New Releases by Malcolm Lowry

Although his literary reputation rests primarily on his novels, Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) considered himself to be a poet, and he composed an extensive poetic canon. No reliable edition of Lowry''s poetry currently exists. Increasing critical interest in all aspects of Lowry''s life and work prompted the preparation of this complete edition of his poetry, in which the poems are located, identified, dated, arranged, collated, annotated, and explicated by biographical, critical, and textual introductions.

From the beginning, John Sutherland recognized that his literary gifts lay in criticism rather than in poetry. His independence from the academy and his largely autodidactic training gave him a unique perspective as a critic of Canadian literature. What these letters document, beyond a purely personal struggle, is a period (1942-1956) of great importance in the development of Canadian poetry, and it is above all the nuts and bolts of that development that they bring into keen relief: the economics of publishing books and literary magazines in the days before The Canada Council, and the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of trying wholly to live a life in literature at that time.

To a remarkable extent the filmscript of Tender is theNight, which Malcolm Lowry wrote in 1949-50 with the help ofMargerie Bonner Lowry, is less an adaptation of F. ScottFitzgerald''s novel than an extension of Lowry''s own fiction. AsMiguel Mota and Paul Tiessen show, Malcolm Lowry''s script containsimportant passages which are really "cinematic" restatementsof parts of Lowry''s novel Lunar Caustic, and of shortstories such as "Through the Panama" and "StrangeComfort Afforded by the Profession." The editors note also the many direct and indirect allusions toelements from Lowry''s master-work, Under the Volcano(1947), a novel that is regarded by many critics as one of the most"cinematic" prose works of the twentieth century. A closestudy of the text reveals that Lowry took on the Tender is the Nightproject partly as a means of reopening his Under the Volcanonarrative, of re-exploring its plot and problems and its characters andthemes, and of carrying as far as possible the "cinematic"style he had begun to examine in that work. Lowry''s Tender is the Night manuscript is important,then, not only as a completed, 455-page text in its own right but alsoas a text having a direct bearing on Lowry''s own reading ofUnder the Volcano and of his sense of artistic direction afterthat work. Indeed, the editors consider the significance of thefilmscript as a key - hitherto almost entirely overlooked - tounderstanding his projected multiple volume work, The Voyage ThatNever Ends. This scholarly edition of Lowry''s script presents 38 passages ofvarying length - from less than one page to over 100 pages - in whichLowry writes with a freedom and creativity that lead to a textnarratively and stylistically quite separate and distinct fromFitzgerald''s original. It excludes passages where Lowry adheresmore or less slavishly, at 37 intervals, to Fitzgeralds'' novel,though it provides brief narrative summaries of and comments on thoseomitted sections. Lowry''s achievement in his filmscript demonstrates the nature ofhis life-long commitment to and extensive knowledge of theinternational cinema from the 1910s to the 1950s and also the nature ofhis view of the novelist''s responsibility to participate in thedevelopment of film as an art. The script also illustrates Lowry''s relationship with F. ScottFitzgerald as one in a series of literary kinships, and as the editorspoint out, the work becomes a criticism and analysis of bothFitzgerald''s novel and of Fitzgerald himself.

Ethan et Jacqueline viennent de perdre leur maison sur la côte canadienne... Absolument rien que cendres. Moins les ravages d''un incendie que d''un maléfice absorbant tout : maison, jardin, même une partie du verger avaient disparu, soufflés ou grillés, disparu dans ce vaste cataclysme infernal, cette bibli-catastrophe...Toujours debout, pétrifiés, prunelles écarquillées, contemplant la maison là où ne se trouvait plus nulle maison, contemplant l''intérieur, le gracieux fantasme encore non enfui de l''escalier et des rampes polies, s''aimant à la folie, se déchirant, ils décident de partir vers l''île de Gabriola. Vers ce qui est, peut-être, une terre promise. Ils partent en car, en ferry-boat, obsédés par le feu, par la tentation de l''ivresse, assaillis par les innombrables difficultés, les innombrables contretemps. Et, un jour, ils arrivent à Gabriola...

The eighty letters, cards and other messages in this correspondence-- produced mainly by Lowry and Gerald Noxon but also by Margerie(Bonner) Lowry -- offer a fresh introduction to Lowry, a certain''Canadian'' Lowry. At the same time they give insight into twowriting careers (Bonner and Noxon) closely intertwined with his andvigorously championed by him in the 1940s. The letters observe the mind of Lowry at play on questions ofliterary technique, on films, and on the beauties and rigors of life inhis Dollarton shack on an inlet near Vancouver. They reveal a warm,supportive, enormously sensitive and intelligent man, modifyingsomewhat the image of him now available. With their dramatization ofNoxon''s role in Lowry''s writing career, they illuminate for thefirst time something of Lowry''s method of actually solving theproblems he encountered in re-writing Under the Volcano. Noxon, CBC radio dramatist, novelist, and poet, emerges as atalented and perceptive writer who was able to encourage Lowry bothmorally and practically. Noxon''s deftness in expertly combining theunofficial roles of devoted and spirited family member and literaryeditor gives the letters -- often brimming with high spirits and fondaffection -- a relaxed and buoyant tone missing from much other Lowrycorrespondence.

In Mexico spelende roman met autobiografische inslag, waarin op vaak chaotische wijze de vertwijfeling wordt getekend van een aan de drank verslaafde man.

On the Day of the Dead, 1938, former British consul Geoffrey Firmin is in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, where his life has become overshadowed by the debilitating malaise of drinking. His wife, Yvonne, has just arrived on a mission to rescue their failing marriage, inspired by a vision of a life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. But Yvonne''s mission is further complicated by the presence of the consul''s half-brother, Hugh, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one day unfold against the unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical. A modern classic, Under the Volcano is a powerful and lyrical statement on the human condition and one man''s constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

Reprinted from Paris review, no. 29, 1963.