Nostromo (1904)

Ü: Lore Krüger

Is this a "Classic"? It sure is good even though it is so old and outdated as to be almost irrelevant in this day and age. Would make a good soap or Netflix series. I thought it had something to do with the Alien franchise because of the occurrence of Conrad stuff in that series of movies. Nostromo was the name of the ship in the first Alien movie and the name of this mythical country is the name of the ship in the second movie.

Alas, all that ends there. This is a period piece set a long time ago in South America(ish) As a story it is engaging and all there. but I couldn't really see what it was about at all or even why I was reading it after the first 50 pages. But there I was and read it all the way through.

I do find it hard to engage with stories set so far in the past that there is almost nothing to grip on. ( )

klassenstrijd in Z Amerika; hebzucht en machtswellust...

One of the twentieth century's great novels.

Like 'Heart of Darkness' I think it's a book that I'm more pleased to have read than I was to be *reading*, if that makes any sense at all. I like Conrad's writing style, but I thought the structure of 'Nostromo' didn't do it any favours. The entire first part seemed unnecessary to me, and it makes the book extremely hard to get into. If you manage to persevere until the second and final parts, however, there's a good story amidst the descriptive passages. I didn't find many of the characters at all sympathetic, which made me a little sad because there was Good Angst to be had if I had cared more about whether the main characters lived, died, floundered or prospered. ( )