A teacher at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop once asked his student Denis Johnson what he’d been reading in his spare time. “I only ever read one book,” he responded, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. Slackers love Denis Johnson and his cast of degenerates, so this Spicoli-style answer feels appropriate in tone. It’s also spot-on in content, since Volcano anticipates the author’s central theme.
Read full article by Dan Duray on New York Observer
This made me smile!!:
Malcolm Lowry returns to Puerto Bello, California after five years in Mexico. He ‘s out for revenge against his friend Nikke. Lowry thinks he set him when he asked him to defend a friend. The trial blew up in Lowry’s face and he’s disbarred. He lost fifty thousand dollars by investing with Colonel John Hoop. Lowry figures it was a crooked deal. Worst of all his wife Jen was killed in a car accident he feels was a set up.
Now he’s back with a whole new look and a new name. It doesn’t take long for everyone to find out who he really is. Nikke runs gambling clubs and is in with the Syndicate. During his efforts to get payback he’s drawn into being accused of murder and is wanted by the Syndicate and the cops.
This is a lot of action but it all means something. It’s an easy book to get caught up in. If you like the crime novels of the 50′s, this Ace Double is one of their better publications.
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