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Bobstad · 11-07-2010, 03:01 PM

I don't know if available in an eText; but, my favorite novel is Malcolm Lowry's OCTOBER FERRY TO GABRIOLA.

Published posthumously that was completed without revision from his notes, by his writing partner wife and one of their writer friends. The only book I've ever read and found so interesting, that twice now I've reread the whole book over again after the first read through.

What always amazes me about this book is that even though requiring an unabridged dictionary six times in several pages, and one chapter of many pages a single sentence; none of this is superfluous or without meaning and unnecessary. A writer who is often praised for his brilliant use of language; and whose masterpiece UNDER THE VOLCANO is said to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

I think one reason OCTOBER FERRY TO GABRIOLA has such an appeal to me, is since taking place near where I live now, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia; very close to where I'd lived in my youth also.

Lowry died in nineteen fifty-seven at the age of forty-seven; who'd been an extremely heavy drinker most of his life, that seems to afflict many great writers. Someone himself an acquaintance of writer Dylan Thomas who also died at forty-seven, also a heavy drinker. I drink to some extent; but, since more sedentary than either of those two not nearly so much.

And also a habit I'm convinced survives by default when there are other much more satisfying alternatives, though ones also universally suppressed in contemporary as well as historical culture. Being "driven to drink" a pretty common malady; where one tries to make the best of that, Lowry was a great professional at.

He is also said to be one of the most "cinematic" of writers. UNDER THE VOLCANO is simply the last day in the life of a heavy drinker who is murdered at the end of the book. Lowry's writing is also highly autobiographical; and two excellent long biographies exist about him, one written by a writer friend of his not long after his death; then another by an academic about ten years ago. Each in the six to eight hundred pages length.

Just to try to work a little further at my introduction here, without being drawn into too much bickering? The life altering advice given by people who know so little of me got off the deep end rather quickly. Whether or not comfortably so, I am pretty set in my ways.

11-07-2010, 03:01 PM	#27
Bobstad Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Bellingham, WA/USA Device: Mac G4 computer	I don't know if available in an eText; but, my favorite novel is Malcolm Lowry's OCTOBER FERRY TO GABRIOLA. Published posthumously that was completed without revision from his notes, by his writing partner wife and one of their writer friends. The only book I've ever read and found so interesting, that twice now I've reread the whole book over again after the first read through. What always amazes me about this book is that even though requiring an unabridged dictionary six times in several pages, and one chapter of many pages a single sentence; none of this is superfluous or without meaning and unnecessary. A writer who is often praised for his brilliant use of language; and whose masterpiece UNDER THE VOLCANO is said to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. I think one reason OCTOBER FERRY TO GABRIOLA has such an appeal to me, is since taking place near where I live now, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia; very close to where I'd lived in my youth also. Lowry died in nineteen fifty-seven at the age of forty-seven; who'd been an extremely heavy drinker most of his life, that seems to afflict many great writers. Someone himself an acquaintance of writer Dylan Thomas who also died at forty-seven, also a heavy drinker. I drink to some extent; but, since more sedentary than either of those two not nearly so much. And also a habit I'm convinced survives by default when there are other much more satisfying alternatives, though ones also universally suppressed in contemporary as well as historical culture. Being "driven to drink" a pretty common malady; where one tries to make the best of that, Lowry was a great professional at. He is also said to be one of the most "cinematic" of writers. UNDER THE VOLCANO is simply the last day in the life of a heavy drinker who is murdered at the end of the book. Lowry's writing is also highly autobiographical; and two excellent long biographies exist about him, one written by a writer friend of his not long after his death; then another by an academic about ten years ago. Each in the six to eight hundred pages length. Just to try to work a little further at my introduction here, without being drawn into too much bickering? The life altering advice given by people who know so little of me got off the deep end rather quickly. Whether or not comfortably so, I am pretty set in my ways.