Will I love Under the Volcano?

Under the Volcano is a difficult book worth the effort. Set in Quauhnahuac, now Cuernavaca, it follows the surreal last day in the life of bleakly alcoholic former British consul Geoffrey Firmin.

We witness interactions with his estranged wife, his half-brother, and a childhood friend—both of whom have probably had an affair with the wife—as well as various other undependable characters real and hallucinatory. For careful readers, Lowry offers a rich buffet of symbolism and allusions to the work of writers from Dante to Shakespeare.

I certainly missed a few of the references but enjoyed the hunt nonetheless. Under the… show more.

English-language authors have long been fascinated with Mexico. A series of travelogues emerged between the 1920s and 1940s, although most say more about the writers than the country. In Graham Greene’s Lawless Roads, for example, we learn he has little sympathy for Mexico, Mexicans, and even less for its (magnificent) culinary traditions. Evelyn Waugh, DH Lawrence and Aldous Huxley all got in on the act, with varying degrees of success. Greene’s novel, The Power and Glory, remains an outstanding classic; however, it is Malcolm Lowry’s hypnotically captivating, tragic and deeply personal Under the Volcano that is the best… show more.