I’m a little more than halfway through my quest to read 100 of the greatest English language novels of the last century. In that journey, I’ve seen just about it all. I’ve enjoyed the majority of the books, struggled through others, and flat out couldn’t finish one (so far). But I’ve never had an experience like James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. It is widely considered one of the hardest books to read. I knew this going in, and was ready for the challenge. Other than a heads up that the book is best taken slowly, with full attention, and ready to sound it out as you go (much of the book is written phonetically), I went in pretty blind and stayed away from spoilers. As ready as I felt, I was wholly unprepared.
To say this is a challenging read is like saying it is hard to walk on the moon without a spacesuit or a rocket to get there in the first place. It is nearly like Joyce invented a language for this novel, with made-up words throughout. Having said that, if you do take it slow, sound it out in your head (I spent a lot of the book actually mouthing the words as I read), you can still catch glimpses of what is going on from time to time. And for me, it was only glimpses. I ready the whole thing, and I’m still not sure exactly what happens.
There are (I think) 5 or possibly 6 main characters. HCE is the main guy, and his wife is ALP. Their kids are Shaun and Shem, and a daughter Izzy. Finnegan may be a main character too as is referenced here and there, but I almost suspect HCE and Finnegan are one and the same. One of the most confusing points is Joyce continually uses nicknames, or sometimes entirely different names, for these characters. It wasn’t until about 2/3rds through the book that I realized pretty much any time 2 males are talking to each other, it is most likely brothers Shaun and Shem, no matter what they are being called at the time.
The book starts with the death of Finnegan, but he is brought back to life at his wake and walks out. Then we meet HCE, a man about town who seems to have a bad reputation, though it is implied (maybe by his wife ALP, so take with a grain of salt) that his reputation is unearned. HCE is accused of some dastardly deed and put on trial, but I never caught what the accusation was. At his trial ALP testifies for him, but I think he is ultimately found guilty.
In chapter 2, the book jumps either ahead or in the past. HCE and ALP are running a tavern, but this could just be a continuing metaphor for the trial, as there are references to 12 drinkers at the bar, so maybe the 12 jurors? There are stories told and at some point HCE gets in trouble again. The third chapter deals more with Shaun (and to a lesser extent, Shem), where I think he becomes the leader of the town, perhaps mayor, but he is exposed as a coward. The final chapter is almost a eulogy for HCE told by ALP.
Having said all that, everything I’ve written above is a guess. To say I spent much of the book clueless as to what is going on is putting it mildly. Sometimes I got lucky, I would get into the cadence of the written words, and could speed along reading it (almost) like you’d read a regular novel, but most of the time I felt like I was reading a foreign language. But here is the brilliance of James Joyce. Even when I had read 5-6 pages without a clue (and sometimes those 5-6 pages comprised of a single long sentence without a period!), even when I was frustrated at my lack of understanding, never did I want to wave the white flag and give up. The book is beautifully written, and more than that, Joyce gives you a glimpse every once and awhile, where it feels like the gates upon up and the dawn emerges from the dark. For example, one section I was reading and feeling lost, and then in the middle of a sentence was written, in parenthesis, something like “All lets praise!” (my words, can’t remember exact wording). Immediately I realized this whole section had been written about or by ALP (first letters of that phrase). Yes, I had to go back and re-read a bit to put it in context, but the gratification when I could decipher small sections of the puzzle like that is immense.
And here’s the amazing part about the phonetic writing style used. Once finished, I finally was ready for spoilers (I guess they are still considered spoilers since I feel pretty dumb about what I read). There are videos online where you can find James Joyce himself reading excerpts of this book. And when read by him, with his heavy Irish accent putting the correct emphasis on the correct spots of text, it didn’t sound jumbled at all. It sounded like any novel with real English words. That gives me hope. This is a book I’m going to revisit one day, probably with one of the myriad of “companion” readers that are available to help us lowly mortals understand what the hell is going on in the text. If anyone out there wants to take a stab at this one, know that the frustration is real, but in the end, it is worth it.
Jons Movie Takes 
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