Malcolm Lowry, Mescal, and the Charms of Cuernavaca

Malcolm Lowry, Mescal, and the Charms of Cuernavaca by Barry Evetts:

Of his host country sometime British novelist, short story writer, poet, wanderer and dipsomaniac Malcolm Lowry once said; “Mexico… is the most Christ-awful place in the world to be in any form of distress.”

His cry from the heart comes as little surprise from a writer perennially short of cash, his work seen as confusing and difficult to market, and his drinking habits consuming much of the money he received as an allowance from his wealthy, remote, and sometimes disapprovingly Victorian father. But in Cuernavaca, today a popular weekend getaway spot an hour or so south by car from the fumed-filled valleys of Mexico City, Lowry conceived and drafted the short story which would later grow to be a novel and become his contribution to quirky yet colourful literature as Under the Volcano. Read more