My Favourite Book

Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

Name my favourite book. That’s a tough question. Reading is very important to me; I would go so far as to call it a compulsion. I read whenever I have any spare time and get withdrawal symptoms when I can’t. So narrowing down my books to one was difficult. But in the end they all deferred to what I consider the greatest novel ever written; Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. 

Conrad’s writing is characterised by vivid descriptive passages, subtle characterisation and the desire to encapsulate meaning in the very descriptions of people and events. Nostromo is no exception. Set in the fictional South American country of Sulaco, in essence it tells the story of Nostromo, an Italian man of nondescript birth and status, who, by his character and abilities, rises to be Capitan De Cargadores, Foreman of the Dockworkers. Nostromo attains heroic status by his actions on the day a revolution breaks out, but ultimately founders on the rocks of two latent flaws; his inability to comprehend the complexities of his relationships with women and an increasing bitterness towards what he sees as a lack of appreciation on the part of his European employers. These twin perils lead him to pursue what others would regard as less than blameless behaviour and ultimately lead to his downfall. 

Nostromo himself is supported by a rich cast of supporting characters who possess their own motivations, dilemmas and stories, such as Charles Gould, an enigmatic Englishman who inherits a Silver mine. Another major character in the story is the country of Sulaco itself, whose geography shapes its history and whose history defines its soul. From the mountain range of the Andes to the deep waters of the Gulf of Sulaco, Conrad gives us rich descriptions of the landscape and its effect on the people who live there. 

The structure of the novel is very modern, moving backwards and then forwards in time, much like a thriller movie or detective story on TV. It begins at the climactic point of the action, with revolution breaking out and the desperate Colonial characters trying to escape on a steamship (this is Conrad anticipating what would become a familiar twentieth century scene, culminating in the helicopters on the American Embassy roof in Saigon in 1975).Nostromo rallies his dockworkers to protect them, cementing his reputation as a leader and man of substance. The action then moves back several years to explain what led to the revolution in the first place, reprises the events already described in the light of the explanation, then moves on to explore Nostromos’ relationships with two sisters and his subsequent fall from grace. 

At the very beginning of the book, in the course of being told about the legend of some treasure seekers on one of the headlands that encompass the Gulf of Sulaco, we are introduced to the Isabels, a string of small islands in the middle of the gulf. At the end, as the denouement unfolds with the Isabels as the key location, we understand why. The end of the story was inevitable from the beginning and the whole novel is an explanation of the meaning of these small patches of ground in the midst of the echoing gulf, as well as of a new legend of a man seeking after treasure.