Reviews for Malcolm Lowry: A Biography

The average rating for Malcolm Lowry: A Biography based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-14 00:00:00 Joel E Dillard This is a wonderful biography to read if you´ve got any interest in Lowry, Under the Volcano or writers in general. It has everything and despite some aging - especially in his occassional interpretations of Lowry´s actions via psychoanalysis - you can´t help but come away with a clear picture of what Lowry was like in person. You can see, hear and feel him. Lowry is an odd character. First and foremost, of course, is the writing. Everything Lowry´s life was about writing; everything was grist to the mill. He wrote about writing his books. When he woke up in a mental asylum in New York he wrote about it. Anything - bad, good, embarrassing, heroic - was written about. His life was the story. But he wasn´t a happy man. He didn´t fit in with his family. He didn´t fit in where he lived. He didn´t fit in when he escaped to sea. He wanted to be a poet. He was insecure about his body. He drank intensely. When he was taken to a special hospital near London to be treated for alcholism in the 50´s, he was placed in a room with only a red light for company. No food or drink bar a tap which served him alcohol mixed with a poison to make him feel sick. Lowry stayed down in the hole happily, even breaking out with another prisoner on Christmas Eve, going on a bender and coming back of his own volition. He was a difficult man to live with. Bouts of happiness came with sobriety or moderate drinking but he was mostly broke and suffered indignities like having his house burn down when he was happy. The woman who lived with him had to navigate his moods and booziness. One found him in a whorehouse, lying on a dirty bed where he´d sold his trousers for gin. Taking him home, she had to stop at a bar to let him have a beer to calm his nerves. But Lowry was, I think, a heroic writer. His books are incredible, even the bad ones. Definitely unique. Psychadelic, almost. Askew. And what could be a better salve for the misunderstood writer than to read his famous letter to Jonathan Cape justifying Under The Volcano? If you have any interest in Lowry, this book will be your friend.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-15 00:00:00 Spencer Galvin Siempre será interesante leer la vida de un artista, y más cuando ese artista fue un genio. Lowry tuvo una vida triste y caótica. Fue un ser con la valentía y la voluntad para sumergirse en el abismo y emerger para contarnos su visión. Creador de una sola obra maestra: 'Bajo el volcán', de donde Roberto Bolaño tomó el epígrafe de 'Los detectives salvajes': "-¿Quiere usted la salvación de México? ¿Quiere que Cristo sea nuestro rey? -No." Lowry fue un hombre bueno y encantador (a pesar de muchos defectos, como todas las personas los tenemos), de quien alguna vez se dijo en un bar de México: "me basta ver a este cabrón un instante para andar contento cinco días. Y no exagero."