Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Under the Volcano : A Novel by Malcolm Lowry ISBN: 0-06-095522-8 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 25 April, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.85 (53 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Volcano exudes much smoke, little lava
Comment: The first time I ever went to the movies, Bambi's mother said, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." While that may be a national dictum here in America, it's not particularly helpful when writing book reviews. Readers of this review may feel that I'm too negative, too critical, or just trying to "look smart", but what to say when you really don't like a book ? I think I could write two reviews of UNDER THE VOLCANO. The first would be for people under 30 who haven't read a lot of "great" literature. For such readers, especially if they are interested in the wandering thought swirls of people under the influence of great amounts of alcohol, this could be a decent novel of the 4 star variety. There are certainly some brilliant passages. The concept is unusual, the small-town Mexican setting vividly portrayed. These readers can pick up (or get impressed by) large numbers of extremely rare words in the English language--reboant, tabid, winze, floriferous, plangently, crepuscular, imbricated, lithurge, syncope, etc.---as well as numerous passages which will test their knowledge of Spanish, French, or German. When you are just setting sail on the great ocean of literature, a book like this might prove a thrilling ride, so maybe you should give it a try. Read another review or two.
If you are over 30 or have read a good amount of "classical" literature, then I have to warn you, Lowry's novel reads like F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway in writing school---before they learned how to cut things down. Joyce and Faulkner got away with run-on sentences containing clauses that had absolutely nothing to do with the original topic, and that can be effective in anyone's work, but Lowry ain't no Joyce or Faulkner. It's a very youthful book, despairing youth perhaps, youth overshadowed by a coming war, by the futility of action at such a time, but youth nonetheless. Though adults, the characters resemble youth too much. They lack a certain resigned cynicism or sense of irony, they are still sincere, ill-focussed, and petulant about the past. Finally, this book lacks much of a plot. The "action" takes place in the last third of the book only. I grew tired of messing about in the minds of Hugh and Geoffrey. It may be, as people say, a novel about the breakdown of values in the 1930s and '40s, but it is most of all a work that needed refining, a work that attempted to be too much, that lost its way in the flood of words.
Rating: 3
Summary: Lethargic and convoluted path of a drunkard
Comment: The book chronicles, with occasional reminiscences of its characters, events of one day in which Geoffrey Firmin, an ex-British consul in Mexico, sidled up to this inevitable fatality. His wife Yvonne arrived in Quauhnahuac to rescue him (from alcohol abuse) and their failing marriage at the inspiration of a vision of restarting a life together away from Mexico as well as the circumstances that had so inevitably driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. The presence of Hugh, Geoffrey's half-brother who had a crush on Yvonne, and childhood friend Laurelle further complicated the effort to rescue the ex-consul.
Hopelessly morose and alienated, Geoffrey, who experienced a heightened sense of consciousness and the imminence of fatality, had forfeited his trust in Yvonne for she had been with Hugh under the cover of saving him. It is amazing how uneventfully all the events constitute to the entire novel. Under the Volcano is such a powerful, lyrical statement of a chronic drunkard filled with rigid but somewhat fragmented prose. It captures the human conditions and one man's persistent struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him. The prose pervades a man's battle for the survival of human consciousness. At the same time imbedded in the narrative affords hints of his imminent fatality.
Under the Volcano is riddled with an air of lethargy and slowness. A ubiquitous theme is the consul's persistent temptation of getting his next drink. He frequently relapsed into a stream-of-conscious, hallucinatory conversation with a gabbled voice in his head, which pejoratively objurgated his lack of self-control. The volcano, despite its geographical location, might be thought as some abyss into which the consul descended for the harrowing. Other than the rigid prose and symbols that exemplify the main character, Under the Volcano is not a pleasurable read to say the least and it can be exhausting to one's patience. I say you will not be at a loss to pass this one.
2004 (15) ©MY
Rating: 5
Summary: "The free will of man is unconquerable."
Comment: Under the Volcano represents the ultimate oxymoron: a fun classic. For those who enjoy stellar, if not unpredictable, imagery and use of literary tools to the hilt, this book will energize you. Conversely, for those who are just looking for an engrossing read, this book fits the mold as well. Lowry, in what is still a truly seminal and novel approach, employs an amazingly diverse array of literary elements in a semi-autobiographical manner that make the read more rewarding for the more serious reader.
In the first chapter, which begins on the fittingly gloomy Day of the Dead in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, Lowry immediately sets the tone of the entire novel as we encounter our anti-hero, The Consul, in a perpetual drunken stupor. Chapter 2 begins, oddly enough, on the same day -- one year later in 1939. For the remainder of the book, one follows in the wobbly footsteps of the drunken Consul for what amounts to be 12 hours.
The reader is led on a meandering, if not convoluted, path between lucid sobriety and hazy drunkenness, between the past and the present, & between an ominous and foreboding sense of impending doom to a renewed feeling of hope -- all in an extraordinarily masterful way. For those who discount this book as simply "a book about a drunk," you do nothing more than flaunt your ignorance; it is, instead, a book that speaks uniquely of the human condition, free will, remorse, reconciliation, duplicity, and the duality of despondency and hope.
"The novel can be read simply as a story which you can skip if you want. It can be read as a story you will get more out of if you don't skip. It can be regarded as a kind of symphony, or in another way as a kind of opera--or even a horse opera. It is hot music, a poem, a song, a comedy, a farce, and so forth. It is superficial, profound, entertaining, and boring, according to taste. It is a prophecy, a political warning, a cryptogram, a preposterous movie."
- Malcolm Lowry to his publisher Jonathan Cape, January 2, 1946
 |
Title: Darkness at Noon by ARTHUR KOESTLER ISBN: 0553265954 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: The Way of All Flesh by SAMUEL BUTLER ISBN: 0375752498 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 14 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
 |
Title: Appointment in Samarra : A Novel by John O'Hara ISBN: 0375719202 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: I, Claudius : From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Vintage International) by Robert Graves ISBN: 067972477X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, Richard Lingeman ISBN: 0451527704 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 08 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
