Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry ‘is widely regarded as one of the greatest 20th‑century English‑language works - In 1998 Modern Library ranked Under the Volcano at number 11 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, it is 63rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where the macaws overwhelm

 

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry ‘is widely regarded as one of the greatest 20th‑century English‑language works - In 1998 Modern Library ranked Under the Volcano at number 11 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, it is 63^rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where the macaws overwhelm

 

8 out of 10 because I could not grasp it, but it is certainly a 10 out of 10

 

I could not read Ulysses, but I still found resources for https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/araby-by-james-joyce-mesmerizing.html his short stories, Dubliners, ergo I may have to try this scheme with Malcolm Lowry, check the list of his oeuvres and pick something else, somehow, Under the Volcano covered with me under the eruption

 

 All the important lists include this, Modern Library, The Goat, TIME All 100, even Le Monde’s 100 Books of The Century has selected Under The Volcano, and this is a compilation which emphasizes French chefs d’oeuvre, starting with L’Etranger, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, moving through an impressive collection

The problem is that on the one hand I found this mesmerizing: quite a number of years ago, maybe more than ten, I have started reading Under The Volcano, I was quite surprised to see that I do not have a review about this on my blog, although now I realize that I have changed medium, and there might be something, somewhere

 

According to Mark https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html by Penelope Lively has this remarkable passage – ‘the novelist has an infinity of choices, He chooses what is to happen, to whom it happens, and in what way he will relate what happens, the picture he constructs is complete on its own terms…when he says this is the story and the whole story we must accept it…perhaps novelists are the only people telling the truth’ concluding hence that the writer is god’

I found that readers have a special status as well, if not full gods, at least demi gods would apply in the context, for they control who enters their realm, and much of the above is pertinent, in another place I have read that ‘reading is just as difficult as writing’, or something to that effect, the point here being the censorship of Under the Volcano

 

Not consciously, I mean I even extracted some lines from the novel, after the first encounter, I started using ‘salud y pesetas, just as I liked the Spanish words used ‘quien sabe…No se puede vivir sin amar”, it may have to do with the desperation, the absurdity of the attitude of the Consul, Geoffrey Firmin, who is an alcoholic

‘For Christ’s sake, Yvonne, come back to me, hear me, it is a cry, come back to me, Yvonne, if only for a day…’ and what do you think, the wife that had left him, does come back, but does he change his ways? No, he does not, and that is frustrating, although addiction is a serious disease, I should stay away from sweets, but I do not

Another reason for not enjoying this majestic masterpiece, which is clearly magnificent, but I cannot reach it, could be connected with my own marital problems, my wife stays in the same house, temporarily, just because we have these children aka macaws and we care better for them as it is, and it a question of convenience, soon to disappear maybe, because the small firm does not have a profit – hence reading about a failed marriage, self-destructive hero may be not so enticing