James S. Atherton (1910–1986)

Rambling, clever, and as oftentimes difficult as its big brother Ulysses. And yet this book never quite grabbed me the way that other work did. Maybe the book's time frame (some eighteen years compared to Ulysses's single day) left it harder to get really involved in the same way. Or maybe the problem is something James Atherton points out in my copy's introduction, by the end of the book we know the main character better than most other literary figures, indeed Joyce barely deigns to show more mention the other characters beyond their names and their dialogue. And maybe that's the problem: by the end of the book I knew Stephen Daedalus very well; I just didn't like him that much. show less

Helped me in understanding literary allusions but 'the Wake' still is difficult for me