Issue 155

Book Review: How to read Joyce (Derek Attridge)

15th May 2007

As any English student will tell you, Ulysses is hard. Getting on for 1000 pages depending on which version you read, merging classical reference, Dublin slang, stream-of-consciousness narrative, and literary pastiche, it's tempting to agree with an early reviewer who likened the novel to 'a sewer that had burst loose and overwhelmed a city with foul and pestilential vapours.' But considering it's a staple on almost any self-respecting English syllabus, there must be something of merit to it.

Attridge's introduction aims to open that merit up to the first-time reader. The How to Read... series attempts a different angle to your average introduction, avoiding author biographies and vapid plot outlines. This volume takes key passages from Joyce's major works - the innovative Dubliners through to the mind-boggling Finnegan's Wake - and analyses them, highlighting key themes and language patterns, introducing characters and some contemporary critical views.

A slim 118 pages, the book offers no deep argument, but rather does what it says on the tin; it sets up the reader for the experience of discovering Joyce's work, highlighting common pitfalls, pointing out useful sources and suggesting methods of attacking, and enjoying, the books.

You can't pick up the How to Read... series and expect to write an outstanding Joycean essay, but it does at least help to unravel the literature from this challenging author.

Holly Thomas