Swimming in the Volcano

By Bob Shacochis

Book Overview

Set on the fictional Caribbean island of St. Catherine, an American expatriate becomes unwittingly embroiled in an internecine war between rival factions of the government. Into this potentially explosive scene enters a woman once loved and lost, but who remains a powerful temptation-one that proves impossible to resist. In the opening pages of Shacochis's first novel, Mitchell Wilson, an American who works for the Ministry of Agriculture on the Caribbean island of St. Catherine, is heading downhill. His lost love, Joanna, has decided to drop into his life again, and he's on his way to the airport to meet her, riding in a dilapidated car whose brakes--dependent on coconut oil for braking fluid--have failed. Wilson's harrowing ride is a perfect metaphor for life on St. Catherine's, an island both beautiful and corrupt, and for the turn his own life is about to take. Joanna may have come to St. Catherine simply to escape trouble, but Wilson still bristles when a government official tells him to stay clear of her. He should have listened. There's a mystery to crack at the heart of this richly detailed novel, but in fact Shacochis offers a chilling evocation of the misunderstandings that arise between feckless Americans and struggling islanders for whom St. Catherine's is no paradise. At once an enchanting love story and a superbly sophisticated political novel about the fruits of imperialism in the twentieth century, Swimming in the Volcano is as brutally seductive a novel as the world it evokes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802141315
• ISBN13: 9780802141316
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Magical, Frightening and True

This book caused me to add Bob Shacochis' name to the list of authors whose prose is absolutely brilliant--sometimes even a bit blinding, as some other reviewers have suggested, but it is superb writing nonetheless. Shacochis joins Reynolds Price, V.S. Naipaul, Annie Proulx and Don DeLillo in my pantheon of modern literary geniuses. Maybe "economy" was not one of the author's strong suits when he wrote "Swimming in the Volcano," but to me this is an absolutely trivial objection when weighed against the power of his language and the unflinching accuracy of his observations.Unnecessary verbosity and flashy writing are literary sins, to be sure, but Shacochis doesn't commit them here. If "Swimming in the Volcano" is overwhelming at times, it's because the author is sounding depths of the human experience other writers don't dare to plumb. He is not indulging himself or merely playing with words. He gets into the minds of his subjects, Caribbean and American; and their voices, whether in Caribbean or American dialects, ring jarringly true.I would rank this novel with Don DeLillo's "Underworld" for its rare synthesis of power and substance. Like DeLillo's masterpiece, "Swimming in the Volcano" has plenty of sound and fury, but signifies something profound about men and women and the lives they create.

Lush and Captivating

This is a book to be savored rather than gulped. It is like sipping cognac. The prose is lush and sensuous. As the various scenes unfolded I could feel myself inside them. Shacochis takes us into the complexities and uncertainties experienced by well intentioned, idealistic and naive people as they get caught up in forces that ultimately consume and, in some cases, destroy them. You have to concentrate and contemplate. And you are left hanging till the last page. And even then the story stays with you. A thoughtful tour of the dark side of life, culture and politics in the Carribean.

Reminiscent of Graham Greene

It's too bad more people havn't read this..it's funny, accessible, and a joy to read while at the same time being intelligent. Saccochis has a great sense of humor...I think he's one of the best writers around.

Great work on the reality of caribbean society.

Bob Shaccochis writes s a great tale of a young american working for a government ministry on a small caribbean island. The book is clearly autobiographical and deals not only with the americans slow but steady understanding of his complete outsider status but also other aspects of his personal life. This is one of the best books I have read. Anyone who has visited the Caribbean and realizes that the islands are not just "Club Med" will read this cover-to-cover in one seating. You will also find yourself reading everything else from this author

Great book for Baby Boom Generation - Keep dictionary handy

Great book about politics in the Caribbean and relationships with 'voluptuaries" in sun ripen "decrepitude"