Best Companion Book to Ulysses
I'm trying to get a girlfriend of mine to understand why I think Joyce is so good. I can't explain it, other than to say that the writing is just brilliant - it is as good as any other that I've read, probably. As a writer, the writers that I read that really "recharge my batteries" and get me going are Joyce, Checkhov, Faulkner and Shakespeare.
My girlfriend has an i.q. of about 160, so she's smart enough to understand Joyce. But Ulysses, as you know, can be hard to approach. What do you think is the best companion book to help explain an "open up" the world of Ulysses? Right now, I think its Frank Budgen's James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, but I don't know for sure,...
Thanks.
Some recommended guidebooks
First and foremost, rent the DVD "Bloom" (2002), a beautiful and stirring film version of the novel. It's very entertaining in its own right and it will spark interest in the novel.
Two books, both in print and paperback, I recommend as guides to Ulysses:
"James Joyce's Ulysses" by Stuart Gilbert
"The New Bloomsday Book" by Harry Blamires
For background reading, not exactly guidebooks, I suggest:
"ReJoyce" by Anthony Burgess
"Mythic Worlds, Modern Words" by Joseph Campbell
(yes, both were ardent Joyce fans).
For a precise, step-by-step concordance:
"Ulysses Annotated" by Don Gifford.
The Context of James Joyce's Writing.
Another approach that might be valid would involve an
awareness of the times in which James Joyce was writing.
For instance, in the world of painting, in Spain and France,
a young Pablo Picasso was coming out of his blue period
and embarking some of the most (conceptually) peculiar
painting ever witnessed. That was cubism.
In America, music was being totally transformed by groups
of musicians as diverse as has ever been heard. The form
became known as jazz.
Movie buffs, poetry and literature scholars, and theater
lovers could no doubt add example upon example. The
twenties and thirties were 'nuts,' and not just in the USA.
The entire cultural scene was in flux. Here was this Irish
writer, self-exiled from an Ireland that was, at the time,
just not the place for it.
Contextual information. That might be the ticket to
initiation for the girl friend.