Nostromo (1904)

This was a very good book, and I am only surprised that I did not consider it to be excellent. It felt fresh and immediate (though written a century ago), with an interesting story, engaging characters, and comments on society. I'm tempted to think that I needed to be in a different frame of mind to savour its full worth, but on the other hand one of the measures of a good book is the extent to which it draws the reader into its world. I damn this very good book with faint praise. ( )

In high school we read Victory by Joseph Conrad. Any one I have mentioned this to since can't believe that it was considered a good idea to have Conrad read by high school students. Certainly it did nothing for me and, as a result, I refused to read anything else by Conrad. Until now when some online friends were reading Nostromo and I decided to join them.

I am happy to report that as an adult I managed to make it through the book and even found parts of it to admire. The story can be summarized quite briefly. In a fictional South American country, a large silver mine run by an Englishman, Mr. Gould, flourishes and brings prosperity to the local economy. However, in the rest of the country political unrest is common. When Mr. Gould learns that the moderate president has been unseated and that the revolutionaries are going to come for the mine he decides to send all the silver bars off-shore for safekeeping. The person chosen to undertake this dangerous mission is Nostromo, an Italian sailor who has become indispensable to the town and seaport. In the dark the small boat carrying the silver is sideswiped by a boat of revolutionaries coming to take over the seaport. One man on board, a stowaway, manages to grab hold of the anchor rope and he is brought up onto the boat. He tells the master that the silver has sunk with the boat. In fact, Nostromo and another man have survived and manage to get the boat onto a nearby island. They hide the silver there and Nostromo returns to the town. There he is persuaded to undertake a hazardous ride and bring help which he does. By the time he returns the man left on the island has killed himself so no-one knows that the silver is safe. Nostromo decides to keep the silver for himself.

In the style of the times, I suppose, there is a lot of description and slow movement of plot. Conrad is fond of long, multi-phrase sentences that are often difficult to follow. Although Nostromo is the title character, he doesn't appear in much of the narrative. I found this strange and awkward.

However, having broken the curse of hating Conrad I may try Heart of Darkness which many people feel is his greatest work. ( )

The first long story by Conrad I've read. The story of a backwater region of the fictional Central American country of Costaguana, and the various races and personalities living there. Written in 1904. Set in the early 1900's (steamships, horse-drawn carriages, railway construction, new telegraph lines).

With the help of the Italian gun-for-hire Nostromo, the English owners of the San Tome silver mine and their Spanish and Italian allies protect the area of Sulaco from the chaos of seemingly perpetual (and farcical) revolution.

In one of the prefaces, Conrad says that he felt he had said all he had to say as an author after writing "Typhoon and Other Stories," and that "Nostromo" was much more of an effort. I have to agree with him - this is not on par with "Typhoon and Other Stories." Much of it feels forced and aimless. ( )

Joseph Conrad’s [Nostromo] is a novel for the ages, premonitory and haunting. Though written at the turn of the twentieth century, the blistering account of a small, South American country stumbling toward political and economic identity accurately forecasts a full century of human civilization.

Nostromo provides the heart of Conrad’s story in tragic Greek fashion. As civil war erupts in the region, the stevedore is drawn into a revolution. Gould, an Englishman raised in the country, chooses Nostromo to hide silver from his mine before marauding forces can steal it. Worshipped by all for his moral certainty and physical mettle, Nostromo seems the perfect choice to protect the silver, and, with it, the hope of the rebellion. But the treasure poisons all who touch it, even Nostromo.

A dark fatalism permeates the story, a feeling that governance is predestined toward corruption and failure, that men are, as Conrad puts it, “short-sighted in good and evil.” Though he promises himself differently, Gould is consumed by the silver mine, just as his father and grandfather before him were. He proclaims, “…I pin my faith to material interests. Only let the material interests get a firm footing, and they are bound to impose the conditions on which alone they can continue to exist. … A better justice will come afterwards.” So, Gould bribes and manipulates in order to maintain the mine, and the wealth feeds on itself in an endless cycle.

Even in his distaste for materialism, Conrad still sees man as bound by a fatal destiny. “In our activity alone do we find the sustaining illusion of an independent existence as against the whole scheme of things of which we form a helpless part.” And, even as he chastises imperialists and dictators with his story, he has little hope that alternative political efforts will make a difference. “There is a curse of futility upon our character; Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, chivalry and materialism, high sounding sentiment and a supine morality, violent efforts for an idea and a sullen acquiescence in every form of corruption. We convulsed a continent for our independence only to become the passive prey of a democratic parody, the helpless victims of scoundrels and cutthroats, our institutions a mockery, our laws a farce…” Such a description accurately captures our own political and social history in the United States, certainly in the last century.

Conrad sets a majestic and powerful landscape against all of the futile efforts of his characters. Large mountains, capped with an ever-present crown of snow, loom over the follies below. The sun, dripping with yellow heat, illuminates without partiality. Jungles and oceans persist, undaunted by the events that play out in or upon them. The message is clear: Do what you will; only the earth and sky will remain.

For all of its darkness, the book beautifully captures the challenges of civilization, and champions individual moral choices, the simple pleasures of life, and the value of work for its own sake. ( )

Alongside Ulysses, my favorite novel of the 20th century. There is something so evocative in the life of this sailor, his thoughts and misgivings, in the middle of the political turmoil of a fictional Latin American country. A novel that explores the moral corruption of the most outstanding individuals, and the weaknesses of humanity, both in individual men and the community. ( )