UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry, published originally in 1947 by J. B. Lippincott. My copy was published in 2007 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
There are two things I would like to note in my thoughts on the book, before I really review it. One is that I fell into a sea of words and was furiously dog paddling throughout the book. I am sure there are others but this book gets the prize for most foreign languages in a book. Obviously, we have Spanish as it is set in Mexico, but also included are French, German and I am pretty sure Latin. It is the only book that I have pulled out my phone and put in phrases so that I could understand what was being said in that passage. I had a vague idea as I have the basics of some of the languages, but not enough to apparently read the passages. I also pulled out my phone to look up some of the people mentioned by Hugh in the book, and yes they are real people, so this book was educational.
It said on the cover "Lowry's Masterpiece...has a claim to being regarded as one of the ten most consequential works of fiction produced in [the twentieth] century" Los Angeles Times. At first I doubted this, but as I read along I was pulled into the characters, I also was depressed by the characters and there particular mind sets. This book goes straight into the minds of the characters:
The Consul, sent by England to Mexico, he is a drunkard prone to self-evaluation as well a his familiars evaluations. As I was reading this I had the feeling of him sitting with the angel and the devil on his shoulders having a debate, but there were more than two. This book happens within a day, so in the self-reflection and self-evaluations we get the prior story of the lives in the book. We also see how alcohol especially the Mescal and Tequila messes with his mind.
But we do not only see his reflections and evaluations of self, we also have his brother who either has a thing for the Consuls wife or actually acted on his infatuation with her, this is one of those treading water experiences for me. He is thinking about his music career, his time on a boat and how he became a journalist. He has multiple causes and opinions about what is and isn't right. He would really like to get Yvonne away from the Consul.
Yvonne is the Consul's wife who left him, mainly for his drinking, but also to see the world. We find out all about her in pages of self-evaluation. I think the most interesting part is when they are at a bull-throwing/riding and the bull is lazily walking around the stadium and all the people are trying to get it to do something. This is when she goes into a dream state with only minor interruptions in her thoughts. After several pages, we get back to the bull. This scenario happens quite frequently in the book, several pages of reflection and then we pick up where we left off briefly and then someone else reflects.
But this book is also about history, we are in Mexico around 1938, Hugh is talking about the Jews and how they are being treated. We have war lords and corrupt politicians in Mexico. They are rules in place that are really weird, such as, not being able to touch a hurt or dying person because you will be thrown in prison. So you have to just let them lie there and hope someone comes along to help. Very barbaric. So while I struggled with the book and had my own self evaluations and reflections, I can imagine that maybe for the time period, it was indeed a consequential work. Not many books delve so deeply into the psyche of a person as this book.
If you read this book, have your encyclopedia ready, maybe a dictionary and some foreign language books on hand or pulled up on your phone. I made mention several blogs ago about whether the author had been to Mexico and yes he had been there, as well as several other places. I did not read the introduction, the afterword or the section called about the book. I wanted to read it with an open mind. Now that I have this written I will go back and read those sections. I will let you know how off the mark I am, or if I almost hit the bulls-eye. I am sure I will learn more about the process and what triggered the writing of this book.
Happy reading.
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