By Jason Diamond
A friend once told me that “only snobs, and English majors like Joyce”, and since said friend was herself an English major, I figured it might be best to hold off reading anything by him until I was totally prepared. To me, Joyce has always seemed like a hefty task to take on, and I feel like if I am ever going to truly make any judgments, I really need to be ready before I pick up Finnegans Wake or Ulysses.
So when Mark Batty Publishing recently published Everyman’s Joyce, I was semi-stoked, because I like to consider myself part of the “everyman” market who thinks of themselves as “Joyce-curious”, and would like a pretty decent primer.
Unfortunatly, this isn’t the primer I was looking for, but it’s a sweet looking book
5 Comments
September 15, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I always thought “Re Joyce” by Anthony Burgess was an entertaining and humorous approach to Joyce. As Burgess puts it “My book does not pretend to scholarship, only a desire to help the average reader who wants to know Joyce’s work but has been scared off by the professors.”
September 15, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I think you are best off avoiding Finnegans Wake, but Ulysses is worth the time.
September 16, 2009 at 2:36 pm
[...] At Vol.1, Jason Diamond discusses a new book on the work of James Joyce: To me, Joyce has always seemed like a hefty task to take on, and I feel like if I am ever going to truly make any judgments, I really need to be ready before I pick up Finnegans Wake or Ulysses. [...]
October 3, 2009 at 1:05 pm
[...] Everybody thinks Joyce is a fricken genius. I still don’t get it. [...]
October 17, 2009 at 1:57 pm
[...] anyone else noticed that James Joyce has been tryin’ to change a lot of lives these days? Here’s another: How Joyce Can Change Your Life.“(The Second [...]