She loves him and he loves the bottle

"It slaked no thirst to say what love was like which came too late." --Malcolm Lowry

I've been reading Under the Volcano, in theory as a means of advancing this project. It's supposed to be a great story about passion. It's about a woman, Yvonne, who travels much of the world to return to her divorced husband to try to make it work. She loves him. He loves the bottle. It reminds me of this song.

Whiskey, If You Were a Woman -...

Country musicians did always say that sort of thing best.

But Lowry does all right. I'll leave you with a long and plaintive bit from its first chapter, before Yvonne has arrived to meet Geoffrey Firmin:

I have been deliberately struggling against my love for you. I dared not submit to it. I have grasped at every root and branch which would help me across the abyss in my life by myself but I can deceive myself no longer. If I am to survive I need your help. Otherwise, sooner or later, I shall fall.