The Western Limit of the World

It is hard to express the pleasure felt reading a novel written by an author who has actually lived what he is writing about. Too many new novelists these days are MFA babies who draw their material from books, from writers' workshops, and roundtabling with other MFAs. Here, with David Masiel, from the first page, you know you are riding with someone who knows whereof he speaks. He has invited me to enter an unknown and exotic world with the conviction that I am being exposed to the real deal. His use of symbolism gives his narrative depth. His characters are as far from my experience as I can imagine, and yet I feel a very real connection to the aging angst of Snow. Congratulations! I will look forward to your next, and next, books.

"Homer...mapped out a River of Ocean that flowed all around he earth with Olympus at the center. At the western limit lay ... the gateway to the Underworld. Beyond that lay the land of the dead. Snow supposed that you'd cross the river Styx there and pay the ferryman and go right into the Elysian Fields or left into Hades, and that only the fates decided which way you'd go." (p.122) The Western Limit of the World is the story of Harold Snow, 59, Merchant seaman since WW II (it's now 1979) who is rotting from without and within from a lifetime of shoreside debauches and domestic tragedies and who, beset by guilt and ghosts, is making his last voyage down the west coast of North America, through the Canal and to the west coast of Afica in the rotting hulk of a stolen chemical tanker (a "floating drugstore") where, on the sands of Walvis Bay in Namibia, he pays the ferryman and the fates make their decision. It's a geat sea story, a great adventure novel and a tragedy - in the classical sense of tragedy. It will make a great movie, but it's a lot more than than bait for Hollywood. Masiel is a seious writer and this is serious literature. He's every bit as good as Conrad when he describes life at sea and better than Conrad at bringing pure evil to the page. Conrad has Kurtz up the river (Heart of Darkness) and Marlow must go up river to find him. Masiel has Kurtz (in the charcter of Braselin,his massive homicidal sociopathic first mate) on nearly every page from the start, and Snow is with evil all the way on this voyage - unrelieved, unmitigated evil. No up the river to find it. Also Masiel is every bit as good as Melville on the philosophical front. Captain Ahab had his white whale (Moby Dick) and Snow is searching for something, but we're never sure exactly what. Melville is the writer Masiel quotes and Masiel, like Melville, leaves you thinking about things other than the story itself. Not only does Masiel have an accurate ear for seaman's talk, but he has a talent for character as well - and there are several here whom you will not forget, none of whom you would want to take home to mother. The ship is crewed by misfits (I'll not describe them here, But I hope you will meet them when you read the book.) Two of them deserve mention - Beth, the half-African, half-English AB whom Snow befriends, and Maciel (the younger Masiel himself?) a young ex-seminarian whom comes aboard at San Fancisco bringing with him a whiff of Catholicism and basic decency to the violent atmosphere aboard the Elizbeth. Beth is the only female in the book, Maciel the only hope; and at the end - as with all real tragedy - you are left saddened but hopeful, hopeful that light will shine into the world of Beth and Maciel. There are a couple of things I could have done without - the trip to Beth's father in Lagos for one and a lot of Snow's stream-of-consciousness. A little bit of that is okay, but Masiel takes it a bit too far. However, there ar

Wow! This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The writing is excellent, and it won't take long before you're immersed in the adventure that the main character, Harold Snow, and his shipmates have embarked on. From one locale to another, the mystery deepens and you're always left wondering what else could go wrong for Snow and his crew. The storyline is unpredictable--taking the reader on unexpected twists and turns from beginning to end. The sometimes creepy and tormented Snow, is the perfect central character for this wild tale. You can't help but feel sorry for him--he is haunted by his past and obsessed with the present. He always wants to do the right thing, but somehow, continually comes up short. Perhaps my favorite thing about the book is the dynamic relationship between the characters. While the author takes great care in developing the protagonist, there are a variety of well-developed (and colorful) supporting characters. I highly recommend The Western Limit of the World.

This is a modern seafaring classic. The storyline follows a crew of experienced sailors who have stolen their own ship - a rotting chemical tanker along with her toxic cargo, and are trying to sell both for a tidy profit along a lawless stretch of African coast. As their plans increasingly unfold and their trust of one another fails, storms rise up around their failing ship and they gradually come to realise that their goals have become impossible. The storyline follows the fortunes of Snow the aging boatswain. Snow is hard man who has spent his life circling the world on merchant ships, living a worthless and often violent existence and at the outset of the book he is a man well beyond seeking redemption. Still, he is able to hold himself in the competitive universe of his failing ship. Snow hopes to retire on the profits of a final criminal act and bring his younger female crewmate with him as his lover. But as this journey unfolds, Snow is confronted by his own helplessness - his inability to attract the love of the younger woman he desperately wants and his inability to overcome the stronger men seeking to keep the riches for themselves and get away with his fair share of the money. Despite the odds growing against him, Snow is determined not to go down without a fight. This is dark, moody, hard-edged literature that makes for adult reading. The characters are well drawn and have a gritty reality to them. But this is also a tale of loss - the helplessness that overcomes a man as he watches his dreams slip from his grasp and the sad self-discovery that accompanies this. Overall I recommend this book to anyone looking for some powerful modern literature.

Great book, better than 2182. Masiel knows the sea and knows the sailors who venture on it. Makes you want to weigh anchor or at least go down to the bar where these guys engage in monkey knife fights. Melville, London, Genet, Werner- MASIEL