Finding Joy in Joyce

Book excerpt: This is a detailed reader's guide to James Joyce's masterwork Ulysses, voted the most important novel of the 20th century. The guide provides episode by episode an in depth explanation of the action and symbolism, including a description of the related books of Homer's Odyssey and the correspondences. This guide is designed to give the user the keys to the kingdom of one of the wonders of Western civilization. The non-academic author, a retired lawyer and life long Joyce reader, brings new approaches to find the deep meaning of each of Joyce's episodes and the novel as a whole. The scope of this effort, the complete Joyce, is unique in an area monopolized by more narrowly focused academics. The analysis elucidates Joyce's technique to mimic patterns in history and nature in his architecture of coherence. His medicine for the diseased spirit of our age is a custom blend of Jesus and Buddha, not as they are marketed by institutional religions, but as they lived their lives as humans. Joyce's god is more possibilities in life and art, and this guide will do that for you.