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Inside the Volcano: My Life with Malcolm Lowry by Jan Gabrial — book cover

Inside the Volcano: My Life with Malcolm Lowry

by Jan Gabrial
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Overview

This intimate memoir of the tempestuous marriage between Jan Gabrial, a young, aspiring American writer, and British novelist Malcolm Lowry takes us through the highs and lows of this passionate, troubled relationship. Lowry began writing his best-known work, Under the Volcano, during their marriage, while the two were living in Mexico. He based the character of Yvonne on his wife. Now, for the first time, Jan Gabrial tells the true story of their lives during those heady years, and provides a compelling portrait of a troubled artist, a bright and independent young woman, their deep love and bitter struggles, and her positive role in the creation of his work.

Synopsis

This intimate memoir of the tempestuous marriage between Jan Gabrial, a young, aspiring American writer, and British novelist Malcolm Lowry takes us through the highs and lows of this passionate, troubled relationship. Lowry began writing his best-known work, Under the Volcano, during their marriage, while the two were living in Mexico. He based the character of Yvonne on his wife. Now, for the first time, Jan Gabrial tells the true story of their lives during those heady years, and provides a compelling portrait of a troubled artist, a bright and independent young woman, their deep love and bitter struggles, and her positive role in the creation of his work.

Booknews

Gabrial, then an aspiring young American writer, tells what it was like to be married to British novelist Malcolm Lowry from 1934 to 1940, and especially during their year in Mexico when he began his best known worked . The book's character Yvonne is based on her. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author, Jan Gabrial

Jan Gabrial was novelist Malcolm Lowry's first wife. The couple married in 1934 in Paris. They spent a year (1936) living in Mexico, where Lowry began writing Under the Volcano. Jan and Malcolm divorced in 1940 and she subsequently moved to Hollywood, where she worked in the entertainment industry and real estate.

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Editorials

Booknews

Gabrial, then an aspiring young American writer, tells what it was like to be married to British novelist Malcolm Lowry from 1934 to 1940, and especially during their year in Mexico when he began his best known worked . The book's character Yvonne is based on her. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A tough, realistic, and ultimately beautiful memoir of Lowry, by a former soulmate. In 1933, Gabrial was an aspiring young writer traveling about Europe in the spirit of the 1920s expatriates—drinking, writing, and taking lovers in each country she visited. In Grenada, she was introduced to an exuberant, tale-spinning Cambridge drunk named Malcolm Lowry. He pursued her from the outset, forcing his way into her good graces with eloquently crafted letters that were to become the true foundation of their "writing paper love" over the next six years. Writing with the wisdom that is acquired over a distance of many years, Gabrial recounts the symbolic nature of their intense yet combative love affair and subsequent marriage. From the early days in Paris (where Lowry read her diary, attacked her imagined suitors, and raged against her like a hell-bent Othello) to their misadventures in New York (where she left him for a time to work as a dance-hall girl), there was a palpable torment in the desperation of their ill-fated love. The third act takes place in Mexico, where Lowry found the inspiration for his masterpiece, Under the Volcano—one of the most moving portraits of hopeless love ever written. Gabrial recalls this interlude of bliss (where Lowry's art and their happiness were finally allowed to bloom for a brief moment) with unsentimental affection before going on to recount how the vulturous claws of drink, poverty, and jealousy picked at the carcass of their doomed marriage. "Malcolm is like the sea," she recalls, "he pulls me to him, then pushes me away, that he may once more draw me back." A vivid and moving account.Hitchens, Peter THE ABOLITION OF BRITAIN: From WinstonChurchill to Princess Diana Encounter(116 New Montgomery St., Ste. 206, San Francisco, CA 94105) (332 pp.) Nov. 1, 2000

Book Details

Published
March 1, 2010
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Pages
240
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780230619784

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