We will read and discuss Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano, published in 1947 and reissued in 1965 with an introduction by (poet) Stephen Spender. Set in the fictional Mexican town of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead in 1938, Under the Volcano is a demanding (“writerly”) but rewarding read — poetic, complex, written from multiple points of view, open to diverse interpretations — filled with literary allusions, symbolism, mythology, and themes of love, isolation, addiction, regret, redemption. “Regarded as one of the ten most consequential works of fiction produced in the twentieth century” (Los Angeles Times), “one of the towering novels of the century” (New York Times), “one of the most original and creative novels of our time (Alfred Kazin), listed on the Modern Library’s 100 Best English-language Novels of the 20th Century and Le Monde’s 100 Books of the [20th] Century. A dozen readers around a table will bring many dozens of insights to this novel without exhausting the possibilities.
We will use the HarperCollins edition, published in 2007, ISBN # 978-0061120152. We should all use this edition so that we can easily reference passages during discussions.
The novel runs about 400 pages over 12 roughly equal chapters. Each session will focus discussion on three chapters (although, of course, some participants may have read ahead or may have read the novel previously).

Liffey Thorpe grew up in Washington D.C. She studied at St. John’s College, Annapolis before earning a B.A. in Greek and a Ph.D. in Classics from Stanford University. She taught Classics at Earlham College for 25 years. She and her husband, Peter Suber, moved to Brooksville with their two daughters in 2003. Liffey taught English, philosophy, and Latin at George Stevens Academy until 2008, and served as the school’s Communications Director until 2019.