UNDER THE TABLE
In Malcolm Lowry’s Under The Volcano, Geoffrey Firmin – played by Albert Finney in the 1984 movie – is an alcoholic former British consul in Mexico. The novel is set over the course of a single day, the Day of the Dead, November 2, 1938. This is his schedule: 7am a “long, shuddering” whisky at the Bella Vista bar;
7.30am a few slugs of sweet quince wine in a small shop on Calle Tierra del Fuego; 9.00am a “long draught” of Burke’s Irish whiskey on Calle Nicaragua;
9.45am half a tumbler of mescal and a “fierce” drink of Johnny Walker
10.30am a long, deep drink from the tequila bottle
11.30am at least two bottles of Carta Blanca 12.30pm “a stiff drink” from a bathroom toothmug, and then another
1.30pm one cocktail, the remains of three others and the rest of the shaker at Jacques’s house
1.50pm two glasses of tequila at the Paris Café 2.10pm three glasses of tequila at the Terminal Cantina El Bosque
3.15pm a “short drink” of habanero on the bus to Tomalin
3.45 the rest of the bottle of habanero at Arena Tomalin
4.30pm two “small mescals” and at least one beer at the Salón Ofélia in Tomalin;
6pm six mescals, the rest of bottle, two more mescals, and then “everything in sight” at El Farolito, Parián