It's just the ultimate novel. All novels, even the simplest, have various layers of allusion or symbolism going on; this one just has more. All novels are written with some kind of self-conscious style; this is the most stylish. All novels are structured one way or the other; this is uber-structured. I've often thought that Finnegans Wake is in many ways a precursor of HTML. Some genius should do an online version of it. Practically every word would be a hyperlink, leading to a page or so of annotation (Roland McHugh's book 'Annotations to Finnegans Wake' is the most ambitious print venture of that sort, but with the novel itself you get the most alarming sense that the layers go on forever...)

Every novel is difficult if you've never read novels before. If you've only read trash, then even a middling good novel is tough going; the writer demands more of the reader. James Joyce merely wants you to spend the rest of your life reading this book. Personally I think that's one of his better jokes. To go back to Schoenberg again (yeah, I know it's not exactly enticing to compare Joyce to Schoenberg, but bear with me), the essential thing is that there's just more going on here; Schoenberg has a million tunes going on at once, Joyce has a million linguistic things going on at once. I don't call that "having a shoddy grip on his talent", I call that generosity.

After trying to work out why people resent this book so much, I've come to believe that some people hate to think that there's anyone out there who's effortlessly smarter than they are. I, for one, am happy to accept that Joyce can just write anyone else off the planet.

Personally, I believe that the book becomes a lot more realistic if you read it with an Irish accent in your head. But try it and see. Nobody will seriously believe that you're reading it, so what have you got to lose?


Leave all inhibitions and prejudices at the entrance, please   October 8, 2005
 18 out of 24 found this review helpful

Before you read this, forget absolutely everything anybody has ever told you or anything you have ever read previously about the book. Perhaps even the very review you are reading right now. I've read something a guy wrote here about Joyce not being an intellectual - wrong. He was, in my opinion, of a mammoth intelligence quite difficult to comprehend. Everything he published was a masterpiece, though I think we all know that deep down. You don't have to be Irish to enjoy his work, but it helps.
The beauty of Joyce's art was his ability to craft literature that was representive of all existence as we know it by using symbolisation and observant detail into ordinary happenings. His work was never based around conventional plots. Ullyses was a close detail of two character's thoughts and actions in the space of one day, yet it symbolised more than any other novel ever written before or after... with the exception of Finnegans Wake.
The impression I've got from the majority of Joyce's critics with negative reactions is fear. The fear of misunderstanding. They fear they are, for some reason, unable to comprehend these works like others can, and so they slander it and dismiss it as meaningless jargon. No one can understand Joyce's works (he himself was the only one who could truly do so), the most they can do is form a personal interpretation. That is all these endlessly open texts demand of their readers. Some might prefer their meanings written in stone. If so, Joyce is not the author for you. That's something I've never understood - you don't like Joyce, so what? Joyce appeals to readers in search of something more mysterious, something to dig into, something to live in. Those looking for a summer-holiday paperback may look elsewhere.
Finnegans Wake has no beginning or no end. It does not grip the reader, the reader must grip it. There are over a thousand ways to enjoy this book. Some may find it lyrically beautiful, some may find it amazingly detailed and complex, some may find it hilariously witty, some may find it a maze of subtle delights in which they can seek and find, and so on. I enjoy it in all of the above ways. Seeing as Joyce spent sixteen years writing it, there's obviously a lot of depth and meaning to it, but it is hidden in layers of linguistic prowess. It is a history of the universe in the language of dreams. It is completely still and timeless, open to observation, but never changing. There is no limit to it's possibilities, no definition of its nature. There is no right or wrong way to interpret it. Study it, any way you wish, and it is yours for as long as you live.
So, if my description enthralls you to read this masterpiece in any way, I recommend you should. If you find what I have written to be an overwhelming piece of pompous trash, stick to your Dan Brown paperbacks. No offence intended - it's just not for the casual reader. So, in hope that you are of the former, I ask you to completely forget everything, like I said at the start, and buy the book, open a page and allow your mind to grip its words within itself and explore its vast and bottomless planes.


Intriguing   January 22, 2005
 9 out of 15 found this review helpful

You will probably consider this novel to be difficult. I agree with anybody who thinks so. It is very difficult. It certainly is hard to grasp, but once you get into it, that is it. James Joyce stretched the language and brought the book to a far higher form of writing that is uncommon around. Uncommon in the sense that you have to get into it to love it. For easier, compelling reads, I recommend the works of Janvier Tisi. DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE is lovely