippets of history, travelogues, poems, and children's songs weave throughout a journey through the Panama canal. In other stories, an author unexpectedly meets, in a zoo, the elephant who inspired his best-selling comic novel, and a disillusioned writer finds "strange comfort" in the impoverished and unhappy lives of Keats and Poe. Ironically, most of the pieces in "Hear Us O Lord" were not published in Lowry's lifetime. Those that were ("The Bravest Boat") are the weaker links in the collection, tamer and more traditional than one would expect from a writer of Lowry's wild talents. Perhaps, again like Poe, he was an artist in advance of his time.

This is a much needed improvement on the Douglas Day bio of some years ago (though, I admit, a bit less fun to read). It's been covered in all the major reviews, of course, and I'm sure all you Lowryeans out there have a copy and love it for the wealth of information it contains that was absent from the Day bio and other sources...But, as a long-term Lowryean myself, I thought I'd add my bolus of criticism: Mr Bowker has a great advantage over previous writers on Lowry: He has found that the great author's first wife, Jan Gabrial, is not only alive and well, but eager to discuss all aspects of her relationship with her former spouse (with Bowker anyway). This revelation colors Mr Bowker's entire biography. It also, however, leads to the greatest flaw in the book: The simplistic polarization of Conrad Aiken vs. Nordahl Grieg as the Dark Angel and Light Angel, respectively, in Lowry's psyche. Ms Gabrial obviously detested Conrad Aiken and credited the dissolution of her marriage to him. No doubt she has cause to do so. But nobody who has spent any time reading Conrad Aiken's beautiful and much-neglected poetry can believe he was as consumately evil as Ms Gabrial, via Mr Bowker, makes him out to be. Still, this is a minor quibble for such an obviously painstaking and thorough work. It's refreshing to see the greatest poetic novelist of our century getting some attention toward the end of it!

I read this because I remain convinced that Mr Lowry's novel UNDER THE VOLCANO is one of the great tragic works of literature of the 20th century and its power remains with me after 30 years. In this biography the alcoholic writer's creative process is revealed in detail as well as his determination to destroy himself - in detail. I've often thought of Geoffrey Firmin/Malcolm Lowry as the essential 20th century man - we came close to destroying the world last century but failed. This is a solid well written biography and suits the general reader.

I bought this large, six hundred page book because I got a deal on a cheap copy. But I couldn't help noticing the impressive effort to produce so thorough a work, and on such a complex subject. It crossed my mind more than once that Gordon Bowker had not been paid his due, at least not by me.

But "Pursued by Furies" has received a significant amount of attention and praise. It is deserved, in my view.

Still, at least some editing is in order in relation to Lowry's years at Dollarton (two hours drive from where I now sit.) Episode after episode of abusive, maniacial drunkness (with little literary output to show for it) seemed excessive. Paired with Lowry's extraordinary ability to deny reality -- including to those in the publishing world who supported him -- the downward spiral felt repetitive, and brought me close to abandoning the book.

I noted with irony Lowry's conceived (but unfinished) novelic cycle "The Voyage That Never Ends." Mired in the book's latter third, I could only nod affirmatively. Which is to say that twenty drunken, despotic episodes wherein Lowry lies to everyone he knows -- including and especially his wife, Marjorie -- while collapsing as author and man are hardly different from, say, fifteen.

Lowry's forced relocation to Ripe, England -- the pastoral countryside -- helped the book pick up. It is here that Lowry undergoes comprehensive treatment for alcoholism (shocking as these "treatments" were.) One gets the strong impression that this deeply inspired, fury-chased man is readying wings, about to claim both his literary gifts and independence. But Lowry's furies are not so forgiving.

At times a who's who of 20th century literati, "Pursued By Furies" concerns itself chiefly with its subject. By its end, one disregards neither novelist nor man. Bowker summarizes the matter this way:

"But he did return from hell and the gutter, often enough and for long enough periods, to create one, and possibly more, masterpieces wherein anyone who has ever caught up with Lowry in the toils of human confusion can find a kind of grace and a kind of release."

This is one of two biographies of Malcolm Lowry that I have read. The first was Douglas Day's biography--a sort of psycho-literary look at Lowry's life. It's not bad, but Bowker's book goes far beyond Day's. This book is much richer in detail--detail that casual readers might find overwhelming, but that Lowry afficionados will wallow in.

Also, Bowker has tracked down Lowry's first wife, Jan Gabriel, who adds to the story of Lowry's life a dimension absent from Day's book.

Anyone who has read Lowry's work has certainly suspected that his art mirrored his life, that much of what he wrote was autobiographical, in spirit if not in detail. This book confirms those suspicions, showing how truly excessive Lowry was in pretty much all aspects of his life: his drinking, fear, childishness...

A great biography of a great writer.

Ultramarine, the first published novel by Malcolm Lowry, tells the story of a young man's disillusioned coming of age at sea. Much of the raw material for the novel comes from notebooks Lowry kept during his own stint as a deckhand. Dana Hilliot, the young Lowryesque hero, faces the contempt of many of his fellow seamen, who view him as a spoiled upper-class poser incapable of doing a real man's work. He affects a grimly stoic front while engaging in elaborate fantasies of revenge. Lowry's description of life at sea reveals the boredom and discomfort of a long voyage, relieved only by exhausting labor, sudden danger, and occasional nights of drinking and whoring ashore. His young hero's Conrad and Melville-inspired dreams of adventure at sea are replaced by the grimy reality of a deckhand's daily life. The realistic dialogue, the description of the sea and the port cities, and the hero's fevered inner monologue hint at the richness of language that was to inform Lowry's greatest novel, Under the Volcano. The young hero's moral agonies as he struggles to remain faithful to his fiancee at home may seem comically overwrought to present-day readers, but Ultramarine's rewards certainly outweigh its few flaws. This work of Lowry's youth shows an unruly genius already testing its limits

Ultramarine is a novel about sea life. A young man named Dana Hillot decides to go aboard a freight ship. The characters in this novel are so vivid. Even now I am able to think of one, Andy the chinless wonder. This novel is one of my favorites by Lowry. Lowry spent some time at sea himself, so that probably was the inspiration for this novel.

The French Translator for Lowry's masterpiece, Under The Volcano, said that, until Lowry, she had only encoutered two types of writers:1) The philosophical intellectual, who could go on about great ideas and philosophers but couldn't tell you what street he was walking down and, 2) The observant "Naturalist" writer who observed and recorded everything around him but whose fund of ideas and original thoughts was quite in the red.-Lowry proved to her that a writer could be both, as does this book.

Here we have the young Lowry's thinly veiled autobiographical hero, Dana Hilliot (a name Lowry contrived from Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years Before the Mast, James Hilton, whom Lowry knew at school, and T S Eliot) remaining (sometime tiresomely) faithful toward the dialogue of the sailors on ship as well as wending his unique "Lowromancings" as he playfully called his poetic, philosophical passages through the work.

At one point in one of these extended meditations/poetic reflections, Hilliot ponders that he is engulfed in the "detritus of wisdom" rather than having discovered any pearls, but then goes on to speculate as to what he would do were he discover one of these "pearls" ----Stop writing?

Let's be thankful that Lowry kept searching and swirling and went on to write one of the greatest novels of the century.

"One cannot live without love."

Of his two novels, Under the Volcano (1947) is considered Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece. Drawn from semi-autobiographical material and set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, November 1, 1938, it chronicles the final hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin (an anagram for "infirm"), an alcoholic British consul living in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca), situated in the shadows of the Ixtacihuatl and Popocateptl volcanoes. For him, the Day of the Dead is just any other day in the life of a drunk. He is on the brink of self-destruction, and by the end of the day, he will be dead in a ditch. He aspires to write a book, but his years of drinking now affect all areas of his life, including his relationship with Yvonne, his estranged wife. She has returned to Mexico hoping to rekindle her relationship with Geoffrey and to save him from death. Hugh Firmin is Geoffrey's half-brother, who once had an affair with Yvonne. Geoffrey's day is filled with hallucinations and drunken rants about love and politics, and Lowry's writing is darkly poetic. It does not translate easily into John Huston's 1985 film adaptation (Under the Volcano) starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset. This is a rare experience in literature.

G. Merritt

UNDER THE VOLCANO is one of the darkest, moribund, disturbing books I have ever read. It also is one of the most brilliantly written; Malcolm Lowry's masterful command of the written word allows him to tell this haunting, somewhat autobiographical story about one man's voluntary descent into his own demise. As aptly mentioned in the Introduction of this Perennial Classics edition, Lowry's masterpiece possesses a "self-consuming quality"; the author is presenting himself, as well as his story, to the reader. And what a story.

Taking place in just one day, the lugubrious Day of the Dead in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, UNDER THE VOLCANO is a bleak story about Geoffery Firmin, a former diplomat, known as the Consul throughout the region. The Consul has forfeited meaning in his life, opting instead for dipsomania; his reeling alcoholism only exacerbates his loneliness. During this day he is reunited with Yvonne, his estranged wife who has returned from abroad in an effort to save their relationship--and Geoffery. To further complicate matters, Hugh, the Consul's half-brother, has been staying with his older brother; Hugh and Yvonne had briefly had an affair. Hugh is the ultimate youthful ideologue (in fact, he represents Lowry in his enthusiastic youth); he is yearning to return to Spain, to take part in its violent civil war.

The story follows the three characters--their interactions, their backstories--until its dark, disturbingly maniacal ending. But where this novel makes its mark, and makes it well, is when the Consul becomes prey to one of his delusional binges. The writing takes on a chaotic disjointedness that is often difficult to read, yet at the same time conveys a brilliance--the Consul's brilliance, wrapped 'round by nonsensical delusion. Often these passages are humorous; yet the humor is always intertwined with symbolic tragedy. Words and phrases. . ."pariah dog". . ."pelado". . ."companero". . .take on very special meanings.

UNDER THE VOLCANO has been acclaimed as one of the most important novels of the Twentieth Century, and for good reason. It is fatalistic, it is disturbing, it is brilliant--it is self-fulfilling. That Malcolm Lowry's own turbulent life ended prematurely contributes all the more to the utter futility and tragedy of his literary masterpiece.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

I like to tease my literary friends by saying "the film is always better than the novel", which sends them off into seizures. However, this is one instance that the book is vastly superior to the film, and it is undoubtedly one of the greatest books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Malcolm Lowry's prose style and mastery of the English language is beautiful to behold, and reading Under the Volcano fills you with wonder and awe. It's a masterful book, depicting the last day of an alcoholic (probably based on Lowry himself, who was a chronic alcoholic). The novel doesn't really have a narrative sense, but it has a hallucinatory, mystical quality that I adore. It reminds me a lot of an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, in that it's not straightforward at all, but it is a destination, and you will get there on Lowry's/Jodorowsky's path. As much as I like John Huston, I never cared for the film version, which I saw before reading the novel. If you want to see a great film about Lowry, a Canadian documentary called Volcano was made in the 1970's. It was released on VHS, but it is notoriously hard to find. It makes a great companion to this novel, as you understand the agony of Lowry's life, and the pain that he had to go through to produce one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. This is one of my favorite books, one you can read again and again and find something new in it. Lowry never really regained the heights of this novel again, and ended up leaving behind unfinished manuscripts that were edited by his wife, Margarite. Still, this is a true work of art, and we should be thankful that Lowry left this for us....

In a little over a year, I've read more than 50 novels. Of those, there was only one which I found unbearable to read and which I put down. Now there are two. Ironically, the first one, "Lord Jim", is actually referenced in this book, a bad omen if there ever was such a thing.

I wanted to like this book. Judging from the previous reviews, this was a brilliant masterpiece with such depth and subtlety that Lowry was a genius to behold. That my be true, but I soon lost all interest and hope of getting anything meaningful from this book. Every time I sat down to read, I found my eyelids becoming heavier, as the stream of consciousness narrative succeeding in draining out my life force. I gave it a chance, as I read nearly half, but finally I felt a great burden lifted off my shoulders when I decided to give up. And for someone who reads for pleasure, I could hardly justify slogging through this until the bitter end while I could be reading much more enjoyable novels.

Now perhaps I am not as "sophisticated" or "intellectual" as others who adore this work, but I just didn't "get it." Perhaps looking through the eyes of a drunk isn't the best idea, for the non-sequitur narrative was hazy and confusing. The countless symbolism with the "pariah dog" and plants seemed to be repeated endlessly, but with no clear connection (as far as I'm concerned) to the main storyline. The story is literally drowning in a whiskey river, filled to the brim with minute details and obtuse symbolism.

This novel takes place in a day, but seems to drag on endlessly with no climax or turning point. If you're up for a challenge, then by all means go for it. Otherwise, save yourself from this tedious novel and give this one a pass.

In order to follow one party for one day, the reader of this book must intensely focus upon the vagaries attributable to a dipsomaniacal protagonist - the Consul.

Lowry's relatively autobiographical novel (at one time there is reference to leave Mexico far away where the protagonist will handwrite while his adoring wife types his manuscript), can confuse the reader on many levels. First, the Consul's inebriation by mescal contorts and warps perspectives and thoughts. Second, the liquor's effect has numbed his mind where at times he babbles and makes no sense - the worst being in the beginning when his wife returns and they calmly discourse although he makes no sense and his statements are actually frightening to the reader who is just being introduced to the Consul. Third, he phonetically spells many dialogues from Mexican speakers, so as to capture their pronunciation of English words. Fourth, he uses a great amount of Spanish words which loses those unfamiliar with the language for many interesting and untranslated portions of the book. And, lastly, the weaving of temporary with the past, through an intoxicated's mind, can be both perplexing and diabolically ingenious.

If that does not scare some readers, I pledge this truth to others: even though other readers assert this is easier to read than Joyce's comparable "Ulysses", know two things: "Ulysses" is about as difficult a read in the English language as there is; and this book is not easy as well.

But, it is worth reading. His ability to create hallucinatory sensation on paper is majestic. At certain times, I really felt I understood the mental anguish experienced by the d.t.'s as reflected by the Consul's perspective of events about him. Lowry's writing is both direct and embellished. The topic is much like Hemingway - English-speaking person residing amid Spanish-speaking people in the Spanish-speaking nation. His writing, however, reminds me more of John Fowles - "French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Magus."

This is a masterpiece of its own, and I greatfully appreciate having read this work of art. Just months ago I never heard of Lowry, now I intend on reading some of his other works.