From Kirkus Reviews
This unfinished (indeed, all but unbegun) novel, which dates from the late 1940s, is, in the words of editor McCarthy (English/Univ. of Miami), another of ``the many projects that Malcolm Lowry undertook in the aftermath of Under the Volcano.'' That classic portrayal of alcoholic self-destruction (published in 1947) remains its gifted and troubled author's single masterpiece. But any detailed knowledge of Lowry's work entails a parallel acquaintance with the facts of his vividly dysfunctional life (190957)--whose excesses and failures are pretty transparently recounted in his fiction, most particularly in the projected novel series The Voyage That Never Ends, of which these roughed-out chapters, outlines, and random notes were intended to form an eventual part. Even in their inchoate state, they illuminate with great clarity the emotional fallout of Lowry's experiences in Mexico as an embattled stranger in a strange land victimized by petty official corruption, and as a writer deeply unsettled by his inability to write; more specifically, they display a paranoid sensibility, a man haunted by the belief that he is under attack by a ``daemon.'' It's hard not to see that demon as Lowry's own yearning to self-destruct. Indispensable for scholars, but also of high interest to all readers who know and admire Lowry's fiction. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Although Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) published only two novels - Ultramarine and Under the Volcano - in his lifetime, numerous other works, most of which have since been edited for publication, were in various stages of composition at his death. La Mordida, the longest and most significant of the manuscripts that have not been previously published, is a draft of a novel based on Lowry's visit to Mexico in 1945-46, which ended in the arrest and deportation of Lowry and his wife following a nightmarish run-in with corrupt immigration authorities. On its most immediate level, the title La Mordida - which means "the little bite," Mexican slang for the small bribe that officials are apt to demand in order to expedite matters - refers to the autobiographical protagonist's legal difficulties. In a larger sense, however, it also represents his inability to escape his past, to repay the fine, or debt, that he owes. The central narrative of La Mordida involves a descent into the abyss of self, culminating in the protagonist's symbolic rebirth at the book's end. Lowry planned to use this basic narrative pattern as the springboard for innumerable questions about such concerns as art, identity, the nature of existence, political issues, and alcoholism. Above all, La Mordida was to have been a metafictional work about an author who sees no point in living events if he cannot write about them, and who not only is unable to write but also suspects that he is just a character in a novel.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

This unfinished (indeed, all but unbegun) novel, which dates from the late 1940s, is, in the words of editor McCarthy (English/Univ. of Miami), another of "the many projects that Malcolm Lowry undertook in the aftermath of Under the Volcano." That classic portrayal of alcoholic self-destruction (published in 1947) remains its gifted and troubled author's single masterpiece. But any detailed knowledge of Lowry's work entails a parallel acquaintance with the facts of his vividly dysfunctional life (190957)—whose excesses and failures are pretty transparently recounted in his fiction, most particularly in the projected novel series The Voyage That Never Ends, of which these roughed-out chapters, outlines, and random notes were intended to form an eventual part. Even in their inchoate state, they illuminate with great clarity the emotional fallout of Lowry's experiences in Mexico as an embattled stranger in a strange land victimized by petty official corruption, and as a writer deeply unsettled by his inability to write; more specifically, they display a paranoid sensibility, a man haunted by the belief that he is under attack by a "daemon." It's hard not to see that demon as Lowry's own yearning to self-destruct. Indispensable for scholars, but also of high interest to all readers who know and admire Lowry's fiction.