Editing Under the Volcano (section)

== Literary significance and critical reception ==
An early review of the book, by R. W. Flint in ''[[The Kenyon Review]]'', called it "one of the most readable novels to appear since the war" but ultimately criticised it severely for its "second-handedness", saying that Lowry "lacks the confidence of the innovator".<ref>Flint 474.</ref>

Poet and novelist [[Charles Bukowski]] said that, when he read Lowry's novel, "I yawned myself to shit". He criticised it for lack of "pace, quickness, life, sunlight, juice and flavour in his lines."<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/fhj1G9EKJGI Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190911163319/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj1G9EKJGI&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj1G9EKJGI|title=Bukowski on Lowry|via=YouTube|access-date=2019-11-23}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Michael Hofmann]], who would edit the collection of posthumous work of Lowry's ''The Voyage That Never Ends'', wrote, "''Under the Volcano'' eats light like a black hole. It is a work of such gravity and connectedness and spectroscopic richness that it is more world than product. It is absolute mass, agglomeration of consciousness and experience and terrific personal grace. It has planetary swagger."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hofmann |first=Michael |date=27 January 1994 |title=Lowry's Planet |pages=16–17 |work=[[The London Review of Books]] |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v16/n02/michael-hofmann/lowrys-planet |access-date=30 August 2019|issn=0260-9592}}</ref>

In ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', critic [[Michael Wood (academic)|Michael Wood]] wrote, "''Under the Volcano'' is a great book about missing grandeur, about the specialised tragedy that lies in the unavailability of the tragedy you want."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wood |first=Michael |date=17 April 2008|title=The Passionate Egoist|work=[[The New York Review of Books]] |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/04/17/the-passionate-egoist/ |access-date=30 August 2019|issn=0028-7504}}</ref>

[[Chris Power]], writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'', said: "I came to the book knowing only its reputation as a masterpiece of English modernism. I left thinking it one of the greatest novels of the 20th century... Lowry is closer to [[Herman Melville|Melville]] and [[Joseph Conrad|Conrad]] than [[James Joyce|Joyce]], but he creates his corner of Mexico in a manner similar to the Dublin of ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'': not by describing it so much as by building an alternate reality from language."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Power |first=Chris |date=2 November 2011|title=Under the Volcano: a modernist masterpiece|work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/02/under-the-volcano-modernist-masterpiece |access-date=30 August 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Novelist Elizabeth Lowry (no relation), writing in the ''[[London Review of Books]]'', described it as a "black masterpiece about the horrors of alcoholic disintegration."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowry |first=Elizabeth |date=1 November 2007|title=Tooloose-Lowrytrek |pages=14–15 |work=London Review of Books |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n21/elizabeth-lowry/tooloose-lowrytrek |access-date=30 August 2019|issn=0260-9592}}</ref>

Reviewing Gordon Bowker's biography of Lowry, ''[[The New York Times]]'' commented on ''Volcano''<nowiki/>'s legacy: "''Under the Volcano'' is too famous to be just a cult object, but more than most great novels it is revisited year after year by a few zealous defenders, who place Lowry high up in the modernist pantheon, while the rest of the world is only barely aware of his masterpiece as an exotic and harrowing read."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The New York Times: Book Review Search Article |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/nnp/18780.html |access-date=2019-08-30 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>

[[Modern Library 100 Best Novels|Modern Library's 100 Best Novels]] of English novels in the 20th century lists the book at position 11.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=100 Best Novels « Modern Library |url=http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ |access-date=14 October 2017 |website=modernlibrary.com}}</ref> It was ranked number 99 on [[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century]].<ref name=":1" />