June 16th is the day the events of James Joyce’s Ulysses take place. It’s celebrated as Bloomsday in Ireland. I’ve read the novel twice. I understood about 10% of it, and do not remember a single line. It is a much harder read than anything by Shakespeare, of which whose works I understand at least 50 % and can cite many quotes. The only writer I find more difficult than Joyce is Henry James, who I understand but whose prose to me is dense and unreadable except for Turn of the Screw. Although Ulysses is beyond my grasp, I was so intrigued by the idea of following the stream of conscience of characters through an entire day that I attempted my own version, American Ulysses, which is on file on my PC and would be the last of my five remaining manuscripts I would attempt to have published. Mine follows only one character -- me. Anyway, Maya Lang, a Ph.D in Comparative Literature who grew up on Long Island, tackles Joyce in an impressive debut, The Sixteenth of June. Set in 2004, the 100th anniversary, it is told from the point of view of three characters: Leopold, an IT manager; Nora, his fiancé, a classically trained singer; and Stephen, Leopold’s brother, who has been working on his doctorate for seven years. Anyone intimidated by Joyce should not hesitate to read this intelligent book. Set in Philadelphia, it’s prose and dialogue are first rate and will be much more familiar to Americans than Joyce‘s. The subconscious thoughts are infinitely easier to follow, and the entire volume comes in at a tidy 237 pages, a quarter of the length, I’d guess, of Ulysses, which is discussed at times during the narrative. Any specific references to it were lost on me. Stephen cites it as a book many pretend to have read. As for Lang’s work, it is rich with insight into the inner and outer worlds of humans. Here’s an example: “That is the economics of life, the market of the heart driven by supply and demand, just like everything else. When you want too much, too openly, life sees your hunger and contracts. Not mind as time unfolds, testing you. Not mind the sparseness, the seeming lack. No roses without thorns.” She also introduces an interesting term: “Grand Unnamed Things” or “GUTS,” which are there but never to be examined. Only nine contributors have rated it at Amazon, forging to a consensus of four of five. I agree. Since I had such difficulty with Ulysses, it wouldn’t be fair to say The Sixteenth of June is better, but I certainly enjoyed it a hell of a lot more. My only quibble is that on occasion there seems to be more than one point of view in a paragraph. Its sales are modest. At last check, the hardcover edition ranked 109,905. There are more than 11 million books listed at Amazon.
I didn't sell a lot of books today but I did sell a huge one: Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Lugging it around was a workout in itself. My thanks to the young men who bought it and to the session's other buyers.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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