From the Bookshelf of Reading 1001…

Nostromo

Joseph Conrad

Start date: October 1, 2025

Finish date: October 31, 2025

Discussion: BOTM Discussions

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of -14 topics

BOTM Discussions

* Go Tell it on a Mountain- Sept BOTM
By Diane · 2 posts · 8 views

last updated Aug 27, 2025 12:29PM

* So Long a Letter - Sept BOTM
By Diane · 4 posts · 9 views

last updated Sep 13, 2025 02:40PM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 26, 2018 Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge, fiction, 2018

This book is the 'classic literature' version of a Cussler-style thriller. In this novel, Nostromo aka Capataz de Cargadores aka Gian' Battista Fidanza, an Italian orphan, finds a home in the New World with a colonial family, the Violas. He quickly establishes himself as a reliable and capable worker, and when a revolution throws his town into chaos, Nostromo becomes indispensable as the only man who can be trusted to hide a large supply of silver ingots from the nearby silver mine. Believed dea ...more

Like · see review

Sep 09, 2023 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge

Reason read: Reading 1001, tbr takedown, TIOLI #2, Sept 2023.
The book was written in the early part of the 20th century and is probably Conrad's greatest achievement, a bridge to the modernistic novel and a fictional depiction of post-colonial global capitalism.

The setting is a fictionalized country on the eastern coast of South America like Columbia. The time period of over throwing dictators, puppet governments set up by European and US countries. It is also a time period of transition to st Reason read: Reading 1001, tbr takedown, TIOLI #2, Sept 2023.
The book was written in the early part of the 20th century and is probably Conrad's greatest achievement, a bridge to the modernistic novel and a fictional depiction of post-colonial global capitalism.

The setting is a fictionalized country on the eastern coast of South America like Columbia. The time period of over throwing dictators, puppet governments set up by European and US countries. It is also a time period of transition to steam powered ships.

The story is told by use of backstory, flashbacks, anachrony, metadiegetic narrative. Conrad relates a historical time period in just a few weeks of time. The long development of the backstory makes it hard to engage with the story and I did not fully engage in it until well past the midpoint. I listened to the audio and wonder if I could have made it through actually reading it. It may be soporific. Social and cultural issues include a cast of characters from all walks of life; business men, dictators, aristocrats, politicols, protestant, catholic, servants, employees. Capitalism is depicted as power and control and the reason for revolt and the birth of Marxism.

Characters; There are many characters. Nostromo is an Italian dockworker. Nostromo implies his work. His name is Giovanni Battista Fidanza. Charles Gould inherits the decrepit silver mine and becomes obsessed with it to the point of neglecting his wife. Martin Decoud is a man who has spent time in Paris and considers himself European even though he was born in S. America. He is a propagandist journalist. Ribera is the puppet governor set up have the overthrow of the dictotor. General Montero overthrows Ribiera. Nostromo and Dcoud are tasked with getting the lighter of silver out of the country. A task that they fail to complete but do to an incident at sea, it is believed that the silver was lost at sea. The silver is the pivot for the morals and politics of the book.

I finished the story but it was not easy, mostly because of the lengthy backstory and the stylistic writing. The story itself is not complicated. I am glad to be done with it and it is a book that should be reread, probably right away. But I will not be doing so at this time. It has achieved the test of time. It is listed as 47 of 100 best fiction of the 20th Century by Modern Library.
Rating 3.6 or B- ...more

Like · see review