The context for Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece, "Under the Volcano," is simple: a single day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin. It happens to be his last. The place is Quauhnahuac, Mexico, the day the Day of the Dead. As the locals celebrate the souls of the deceased, Firmin (also known as "the Consul"), h

Death, Dense, Euphoric, Hallucinatory, Modernist literature, Sprawling, Tragic

Dense, Dreamy, Modernist literature, Tragic, Witty

For any literary teenager in the '60s, reading Kerouac's "On the Road" was a must. But immediately following that came Hermann Hesse's study of the Buddha's early life, "Siddhartha." It comes as no surprise, for Hesse was one of the major literary influences on the Beat generation ("Siddhartha" was

Contemplative, Modernist literature, Mythic, Self-reflection, Sincere, Spiritual

The arts at the beginning of twentieth century saw a turn from social realism to a more expressionistic pathos, and the work of Yasunari Kawabata (Kawabata Yasunari) was no exception. In the 1920s his association with the Neo-Sensualists says it all: these writers employed lyrical and impressionistic

Death, Lyrical, Melancholy, Modernist literature, Sensual