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Book reviews for "Joyce,_James" sorted by average review score:

9-11: Emergency Relief
Published in Paperback by Alternative Comics (01 January, 2002)
Authors: Jeff Mason, Will Eisner, Harvey Pekar, Ted Rall, Jeff Smith, James Kochalka, Josh Neufeld, Nick Bertozzi, Dean Haspiel, and Joyce Brabner
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A Touching Reminder Of A Day That United All Of America....
Where were YOU on the morning of September 11th, 2001? I was at work when Howard Stern reported that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers. Having been born and raised in The Bronx before moving to Rochester, N.Y., my workday immediately ended as I focused my full attention on Howard's show; He became my only link to the city I loved and would always call home. Later on came the TV reports and the images that will never leave my mind, but for those first few hours, I sat listening in shock as the man who makes me laugh every workday became my only connection to family, friends, and loved ones who were suddenly living in a war-zone.

9-11: Emergency Relief is a benefit book that is filled with true stories from September 11th. They range from touching, to infuriating, to thought-provoking, and the list of creators reads like a who's who of Indy Comics: James Kochalka, Will Eisner, Tony Millionaire, Harvey Pekar, Tom Hart, Joyce Brabner, Ted Rall, and literally DOZENS of others. Besides being entertaining, and raising money for the Red Cross, the book fulfills another important purpose: It stands as a reminder of a day we must NEVER forget. God Bless America!

Amazing, dense and horrifying
Easily the best of the comics industry's myriad responses to the tragedy of September 11th, this book gets down into the nitty-gritty of human experiences and reactions to tragedy. No superheroes. No larger-than-life expostulation. Just real people - talented artists - telling amazing stories. Higlights include Gregory Benton's "Treasure," an untitled Hutch Owen story by Tom Hart that manages to toe the fine line between rage and sentiment and "Citadel Of The Night" by K. Thor Jensen and Chris Knowle. Honestly, though, the book is so full of great material that nobody should be without it.

Every community library in the country should acquire a copy
After the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and in the skies over Pennsylvania, some 50 graphic novelists and cartoonist ranging from such legendary names as Will Eisner and Harvey Pekar, to newer talents such as Frank Cho and James Kochalka, came together in a very special project as a way of expressing their grief, patriotism, and support of the American people in the face of naked, lethal, ideologically driven aggression. The result is 9-11: Emergency Relief, a powerful graphic novel. The proceeds will go to benefit the American Red Cross. Simply put, every school and every community library in the country should acquire a copy of 9-11: Emergency Relief for the edification of their students and their patrons.


Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas
Published in Hardcover by Pantheon Books (28 May, 2002)
Author: Joyce King
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Empowering experience
When King came to our campus to lecture about this book, I was naturally interested in attending, but believed I knew the story already. (A man had been brutally murdered in a small Texas town because of his skin color).

I am glad I went on impulse because both the presentation and the book throughly examines intersections of race, gender, ecconomic status while imploring all of us to work together for the proverbial betterment of human society. What it lacks for in volume it more than makes up for with substantive content and heart-wrenching insight.

Alternating between detached reporting and personal narratives, this story chronicles the best and the worst of human condition. Just because it is easy to simplify things into a 'soundbyte binary' does not mean the action effectively generates learning, indeed such labeling effectively stops the process.

Without dilluting Byrd's saga, the author also recounts her complex feelings during the investigation. Briefly living among the residents of Jasper Texas in order to complete the book, she learned good people come from all backgrounds and there was no shortage of townspeople (including the law enforcement) who roundly condemed the act.

on the real
this Book is very much on point to me.it's no secret here in the United States we have come so far but we have so far to go.this is a Friendly Reminder of a time not so long ago.this Book details that&so much more.truth be told as much Hatred that still goes down you couldn't tell if it was 1898 or 1998? truth be told not much has changed overall.James Byrd should have been front Page News all over the World.Much Props to Dennis Rodman for Contributing to the Byrd Family a Story that went almost unnoticed by the Media.

A Must Read for Everyone
This book was many things to me. Disturbing, insightful and educational. The book depicts the Mr. Byrd's death so vividly that at times I felt myself being dragged behind the truck. I had to put the book down many times but I was unable to stay away for long. The author did a very good job of exploring the backgrounds of the men convicted of this heinous crime. You must be made of stone to be left untouched after reading this book.


James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work
Published in Hardcover by Facts on File, Inc. (1995)
Authors: A. Nicholas Fargnoli and Michael Patrick Gillespie
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A Context For the Classics
Essential to understanding the writtings of Joyce is understanding the world he lived in. Bear in mind that all of his works were, more or less, either autobiographical, or were about the world he lived in. This compilation of the many details of Joyces life shows us the minutia that made up books like "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Ulysses," and "Finnegans Wake." If properly used, this provides the key to interpreting the dense allusions and motives of his impressive body of work. After perhaps the works of Tindall, Bishop and Campbell, this is the most usefull book you can get to help understand the works of Joyce.

Wide-ranging, well-written browsing material!
Presents, in alphabetical order, brief (one paragraph to about 2 pages) synopses and explanations of people, places, themes, and phrases form several of Joyce's works, including his major novels and his poetry. Wonderful as either a tool for decoding Joyce, or as "skimming material." It's a treat to just wander through these pages, seeing explanations for 'Finnegan' across from those for "Dubliners," a biography of T.S. Eliot one page after a description of the fictional "Earwicker."

Includes over 800 entries, illustrations, synopses of books and chapters, biographies of Joyce and his contemporaries, bibliography, a very useful index, as well as the text of Jude Woolsey's ruling to lift the ban on "Ulysses." The writing is clear, wide-ranging, and complete without bogging the reader down in minutiae. Not as thorough as the encyclopedic "Ulysses Annotated," but very useful in disentangling Joyce and his works without great effort! Written by a Professor of Theology and English at Molloy College (and vice president of the James Joyce Society), and a professor of English at Marquette University.

Tons of fascinating information, plus guide to Ulysses!

Elvis, the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe have received the A to Z treatment in which every aspect of their lives and works have been reordered alphabetically, so it was only a matter of time that the mania would spread to lesser figures in our popular culture, in this case Mark Twain, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

This series of three books, originally published by Facts On File and now updated and reprinted by Oxford University Press, combines facts culled from the writers' lives and works, shakes them up thoroughly, and recasts them into easily locatable entries. The result is an addictive pleasure, a page-turning odyessy for anyone interested in learning more about their favorite writer.

At 304 pages, the Joyce volume is the smallest of the trio, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up by offering extensive commentaries on "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake." Those who have tried to read these modernist (or post-modernist, the argument still rages) classics have quickly recognized the need for assistance. For "Ulysses," the Joyce volume reprints Joyce's chart that lists each chapter's time frame, location, symbols, technics, organs, art and correspondences to the original. Each chapter is given its own entry, which describes the action, Joyce's intentions, and clairifies points of Dublin's history. As one who attempted "Ulysses" solo, and suffered for his sin, I can speak with authority that this volume would have saved me a great deal of agony. I only wish they had abandoned their schema and combined the chapter descriptions into a single, lengthy appendix.

No detail is too small to escape the editors. There are also entries on Gustave Flaubert, an influence on Joyce's writing style; Throwaway, the race horse whose victory in the Ascot Gold Cup figures in "Ulysses," and the Volta Cinema, Dublin's first movie theater, which Joyce helped to open.

In short, this guide can help the Joyce reader move through the complexities of his work without feeling like you've earned a Ph.D in comparative literature while you're doing so.


James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reference Guide
Published in Hardcover by Greenwood Publishing Group (30 January, 2002)
Author: Bernard McKenna
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A Life-Saver
Bernard McKenna's guide to ULYSSES is written in an easy-to-understand style that facilitates an understanding of the novel. I read ULYSSES, or was assigned to read it, as part of a course here at university. I couldn't get past the third chapter, until I discovered Bernard McKenna's guide. He takes you through the book, step by step and helps you understand what's going on. He also introduces the critical dialgue surrounding the book, which is a great help. The book is like having your own private teacher there to help you.

impressive
I wouldnt have understood 3 words of Ulysses if it werent for this book! I wish they made these guides for more difficult books.. Thanks

Pure genius!
Having to read Ulysses for my senior research paper seemed a daunting task. I was about to go searching for the Cliff's Note's. Mr. McKenna really made sense of the book, the history, and even the life and times. I really appreciate it!


The Judas Compound (4 Volumes in 1)
Published in Paperback by Ladan Reserve Press (1994)
Author: Joyce James
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From the Publisher
Complimentary copies of the encyclopaedic glossary to THE JUDAS COMPOUND are available on all purchases.
Don't miss LARES by Arthur Nevis, the riveting novel about this charismatic woman.

spilled ink on pressed pulp is now my epiphany!
that a mere book on mere pages could equal the relegious experience is something which i had not considered.......untill "THE JUDAS COMPOUND"
NOT AT ALL.......AT ALL.
I viewed it straight and levle, on the squair.......AND IN ARCADIA I.
ps. FNORD!

Masterpiece
To read this book I upgraded my library to include 1) Foreign language dictionaries, including Gaelic and Sanskrit, 2) a good dictionary of etymology, 3) Greek and roman Myths 4) multi-level encyclopedia.

As an English prof in NYC, I use this book in a Modern Lit class studying new writing published in the last decade. Not a single book is from a large commercial house - they are all from small presses.

In this era of sound bytes, 3 minute music videos, 100 minute movies and 200 page cookie-cutter novels, there's little new of any real substance coming into the culture. Thank heaven for the small presses that publish books like these. Joyce James is going to be one of the few female writers/bards/thinkers to be remembered from the late Twentieth Century American cultural wasteland.


The Books at the Wake: A Study of Literary Allusions in James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake"
Published in Hardcover by Paul P Appel Pub (1963)
Author: J.S. Atherton
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Fascinating
Atherton's book is "absotively" wonderful. I would agree that APPRECIATING the Wake certainly requires this book. Numerous influences from various authors are catalogued. Particularly interesting is the relatively lengthy section on Lewis Carroll's influence on Joyce.

*Carroll is presumably the undisputed inventor of the portmanteau word: a word with multiple meanings. Carroll was content to have dual meaning while Joyce packed as many meanings as possible into his words.

*Carroll also worked with successive alterations of one letter in a word: meat, meet, mate, maze, etc.. Sections of the Wake which referenced Carroll would routinely incorporate this technique.

*Alice also served as an alterego for ALP, where "Wonderlawn" = the Garden of Eden.

In short, Joyce found lots in Carroll's work which, (in the case of the portmanteau word, to his surprise), neatly "dovetallied" with his own "work in progress".

BATW is a fascinating and well-written collection of many more such analyses, (Shakespeare, Blake, Vico, etc...) and does not promote tooth decay.

A helpful "tour guide" through Finnegan's Wake
Atherton's book helped me begin to understand Joyce's "copy/paste" style. His preface provides an excellent philosphical framework within which the Wake can be understood. His chapters that follow explain in great detail how Joyce used the works of Vico, Swift, and the world's sacred books to construct his masterpiece. Atherton goes on to cite and explain hundreds of Joyce's literary references in Finnegans Wake. This is a good book for any James Joyce fan.

One of the 10 best books on the subject.
I have been checking the first edition of this book out of my library for months, and am delighted to see a paperback edition in print. It's one of the indispensible guides to the Wake, and I'm glad to see it readily available.


James Joyce
Published in Paperback by Anagrama (1996)
Author: Richard Ellmann
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Exhaustive and entertaining
An indispensible resource for scholars and fans. No other biography so captures the man and his work. On top of that its a damn fine read, and I would recommend it to anyone who seeks to tackle either of Joyce's last two novels.

classic
I was prompted to read this by Tom Stoppard's glowing recommendation of it in "Travesties." Ellman certainly brings the liveliness of James Joyce's life to life, describing everything from his practical jokes to his desparate financial straits -- meticulous to the point of noting the times when Joyce entered the lottery. I'd read the original 1958 edition, and I'm curious how the revised edition would stand against that now-honoured text.

For more Ellman, I highly recommend his collection of essays, "a long the river run."

Joyce's Shadow
Richard Ellmann's biography is by far the most comprehensive and readable book on the life of this Irish genius. Ellmann takes us through Joyce's quarrels with his family,church and nation, "the nets," his courtship and family life with Nora, and most importantly, shows the biographical link between Joyce's life and work.This book is a treasure.


Ulysses Annotated
Published in Paperback by University of California Press (1989)
Author: Don Gifford
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Great, with some room for improvement
I used this book from about pg 200 of Ulysses onward, and I think it's just about indispensable. There should not be any embarrassment in this: unless you know Latin, German, French, Hebrew (together with a good cross-section of literature from all these languages), Catholic & Jewish culture, English literature more or less entire, and (hardest of all) Dublin slang, culture, politics, and all the knick-knacks of daily life from 1904, Ulysses presents many baffling passages. This book helps out with all these things, plus plenty of other stuff: myths, songs, internal reference cross-indexing (for those of us who can't remember that Stephen Daedalus thought of the same Latin quotation 600 pages earlier), Joyce's basic scheme for each section, and more.

There are two failings, and they are minor: (1) there are still plenty of obscure words and phrases that aren't annotated (the introduction acknowledges this) and conversely (2) there are a number of things that don't need annotations that get them (particularly galling are the annotations that simply tell you that they don't know what Joyce is talking about either).

Still, an essential reference, and pretty entertaining in its own right (like flipping through an encyclopedia or Brewer's Phrase & Fable).

A Valuable Guide.
Ulysses Annotated is essential for understanding Joyce's seminal work, Ulysses. The Introduction, prefaces and notes explain how to use this book, and suggest why and how it was compiled. Each episode is preceeded by a map that helps the reader to visualize the movements of Bloom and Stephen throughout their journeys. It is somewhat difficult, even for a well-read student to understand Joyce's allusions without a reference guide book like Giffords.

Also recommended: REDEFINING THE 'SELF': SELECTED ESSAYS ON SWIFT, POE, PINTER, AND JOYCE by John Condon Murray

An Encyclopedia for reading Joyce's Encyclopedia
"Ulysses Annotated" is an essential Book for reading, and understanding Ulysses, and the previous four reviewers are right on the mark. It is impossible, even for a well read reader to understand Joyce's allusions without this extremely well presented, and well priced, Reference book.

Introduction, prefaces and notes explain how to use this book, and how it was compiled. Each episode is preceeded by a map of where the action takes place helping the reader to visualize the movements of Bloom and Stephen. Each entry is preceeded by the Chapter Number and Line Number according to the Gabler edition of "Ulysses". In addition, a fairly comprehensive index cross-references all entries. If the reader wants to find all allusions pertaining, for example, to the Book of Luke, these can be easily found. I found this Index quite useful.

Personally, I found the following method best for using the book. First, to skim through the allusions, marking those of particular interest, and then laying the book side by side with the Novel and reading the Episode.

As for realiability, I took Gifford and Seidman up on their offered Short Title List, and was able to find almost every reference, including "Thom's Official Directory of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Ireland for the Year 1904", and have found them to be reliable in their entries.

This Book should suffice for reading, and understanding Ulysses, though many a reader may get caught up by Joyce, as I did, so that the following may be useful: Weldon Thornton: "Allusions in Ulysses", Richard Ellman: "James Joyce", Harry Blamires: "The New Bloomsday Book", Stuart Gilbert: "James Joyce's Ulysses", and of course "The Riverside Shakespeare", "The Oddyssey", and the Bible.


James Joyce's Ulysses
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Vintage Books (1958)
Author: Stuart Gilbert
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Great way to start!
The Introduction is masterful. Of books on "Ulysses"--and there are many, let's face it--this one stays close to my heart. A great one to begin your trek through the Dublin of 16 June 1904.

You should probably read this.
I suppose it is pretty hard to add anything to this monstrous string of reviews. But I will comment because (obviously like so many others) I found this book to be very important. The fact that so many reviews exist shows that this book has effected a lot of people (enough to expend their precious energies writing about it). As you can see, not many really ride the middle ground about it. People seem to love it passionately or they hate it passionately. This should be enough to recommend it to anyone. We all should be after books that are going to change us, challenge us, effect our lives and loves. This is a book that has done that for a great many people. If you have not read it, take the time. I do not think that you'll sit in your easy chair and say 'well, it was okay,' and flip on the television.
Personally, I found the book to be lively and entertaining. It was also challenging and arduous. Sometimes I couldn't put it down and sometimes I couldn't pick it up. Sometimes I thought it was a stupid book and sometimes I thought it was the best work of fiction that I had read. Ulysses is overall 'real.' It discusses truth, it changes a lot, like life. All the characters can be seen as stable in their lives, yet metaphysically sort of lost and wandering. That is like Ulysses. It is also a lot like you and I. There are jarring events, changes of style, unexpected devices and layers and layers of erudition. There are also normal everyday joes going about life as usual, to which we can all relate. It was not easy, and that is like life, also. Like life, it has a lot to teach you. And you can come back to this book many times and still find it fresh. It probably will seem an entirely new beast when you return.
Unlike some of the reviewers, I wouldn't recommend annotations. Trust yourself and trust Joyce in undertaking the work. Perhaps you'll miss things here or there. That is okay. You'll still 'get it,' in the end, if you make it. Part of it is seeing if you can make it, so you sort of fail in your test of yourself if you immediately resort to consulting some sort of 'dictionary of Joyce.' For anyone that sees this book as too daunting, let me just say that I'm not an English major or in a literature related field. I'm a music student, just a plain old undergraduate joe that read this book. I read the book without annotations except for one period where I was stuck and thought I didn't understand. I checked the annotations out from the library and I found that I did understand (at least as well as the annotator) and that I just needed to keep going to figure it out, just like in finding out how a Dickens plot is going to unfold. I would recommend against taking that step. Leave the annotations on the shelf. I'd recommend that you, another plain old non - literature joe or jane, try it. Trust yourself and try it.

Essential reading
Gilbert has written a classic analysis of Ulysses . This book provides both the initiate and the fanatic with a broad basis for comprehension of Joyce. It include historical documentation of the settlement of Ireland, connections of Troy and Ireland, an interesting view of Viking/ Greek parallels, aspects of occult knowledge. Failure to read this and you will not get 1/3 of the intricacy of Joyces works.


A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
Published in Paperback by Viking Press (1986)
Authors: Joseph Campbell and Henry M. Robinson
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A Skeleton Key is still a useful text, and one of the more l
One of the first books written about the Wake, A Skeleton Key has been largely supplanted by the wealth of Wakean research done since its 1944 publishing date, but its value as a seminal text is undisputed, and many -- including me! -- still find it a very useful guide. It opens with a beautiful introduction by Campbell, then explains the purpose of the text, moving on to a synopsis of the overall story. After that, it breaks down FW page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up possible interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. In this way Campbell and Robinson more or less retell the Wake, "prosifying" the text in an attempt to make it more comprehensible to the lay reader. While this is certainly helpful, it must be said that this technique can come across as being a bit dry, and is certainly no substitute for the breathtaking immersion in Joyce's scintillating river of prose! Additionally, many of Joyce's meanings were overlooked by Campbell and Robinson, and a few of their interpretations have long since been "overturned" by more recent and intensive scholarship. Because of all this, A Skeleton Key has lost some of the polished glow of its initial reception, and some Joyceans have gone so far as to call it almost completely tarnished, finding it occasionally more misleading than helpful. Although there may be some truth to that, I still enjoy this book, and I find its mythopoetic angle -- this is that Joseph Campbell, after all -- uniquely refreshing, and some of his mythological insights possess a brilliance that has rarely been matched. Still, however, it is no substitute for the text itself, but for a work written only a few years after Finnegans Wake was published, A Skeleton Key is a pretty amazing accomplishment! I would not recommend it over a more recent guide, but I do occasionally enjoy turning to it -- like a slightly dowdy but favorite aunt, I still like to curl up by the fire and hear her stories over a cup of tea.

Now It Makes Sense
If you have given up on the Wake, try this. The characters and storylines of Joyce's last book (yes, there are real characters and storylines) are brilliantly revealed here. What makes this book really exceptional is that it is not a commentary or series of notes alone, but a paraphrase of the entire Wake. The flavor of Joyce's invented language remains, toned down a little. I even venture the heresy that a person on a desert island with just this book and no copy of the Wake would still find it a good read.

Good fare.
First, please accept my disclaimer for this review: I have been a fan of J. Campbell for several years... The objectivity may be lacking, therefore, in this assessment: freely admitted, and accept my apologies.

Campbell spent ~4 years, if memory serves, on this book. He said he finally had to get away from the Wake because everything he read started to sound as though it was from the Wake..

Having been an avid reader of Joyce for the last 5 years, Campbell's KEY is to my mind THE definitive work on the Wake. Anyone can criticize another's work, and perhaps it is unreasonable to expect a critic to be as brilliant as the victim of his wiseacreing, but to my mind criticisms of this beautiful and inspired work are rather worthless..

The Key is always my primary reference for the Wake. "Annotations" is just a phone book of references; the Key is first-rate scholarship. Infallibility is not a requirement for brilliance, assuming there is merit to criticisms of this work.

But as Joseph Campbell would say, don't buy a book because it is said to be important; buy it because it "catches" you. Campbell's grasp of the Wake is a wonderful help to appreciating the Wake in less than a lifetime.


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