Under the Volcano By Malcolm Lowry published 1947

I know, I know....I am doing horribly on my goal to post more, in actuality I have had this post ready to go for a while now, I have just been putting it off since  I kind of forgot.....Anyways, I received this book as a gift for my birthday, and was informed by my mother that she had to “special order it for me.” It seems strange that a book so highly regarded by critics is not readably available for purchase at the local Barnes and Noble (or my local library). It also seems strange that so many people whom I consider very well read and knowledgeable in literature had never heard of it, let alone read it. And then I read it. And now I begin to understand. To say Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry is a challenging read is a bit of an understatement. Having read it once I can tell you it would probably take several more readings to fully comprehend the genius that is Malcolm Lowry...it is easy to see why the book is so highly regarded. It is also easy to see why not many people have read it. If the prologue doesn’t stop you (and it may) then the changes in writing style and the drunken stream-of-consciousness chapters just might make you set it down for an easier read.

The majority of the novel takes place on Dia de Las Muertes (November 2^nd) in Quauhnahuac, Mexico in 1938. The city is overshadowed by two large volcanos, hence the name of the book. It describes, in detail, the last day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a former British Counsel in the city. The Counsel (as he is generally referred to) is a forty year old alcoholic who spends the majority of his time in cantinas drinking tequila and mesquel. The other two main character's are The Counsel's former wife Yvonne, and his much younger half brother Hugh. Each chapter in the novel is narrated by one of the three, alternating so no one does two in a row, with the exception of the prologue which is narrated by the Counsel's "friend" Jacques.

The book begins with Yvonne arriving in Quauhnahuac, determined that even though she and The Counsel are divorced they can fix their problems and save their tattered marriage. Finding the Counsel slightly (although not alarmingly drunk) in a Cantina, she quickly takes him back to his home, where after a few hours they are joined by Hugh. The trio decide to visit a neighboring town for the evening, running into The Counsel's "friend" who Yvonne had an affair with on the way to the bus station, and a rather long interlude where they are waiting for the bus, in which The Counsel gets pretty toasted. I won't spoil the ending, although if you read the prologue you already know how the book ends.  The book is organized into twelve chapters, each chapter representing an hour in the day. The Counsel's chapters are all written in a stream of consciousness manner...and are the hardest to get through. I found myself rushing to get through his parts so that I could get to a chapter narrated by Hugh or Yvonne, which were the only chapters where the plot moved.

I am not an alcoholic, but I must say that M. Lowry hit it bang on the nose writing one. Probably because he was one...seriously. But you can see the process of the counsel's thoughts as he slowly deteriorates and becomes  more drunk during the day. The last chapter of his narration is pretty difficult to read through your own cringing. In my mind the one bright spot in this book is Yvonne. She is definitely flawed, her affairs with Jacques and possibly Hugh (?) are laid bare, but she has that basic human emotion, hope. That was I think, why I liked her chapters the best, to me she was the most easy to relate to. I also enjoyed what I will term the "quintessential Bristishness" of this novel...everything is just so droll and the characters really underreact (in my opinion) to everything.

Overall my opinion is that I can see why critics like this book. M. Lowry is a wonderful writer with a powerful command of language. He can paint a picture. I can also see why people don't read it. Just like is not fun to be the one in charge of drunks when you are not drunk, it is not so fun to try to figure out what one is saying in a rambling fifty page chapter. Still, I feel like this would be a good book to chose to have with you on a desert island because you could read it many  times and still not grasp the fullness of what Lowry is saying. Final Rating: Not for the Faint of Heart.

 

"'She was not pretty but she is going to be beautiful': at twenty they still said so, and at twenty-seven when she'd married him it was still true, according to the category through which one perceived such thing as focus: it was equally true of her now, at thirty, that she gave the impression of someone who is still going to be, perhaps just about to be, 'beautiful."

- Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano