Oscuro como la tumba donde yace mi amigo

by Malcolm Lowry, Carlos Manzano (Traductor)

Dark As the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid was Malcolm Lowry's last book. It is an autobiographical novel of Lowry's return to Mexico to look for his friend Marquez. The main character, an alcoholic writer, has problems finishing his books and with his publishers.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, 20th Century, Drugs, Classics, Literature, Novels

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Malcolm Lowry was a British novelist and poet whose masterpiece Under the Volcano is widely hailed as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Born near Liverpool, England, Lowry grew up in a prominent, wealthy family and chafed under the expectations placed upon him by parents and boarding school. He wrote passionately on the themes of exile and despair, and his own wanderlust and erratic lifestyle made him an icon to later generations of writers.

Lowry died in a rented cottage in the village of Ripe, Sussex, where he was living with wife Margerie after having returned to England in the summer of 1955, ill and impoverished. The coroner's verdict was death by misadventure, and the causes of death given as inhalation of stomach contents, barbiturate poisoning, and excessive consumption of alcohol.

It has been suggested that his death was a suicide. Inconsistencies in the accounts given by his wife at various times about what happened at the night of his death have also given rise to suspicions of murder.

Lowry is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Ripe. Lowry reputedly wrote his own epitaph: "Here lies Malcolm Lowry, late of the Bowery, whose prose was flowery, and often glowery. He lived nightly, and drank daily, and died playing the ukulele," but the epitaph does not appear on his gravestone

Reviews

[Barry Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fictionalised version of a real journey that the author and this wife took to Mexico which was left unfinished when Lowry died. Thankfully it was edited together and here we have this fantastic book about turmoil and disaster and longing and Poe. This book is infested with literary references that I just lived for. The first half of this novel is somewhat plot reliant but as we slip into the second half (and especially the third act) plot becomes tertiary. It is about the mind of a writer and how that mind is usually not incredibly sound. The prose reminds me of Pynchon with its gigantic solid blocks of text and almost lucid narrative at times. I really, really enjoyed this novel but it is definitely not for everybody. I need more Lowry.

[Makis Dionis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Άβυσσος, φόβος, μοναξιά, δαίμονες.
Χανγκοβερ: η κοντινότερη αναλογία με το αίσθημα της χαμένης αγάπης

Εξίσου συγκλονιστικό με το "Κάτω από το ηφαίστειο" κινείται παράλληλα αλλά και ανάμεσα από τις σελίδες αυτού. Μια σπειροειδής κατάβαση στους καταραμένους έρωτες κ τις ανίατες παθογένειες για την ομορφιά, το πάθος, τον έρωτα, το ταξίδι, το αλκοόλ και την οριστική αμοιβαία έξοδο, με αυτό που δεν δύναται να ξαναϋπάρξει , από τον παραδείσιο κήπο( που φαντάζει όμως προτιμότερη από οποιαδήποτε άλλη εκδοχή ζωής)

Μην αφήσετε τα παιδιά σας να καταστρέψουν τον κήπο αυτό

[Simon Robs · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I like a book it's almost always due to some "personal" connection having occurred through reading - something(s) just happen(s) when your experience overlays with mood, characters, plot, place etc. It can be some tangential thing or it can be verisimilitude of an almost exacting sense of being within the story's confines. Have you ever returned to some place of your own tragic/traumatic occurrence?

This was a book full of ghostly goings back, revisitation and recapitulation where [Lowery] Sigbjorn Wilderness as protag. returns to Mexico with his new wife Primrose from Canada where they now live after their house burns down and, to celebrate a honeymoon they never took after being married for some five years. Sigbjorn is a writer/poet though only ostensibly so with few if any published credits. His worked on and finished novel is received and under consideration with both English/American publishers while the story takes place. There's an eerie limbo at pace throughout, a sense of subdued foreboding in Wilderness's mind that he shields from his wife - she knows from having read and typed his manuscript about the clouded and debouched time in Mexico which is what his book ("The Valley of the Shadow of Death") is mostly about but not the trepidation of this return. He has mainly refrained from drinking while married and she has not picked up on this uneasiness as they travel by plane south. Wilderness is also seeking to reconnect with a mysterious friend in Oaxaca, Juan Fernando Martinez, who called him ‘my maker of tragedies’ and who was his benefactor if not savior from ruin. Lowery’s own book 'Under the Volcano" and this story are coterminous as he and Wilderness are one and the same bibulous writers in search of their will to expression. Sure there’s plenty more drinking and confused/unsettled moving about but, there’s also beautiful scenery and descriptive passages of rickety bus travel in 1945 Mexican heartland replete in volcanos and high mountain deserts flora/fauna. The Mezcal flows and the winds blow, time changes all we know, you can never go back to what was and you never should ‘cause past is past and Día de Muertos abides.

[Zalman · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason I read this before "Under the Volcano"; it served to whet my appetite for the more famous book. Although it was not published in Lowry's lifetime, but assembled from a much longer but unfinished typescript by his second wife, Margerie Bonner Lowry, and an Editor, Douglas Day, the writing displays all of the desperate brilliance that characterized "Under the Volcano". In this even more autobiographical story, the protagonist, Sigbjorn Wilderness, clearly modelled on Lowry himself, is an unsuccessful and alcoholic writer, returning to Mexico to see an old friend and revisit old haunts, while waiting to hear from his publisher about the fate of his latest novel (here given the original title for "Volcano", "The Valley of the Shadow of Death"). Upon learning that the manuscript has been rejected (just as Lowry's "Under the Volcano" was rejected repeatedly before finally being published in 1947), he descends into a self-obliterating cycle of drinking and hangovers. Many of the same key elements of "Volcano" are present: the hallucinogenic landscape of southern Mexico, relationships based on compulsive alcohol dependence, the tormented meditations on hope and despair. If this isn't your cup of tea, stay away. Otherwise, dig in; despite the unfinished feel and the knowledge that editorial choices had to be made when Lowry was no longer around to give his assent, it's a formidable and unforgettable trip into his darkly brooding consciousness.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The progression would have sounded to a spiritual and omniscient listener somewhat as follows: butterflies fire : butterflies fear : butterflies liar : butterflies Primrose : butterflies ruined holiday : butterflies guilt : butterflies Erikson : butterflies Eridanus : butterflies auto camps of the better class : butterflies failure : butterflies anguish : butterflies no one will ever buy The Valley of the Shadow of Death : butterflies Erikson : butterflies Fernando : butterflies I am failing Primrose : butterflies plagiarism : butterflies will they find out? butterflies after all : butterflies middle age : butterflies feet : butterflies where is that resolution I made last night : butterflies still kept, or is it: butterflies nonsense : butterflies middle age : butterflies disgrace : butterflies death : butterflies Erikson : to which might be added butterflies Communism : butterflies am I : butterflies people being tortured in China : butterflies atom bomb : and so on.”

If the above looks and sounds like your idea of a good time—I know it’s mine—proceed directly to the "Lowry, Fatalism, and Intoxication; Graduate Studies" course and gobble this post haste. It is absolutely essential to anyone that appreciated Under the Volcano (which, looking through your ratings, seems to be nearly all of my friends). This is the indispensable other half of Volcano, a barely-fictionalized account of Lowry on a bender as his masterpiece is rejected by every publisher with working presses.

This being Lowry, the whole book is about a long and prodigious drunk. But there's so much more. Grave has a level of self-referentialism that I’d never encountered in print prior to Borges. This isn’t ‘meta’ (ugh, that word) like At Swim-Two-Birds. This is Ficciones with mescalbreath y borracho perfectamente. It is a book about the failings of Volcano — explaining the origin stories of the characters and meeting their real-life inspirations— while the author of the same (Lowry as "Sigbjørn Wilderness"— beat that fucking name!) is writing another, last book about the trip he is on (same Mexican setting) in the book that is to be called, yep, Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid. Zing-zang-zong! Talk about your Chinese box stories! Someone get McCaffery on the phone.

So tie several on, get ‘tight’ with Lowry, and prepare for things to start shitty and go downhill from there. Fast. There is one leap made between chapters that, to channel McElroy, is as flawless, yet violent in its way, as a diver breaking the skin of a pool’s still surface. The jump is as electrical and instinctive as a triggered synapse, and you just whince at its inevitable logic. Rubber, meet road.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An intriguing unfinished novel that is semi autobiographical. The protagonist, Sigbjorn Wilderness, is a writer struggling to write, who is travelling in Mexico with his second wife, Primose. It’s 1945 and Sigbjorn is back in Mexico retracing an earlier 1936 trip he made to Mexico with his first wife, when he was mostly very drunk. He is back in Mexico to clarify places and characters he is writing about in his uncompleted novel, which is based on Sigbjorn’s 1936 Mexico trip.

There is some great writing, however Lowry’s ‘Under the ‘volcano’ is a much better novel, with well developed characters, beautiful descriptions of the landscape, and some plot.

This book was first published in 1968.

[Ta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeśli kogoś interesuje a) co siedzi w głowie alkoholika b) Meksyk AD 1945, to książkę przeczytać powinien. Mnie nie interesuje nic z powyższych, a historia w tej książce jest w gruncie rzeczy żadna.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me see if I have this straight: Lowry wrote a partially autobiographical novel, "Under the Volcano", about a man drinking himself towards death in remote Mexico. This novel is about a writer who once nearly drank himself to death in remote Mexico, wrote a book about it, and now revisits remote Mexico with his new wife, drinking way too much and trying to write a novel. I didn't enjoy Lowry's heavy style before, and it's no less forbidding now. The best thing by far here is the name Lowry gives his alter ego - Sigbjorn Wilderness.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essential follow-up to one of my favorite books of all time (and criminally underrated/read), Under the Volcano.

This book is nearly perfect and 4 measly stars just seems entirely too inadequate.

[Noteeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A drunken/hungover 3 stars, but not without interest.

[Karol R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Może nawet 3.5*
Trochę się męczyłem i długo czytałem (wiele dłużyzn, ostatnie 100 stron to ogromny zieeew), ale ma takie momenty, że szczena opada. No i generalnie podobało mi się to przecinanie płaszczyzny realnej, wspomnieniowej i wyobrażonej. Widać też zaczęte wątki, które nie zostały dokończone - w sumie jak cała powieść wydana po śmierci autora na podstawie notatek. Irytowało mnie polskie wydanie i wtręty z hiszpańskiego, które jeśli się powtarzają to nie są tłumaczone ponownie (weź człowieku szukaj w takim razie, gdzie wcześniej to zdanie zostało przetłumaczone). Jako pierwszy kontakt z pisarzem - wydaje mi się, że dokonałem nienajlepszego wyboru. Ale czy zachęciła mnie, by sięgnąć po kolejne jego książki - nie.

[M.R. Dowsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is an 'unfinished', posthumously-published novel, don't let that put you off as it reads like a highly-polished and complete work. This is especially impressive as the editors apparently did not allow themselves to add a single word not written by Lowry, but had quite a task in cobbling it all together.

Anyway, it deals with Lowry's return to Mexico to see an old friend after living in Canada for several years. Using the alter-ego Sigbjorn Wilderness, he revisits old haunts used as locations for 'Under the Volcano' (here called 'The Valley of the Shadow of Death'). Along the way, he ruminates on various relationships - with the friend he is seeking, with his wife, with Mexico, with alcohol, with literature, etc. Despite being such a self-obsessed piece of work, it's somehow fascinating and also moving - and nobody puts a sentence together better than Lowry. It's also by no means as pessimistic as the title suggests. I loved every word and would strongly recommend this to anyone who has read 'Under the Volcano' and wants more.

[Judith Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

A writer called Sigbjorn Wilderness goes to Mexico and gets really drunk. During this trip, he reminisces about his last trip to Mexico, when he got really drunk, and struggles to get his book published, which is about going to Mexico and getting really drunk. I believe Lowry went to Mexico twice and got very drunk both times.....

His obsession that everyone thinks his book is a rip-off of "Drunkard's Rigadoon" was funny, although apparently Lowry really was convinced everyone thought "Under The Volcano" was a rip-off of The Lost Weekend (of which I've only seen the film, but I thought it bore no resemblance).

The wonderful title drew me to this book but it does rather give away what's coming, like "Death In Venice" (but less so than, say, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"!)

[Lacascario · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hellishly introspective book that delves deeply into self doubt, paranoia, and shame. Lowry, like no other author captures the despair of an addict. This book is a direct companion to "Under the Volcano," and should be read as such. It is painfully slow at times, and contains perhaps the longest paragraphs in existence, but it is also a powerfully moving work that unflinchingly stairs into the authors greatest nightmares. As a work of art it is a tremendous achievement and I am in awe of its courage and honesty.

[Adriaan Krabbendam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modern romantic literature to the extreme. Faulkner improved. Every line is beautiful, An amazing achievement.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please see Cody's review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[teczowa_ksiazka · Rating 4 out of 5]

przygnębiająca

[365_ksiazek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malcolm Lowry był brytyjskim powieściopisarzem. We Wstępie słowo „geniusz” odmieniane jest przez wszystkie przypadki. Ja nie jestem aż tak entuzjastyczna.

Co my tu mamy?
Niespełniony pisarz Sigbjørna wyrusza wraz z żoną do Meksyku, by tam odnaleźć dawnego przyjaciela. Podróż przez Meksyk trwa, alkohol leje się strumieniami, a Sigbjørn mierzy się z demonami przeszłości. Im dłużej podróżują, tym mężczyzna bardziej zapada się w sobie.
Do tego problemy relacyjne, nałóg i niezrealizowane ambicje, a także kryzys wieku średniego i duża frustracja. Całość okraszona sporą dawką chaosu, ale także refleksji.
Cóż przyniesie z sobą ta wyprawa? W jakie rejony go zaprowadzi? Do jakich dojdzie wniosków?

Jeżeli szukać soczystej fabuły, wiarygodnych dialogów i licznych zwrotów akcji, to niestety, nie tutaj. Natomiast, jeśli interesuje was wiwisekcja ludzkiej psychiki, to ta książka może sprawić wam przyjemność.
Ta autobiograficzna powieść może dać satysfakcję, jednak mnie nie potrwała. Ponadto, jest raczej wymagającą lekturą. Nie czyta jej się jednym tchem.

Miałam okazję przeczytać już dwie książki z tej serii i całość bardzo mnie zadowala. Dostałam bardzo różne historie i inne narracje, ale w tej różnorodności jest siła Serii Vintage.

„Da się to po­wie­dzieć o przy­jaźni za­war­tej przy pi­wie, choć w mniej­szym stop­niu przy bo­ur­bo­nie. Ale to w mez­calu tkwi za­sada bo­skiej czy de­mo­nicz­nej siły Mek­syku, która, o czym wie każdy, kto tam był, do dzi­siaj po­zo­staje nie­obła­ska­wiona. Pod wpły­wem mez­calu lu­dzie bę­dący po trzeź­wemu naj­lep­szymi przy­ja­ciół­mi zro­bią wszyst­ko, by się na­wza­jem za­mor­do­wać. Jed­nak przy­jaźń za­warta przy mez­calu, która to prze­trwa, prze­trwa wszyst­ko”. Tamże, s. 120

„Nie, miasto nie było aż takie straszne ani aż takie piękne, jak chciałby je przedstawić: było nie-prawdziwe; śmierć też była nieprawdziwa, dlatego cały czas musiał nosić maskę wyrażającą ludzki strach; czy on, Wilderness, to wymyślił, czy gdzieś to przeczytał, a może Primrose to powiedziała? Poszli do Salón Modelo: Sigbjørn półżywy ze strachu podszedł do baru, do czarującego barmana z wyłupiastymi oczami, i wypili habanero”. Tamże, s. 377-378.

[podrozdzial · Rating 3 out of 5]

styl narracji „w ciemności grobu” to wartko i zawile płynący strumień świadomości głównego bohatera, który wraz ze swoją małżonką wyrusza w podróż do meksyku. wyjazd ten ma stanowić próbę rozliczenia się ze swoją przeszłością, wspomnieniami hulaszczego życia i refleksję nad własnym warsztatem i spełnieniem pisarskim. tym samym całość poniekąd stanowi lustro dla wydarzeń z życia samego autora - gęsto tu od autobiograficznych wątków tworzących ciasno utkaną sieć i grającą z czytelnikiem w grę na spostrzegawczość.

klimat powieści osadzonej w meksykańskich realiach jest duszny na myśl o panujących tam temperaturach, jednocześnie też gorzki od ilości spożywanego przez bohaterów alkoholu i cierpki, gdy przyjdzie czas na pochylenie się nad psychiką artysty. choć historię opowiada się tu w sposób łotrzykowski i nonszalancki, trudno jednak porzucić wrażenie, że to jedynie nieudolne opakowanie prawdziwych, boleśnie namacalnych i rzeczywistych problemów: depresji, alkoholizmu, niemocy. miotając się między wiwisekcją swojego upadku a egotycznym zachwytem narrator dokonuje pewnego rodzaju spowiedzi zamkniętej w żmudnych blokach tekstu i przeplatanych cynicznymi, upozorowanymi na spokój wewnętrzny dialogami. najważniejszym jest tu zdobycie się egzystencjalną podróż, na końcu której nie ma pewności czy znajduje się jakakolwiek odpowiedź.

[Smog · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a travel novel, the book is made out of the notes of the author's own travel to Mexico, or so the introduction says. There are some reflections on being a writer and on struggling with alcohol addiction. Overall not super engaging nor exceedingly interesting, its strength lies in the author's tendency towards lyricism, which appears already from the title. It can give some good impressions but won't make you feel much for his friend laying in the grave.

[Sebastián Heine · Rating 3 out of 5]

50 paginas de una letra enana quer se sintieron como 100, lo intente, de verdad lo intente pero me super. No me interesa Sibjorn y Primrose, no me gusto el ritmo, me cuestas mucho encontrarle valor. Entiende que es un problema mio, pero con tantos libros afuera, porque he de obligarme a leer algo que hace que no quiera leer. Le pongo 3 porque dilucido que tiene valor, pero no lo encuentro, probablemnte si estuviera más instruido podria sacarle el jugo.

[Kai Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get the work is unfinished however I just didn't get on with it. The descriptions are bursting at the seams, maybe a little too much as he shows and then tells. And then shows some more. The opening line drags down a whole half page!
The characters move the story along in their internal world- the main two representing Malcolm and his wife on their trip to Mexico to find his friend and therefore feel very real but it just wasn't my cup of tea :(

[Marlie Verheggen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing prepared me for the fear, the shame, the gloomy taste of the hangovers of now and the past.
It is hard reading, you’d almost start drinking, to escape the palpable panic attacks.
Yes, a friend has died, reading this was mourning on many levels.

[my name is corey irl · Rating 2 out of 5]

here i took a better photo for you goodreads

[Luis Maggi · Rating 2 out of 5]

No es la calidad del libro, sino la traduccion la que no permite disfrutar este viaje introspectivo de Lowry

[Jean Papillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but not as good as Under the Volcano

[Amerynth · Rating 3 out of 5]

My habit of picking books to read based upon interesting titles led me astray this time. I haven't read Malcolm Lowry's much lauded "Under the Volcano" so many of the references in "Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid" were right over my head.

Apparently written after Lowry died from notes he made during a real-life journey to Mexico, "Dark As..." explores the colossally bad idea of taking your second wife on a vacation to visit the places where your marriage to your first wife finally went kaput and you wandered soused wondering what to do with yourself. Cue more soused wanderings and a few philosophical ramblings.

This was a very difficult book to get into -- the first 75 pages document the flight from Canada to Mexico. But it started to grow on me as it went on and I adjusted to Lowry's writing style. Overall, the book seemed to ramble a bit but had entertaining bits interspersed in it too.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An altogether brilliant and confusing exploration into the mind of a genius alcoholic. Nearly completely autobiographical in nature, Lowry's tale of Sigbjorn (Lowry himself) is an interesting but difficult read. Moments of sheer brilliance blend into interesting but disjointed explorations of big-picture philosophy and are often followed by nearly nonsensical forays into drunken half-memories. A worthwhile read only if you are willing to study the text rather than read it as a novel, as many of the concepts are vague and abstract, and often difficult to glean from the text without close reading. Lowry is unquestionable a genius and impressive writer, but his alcoholism inevitably led to the disjointed and confusing narrative.

[Count Duckula · Rating 4 out of 5]

golly what a title! and the book includes amongst other heartbreakers the image of writing as a burning house ... is it my imagination or does the old drunk almost get political here? a fan of cardenas' 30s socialist mexico dream?

[Jmurray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could have sworn I already saved this review, but this is the straight autobiographical companion to 'Under The Volcano', which is an incredible book. So this is the ideal book to read shortly after you read that.