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Finnegans Wake (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) |
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| Author: James Joyce Published: 1999-12-01 |
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List price: $21.00 Our price: $14.28 |
Usually ships in 24 hours As of: January 07th, 2009 03:43:24 AM |
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Customer comments on this selection. All moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday till the fear of the Law.Reading this is the literary equivalent of doing pull-ups. I thought it was interesting to read it out loud, like poetry. It had a different feel to it that way. Boring, gratuitous Finnegans Wake story follows: I had heard about this book for years, ever since high school, and one day, while in college, I went to the library and took out a copy. I started reading it and thought, "What the . . . . " Actually I realized I was reading Anthony Burgess's short version, so I went back and took out the real thing. I showed it to my friends who were likewise all bewildered. So next I marched into my 20th Century Literature professor's office and asked him what was up with this book. He actually began laughing at me. When that was over he told me I shouldn't simply start reading Finnegans Wake, I should begin with Dubliners and then move on to Portrait. Then I could try Ulysses. If I made it that far I could proceed to Finnegans Wake. At that time I had just read The Promise by Chaim Potok and was impressed with the way those Jewish kids studied the Talmud with various guides and commentaries opened side by side - so that is the way I approached Joyce - like a young Talmud scholar. (But on my own - never in the context of a class or seminar, unfortunately) I found Burgess's ReJoyce very helpful, and of course there are a million Ulysses and Finnegans Wake guides available. Eight years later (punctuated by six years of podiatry school and residency) I had finally finished all four and honestly have no idea what I was reading as far as Finnegans Wake was concerned; but I appreciated the style, the rhythm of it, and the overall experience.  I concur with the negative reviewsI see a plethora of 5-star reviews here for Joyce's opus. I think it is natural to dislike it, however, and I don't think it makes a neanderthal of me because I dislike it too. Look, as a teen I read Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica; I struggled through at least half of Sartre's Being and Nothingness, and I've read Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Faulkner. I don't mind struggling with a book if I can mine something from it. FW is too long for such playful babble. I might read a pamphlet of such gobbledegook just for the fun or the exercise of my imagination, but this monster book? I have to feel that Joyce was playing a joke on everyone, or he'd really gone off his rocker. Why should we even bother? I also read Beckett's Waiting for Godot and found that a complete waste of time. My reaction was that it was absurd, but I guess the theatre of the absurd is supposed to be just that. But why bother? I can stand on a crowded street corner and hear trivial chatter as meaningful as Beckett's play. It kind of reminds me of something I saw in an art gallery years ago, during the "pop art" craze: a rectangular piece of cardboard, painted with white enamel, mounted on a flat-white background, named, appropriately, "White Enamel on White." Yet it had an inflated price tag, and I did hear a few oohs and ahhs from people behind me. Feeling like a barbarian, I snorted and left the gallery. This is art? And Finnegan's Wake is literature? Please, give me a break. Words that don't communicate are just meaningless black symbols on white paper. What was Joyce trying to communicate? Sure, I can get a kick out of several minutes of it, but then I'm eager to return to the real world. I can't help wondering if the 5-star reviews for FW are written by the same kind of people who sighed over the white cardboard in the gallery, or who find deep meanings in Waiting for Godot. Still, maybe I am a barbarian, and maybe they're of a higher order than I am, so I'm willing to congratulate them for finding gold ore in FW, and wish them happy babbling on their re-read of this inflated classic. Joyce I don't demean, but this FW is a perfect waste of time. If this is literature, then it's at a dead end.  literary greatness, an abomination to readFinnegans Wake is the most controversial and experimental of Joyce's works. As far as sheer ingenuity goes, it is one of the greatest novels ever written. Each sentence needs deciphering as he has double-meanings, and multiple languages, in almost every word. I think it would take a true Renaissance Man, skilled in classical and modern languages, with an understanding of Irish history, and a strong grasp of literature, to even have a chance of understanding what is occurring within these pages. I am not such a man. The book scores high on what it is: an experiment in language and literature. It is abysmally unreadable to what I would consider an average reader, however, and in this sense it fails completely as a novel. I forced myself through this book simply because it was the last one I needed to read to finish Modern Library's Top 100 English Language Novels of the Twentieth Century. If it had been the first one I tried, I highly doubt I would have continued reading this book or the others on the list. If you want a challenge, or need to read this for a class or penance for great sins, then proceed. If you are looking for something that is enjoyable, then I would suggest Joyce's Dubliners as being great literature that is also readable. Worth A Look, Not really readableThis book is not really readable, straight through anyway. But I own a copy and I flip through now and then. I treat it like a long poem, and then, it can be cool. The language sounds good and you can get sucked into it and there is something of a plot I suppose. I personally think the book is a blend of Eden and Babylon; confusion and also paradise, and Joyce was probably bored. This book is more of him being a linguist than a novelist. I recommend the companion by Burgess called Re-Joyce and would say, you may not want to buy this, just get it from the library. But you would have to buy it to play my fun game with guest: What Are You Reading. Here is how you play- whenever someone says wow you have a lot of books, so what are you reading now, I say Finnegan's Wake and hand them the book. Read a page I say and then walk out of the room. When I come back their face is priceless and really, the conversation could go in any direction. Now that's worth paying $8 to have the book laying around. Finnegans WakeWell, what can I say? This kind of writing would never make it past Mrs. Johnson, my 7th grade English and Grammar school teacher. I made many attempts at reading this gibberish. To those who like this book, kudos's to you few. I highly recommend this book as an anchor on night stands of insomniacs everywhere. I join the ranks of those who do not like this book. I'm sure there is something enriching in there, somewhere. Who was the editor? I know it was not Mrs. Johnson! Jimmy Lair |
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