Under the Volcano
UNDER THE VOLCANO (Malcolm Lowry) - One Star
A truck carrying a load of thesauri collided with a train full of commas, killing 115 people. However, you don't care about any of them because all you read in the first hundred pages is flavor text and irrelevant tangential fantasies.
There are twenty commas on the first half-page of the novel (six sentences). Let me choose a page at random... page 170. Okay. Counting. 28 commas on this page (and four semi-colons). It's fucking ridiculous.
After the first hundred pages of this novel all I knew was that Geoffrey Firmin (The Consul) was an alcoholic who was going to die, and his wife (Yvonne) had left and returned for reasons unknown. THAT'S IT. Two minor details about two characters. No plot, no story, nothing. They say "write what you know." Thus, John Grisham, a lawyer, writes law thrillers. Malcolm Lowry, a drunk, wrote about a drunk. BUT HE FORGOT TO INCLUDE A FUCKING STORY.
I've been bored to tears after a hundred pages of a story, but never have I been so angry and felt like I've completely wasted my time. And this on a supposed "great novel" of the 20th Century.
At least Hemingway could still write decently when he was soused. Fuck you, Lowry, you fucking drunk asshole.
A truck carrying a load of thesauri collided with a train full of commas, killing 115 people. However, you don't care about any of them because all you read in the first hundred pages is flavor text and irrelevant tangential fantasies.
There are twenty commas on the first half-page of the novel (six sentences). Let me choose a page at random... page 170. Okay. Counting. 28 commas on this page (and four semi-colons). It's fucking ridiculous.
After the first hundred pages of this novel all I knew was that Geoffrey Firmin (The Consul) was an alcoholic who was going to die, and his wife (Yvonne) had left and returned for reasons unknown. THAT'S IT. Two minor details about two characters. No plot, no story, nothing. They say "write what you know." Thus, John Grisham, a lawyer, writes law thrillers. Malcolm Lowry, a drunk, wrote about a drunk. BUT HE FORGOT TO INCLUDE A FUCKING STORY.
I've been bored to tears after a hundred pages of a story, but never have I been so angry and felt like I've completely wasted my time. And this on a supposed "great novel" of the 20th Century.
At least Hemingway could still write decently when he was soused. Fuck you, Lowry, you fucking drunk asshole.
posted by Kevin at 11:59 AM
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