Reading 1001 discussion

This book is the 'classic literature' version of a Cussler-style thriller. In this novel, Nostromo aka Capataz de Cargadores aka Gian' Battista Fidanza, an Italian orphan, finds a home in the New World with a colonial family, the Violas. He quickly establishes himself as a reliable and capable worker, and when a revolution throws his town into chaos, Nostromo becomes indispensable as the only man who can be trusted to hide a large supply of silver ingots from the nearby silver mine. Believed dead after the sinking of the ship carrying the silver, he miraculously returns and saves the day for his fellow townspeople, defeating the evil, greedy revolutionaries with a daring and heroic cross-country ride. The details of this heroism are glossed over, oddly enough, as if Conrad got tired of writing his book and just shoved all the rest of the story into as few pages as he could to wrap up and publish his book and be done with it.
In the hands of a good modern writer this would have been a thriller adventure novel, and certainly the handsome Nostromo reminded me a bit of Dirk Pitt, tall, dark and handsome, capable of swimming a mile to escape a shipwreck, riding for days cross country to bring help to his friends, etc. But in Conrad's style this is a tedious book, heavy and boring for far too much of the book, despite all the action. In fact, most of the action is treated as almost an afterthought, so that the focus of the book is more on the agonizing, pondering, worrying, and other internal reactions of the characters to events that mostly occur off-screen. I enjoyed the overall story enough to give the book 3 stars, but no more than that, and I'd lean more towards 2.5 stars if we had half-stars on Goodreads.

Jamie gave a good summary above so I won't bother on that front. I think it was cool that the fictional nation is the book is likely a stand in for Columbia.

I also gave this 3 stars. I enjoyed it well enough: but it didn't have the same sense of suspense or deep socio cultural analysis that I feel his better books have (Heart of Darkness, Shadow Line, Lord Jim etc). I liked the bait and switch ish ending though.

My goodness but Mr. Conrad can ramble on and on and on. Gave this 4 stars because the story is great despite the over writing.





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Reason read: Reading 1001, tbr takedown, TIOLI #2, Sept 2023.
The book was written in the early part of the 20th century and is probably Conrad's greatest achievement, a bridge to the modernistic novel and a fictional depiction of post-colonial global capitalism.

The setting is a fictionalized country on the eastern coast of South America like Columbia. The time period of over throwing dictators, puppet governments set up by European and US countries. It is also a time period of transition to steam powered ships.

The story is told by use of backstory, flashbacks, anachrony, metadiegetic narrative. Conrad relates a historical time period in just a few weeks of time. The long development of the backstory makes it hard to engage with the story and I did not fully engage in it until well past the midpoint. I listened to the audio and wonder if I could have made it through actually reading it. It may be soporific. Social and cultural issues include a cast of characters from all walks of life; business men, dictators, aristocrats, politicols, protestant, catholic, servants, employees. Capitalism is depicted as power and control and the reason for revolt and the birth of Marxism.

Characters; There are many characters. Nostromo is an Italian dockworker. Nostromo implies his work. His name is Giovanni Battista Fidanza. Charles Gould inherits the decrepit silver mine and becomes obsessed with it to the point of neglecting his wife. Martin Decoud is a man who has spent time in Paris and considers himself European even though he was born in S. America. He is a propagandist journalist. Ribera is the puppet governor set up have the overthrow of the dictotor. General Montero overthrows Ribiera. Nostromo and Dcoud are tasked with getting the lighter of silver out of the country. A task that they fail to complete but do to an incident at sea, it is believed that the silver was lost at sea. The silver is the pivot for the morals and politics of the book.

I finished the story but it was not easy, mostly because of the lengthy backstory and the stylistic writing. The story itself is not complicated. I am glad to be done with it and it is a book that should be reread, probably right away. But I will not be doing so at this time. It has achieved the test of time. It is listed as 47 of 100 best fiction of the 20th Century by Modern Library.
Gave this a B- or 3.6 stars

Set in a fictional South American country in the early 20th century, this book focuses on “folk hero” Nostromo, a nickname which I assume is from the Italian “[il] nostro uomo”, meaning “our man”. He came from Italy as a child and has been taken to heart by the people of his adopted country, being pretty much the perfect action hero – strong, daring, attractive to women, etc. The plot involves a silver mine and its output of ingots which Nostromo is deputed to hide.

I’m not entirely sure why the silver had to be hidden, because I was listening to the audio and I found it very hard to stay attentive for the first half of the story. It’s just so slow to set up the scene among the wealthier colonists including the owners of the mine and the professional and business people of the city. The story ends (view spoiler)[with the silver bringing doom to its possessors, (hide spoiler)]like any blockbuster action/adventure novel, but Conrad seemed to be trying to do something different in the earlier part of the story.

I did enjoy some aspects, especially the nuances of the many characters and their motivations. I do think it’s possible for books to have an adventure plot and literary depth, but I didn’t think this book succeeded in melding the two without the seams showing. Still, I appreciated it enough to give it three stars.

As others have mentioned above, Conrad's story is an adventure tale which, by and large, he does not present in a tight dramatic unfolding but rather as a study in a small handful of characters. We learn about many of the most dramatic moments through the voice of a secondary character such as Captain Mitchell telling us about Nostromo's heroic ride to gather General Barrios back to town, or through a quip by the narrator such as when he mentions Mrs Gould's reflecting later in life about the night of the revolution. He consistently foreshadows events as if to purposely negate any dramatic tension. Further Conrad's three part structure for the book causes the perspective and flow to be clunky. On the other hand, Conrad is very interested in the desires and motivations in his collection of characters and he does give us an interesting 1904 version of the rise of socialism, the concept of the "every man", and the corrupting influence of colonialism and its focus on material interests. His portrait of a post -colonial struggle in South America seems quite true to the times. The overall tone of the book is one in which he shows us a human history where even the good (presumably Mrs. Gould and Antonia) are not rewarded for their patience and generosity. The book has sizable flaws or maybe one could say, interesting plot decisions, such as Decoud going insane in a matter of days or Hirsch showing up out of the blue again. Further Conrad spends a great deal of time on the backstory of Hernandez and Captain Mitchell, for example, and although Hernandez is very interesting we don't actually get to meet him but once. I did appreciate how the characters become corrupted or led astray by their own visions of themselves. Even the remarkable Mrs. Gould sees that all she has done and all that she has given only allowed for further destruction of what could have been a possible good in the world. I also found the doctor to be a uniquely Conradian creation, someone who was roundly disliked but was able to see the truth in many of the things going on around him.

Four stars minus. Extremely lucid and well-developed but the story a little dull. I think Conrad just put about 30% too many words in this for one thing, making the story very slow. A condensed version 65- 75% as long might have gotten a five star rating for me.
In the first half, Charles Gould, the CEO and a primary owner of the San Tome mine, is the main character. "Nostromo" the dock foreman who became a mine foreman is the main character of the second half.