Chris' Fish Place

Disclaimer: ARC read via Netgalley.

                Of all the Joyce works that I have read, I think Dubliners is the best. There is perfection in each of those stories. I’ve read Portrait and Ulysses. Today, we don’t really consider Joyce to be shocking. After all, you can hear worse by simply turning on the television or radio. We have ads about men finding ways to solve their erectile dysfunction. We have stars showing us their everything.

                In short, shocking has changed in meaning.

                It’s good, therefore, that books such this come into being so we can remember the past and the debt that is owed.

                Birmingham traces the development of Ulysses as well as the struggle that it faced simply to be published or read.

                We would not know of Joyce if it hadn’t been for women. Some of the women are well known such as Sylvia Beach, and some, such as Miss Weaver, not so well known. What is most interesting is how and why such woman decided to champion Joyce. Miss Weaver, for instance, not only funded him but also went from printer to printer because the printers tried to tone the language, fearful of getting charged under various decency laws of the United Kingdom.

                Another interesting story is the smuggling of the book into prohibition era America. This occurred in much the same way that alcohol was smuggled in from Canada. The young men who did this were facing more than just monetary fines.

                Over a book.

                Literature is dangerous in more ways than it first appears.

                Birmingham deserves props for something else. Not only does he make the history and the era come to life, not only does he make Joyce and his relationships understandable, but he actually bring to life poets such as Pound. If Mr. Birmingham had been teaching the class where I was introduced to Pound, I’m sure I would’ve found Ezra far more interesting.

                Passionate is what the writing is in this book. If Joyce wrote about bodily function with vim and vibe, Birmingham writes about a book about the book with the same degree of energy. At times, this energy leads to quasi digressions – we learn more about Comstock and his successors than perhaps we need to - but the digressions are interesting and compelling related. This is amazing true when he discussing Pound and the poet’s relationship to those around them.

                Birmingham discusses not only the attempted censorship of the book (starting with Pound himself) but also the influence of the book. Virginia Woolf, for instance, and the influence that Joyce’s book had upon her and her writing is discussion persuasively, and placed in context with Woolf’s rejection of the novel in terms of publishing it.

                This isn’t to say that Birmingham is a blind supporter of Joyce. If you have read Ulysses and didn’t like it or if you haven’t read it, this study is still important, simply to understand the impact that a work of fiction can have on society and how society has changed. Unlike some critics, Birmingham doesn’t make the reader feel as if having a lukewarm or cold reaction to Ulysses is heresy, but a view that anyone can have. Too often people feel the need to stress the importance and greatness of authors or works – if you don’t like Hamlet, you’re stupid type of a thing – Birmingham is the opposite. He just wants you to know about the time, the reaction, and the book. What you do with that knowledge is up to you. He’s not going to judge.

                Highly recommended for lovers of Joyce, freedom of speech, feminism, and Woolf.