Journal Entry 1 by Cassiopaeia from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, February 26, 2007

Book Description
'Short life by noted Irish writer with a lifelong passion for James Joyce, the author of The Dubliners, Ulysses'

Synopsis from Amazon
'This life of James Joyce will send readers back to his own classic fiction. To those who have never read it, or to those who have previously tried and failed, Edna O'Brien's evocation of Joyce's classic "Ulysses" will be the guide. Edna O'Brien has long been an admirer of Joyce's work. Here she tells how his life and his writing intertwined. Her understanding of the strange personality of this charismatic genius illuminates the reader's understanding of his writing. We see Joyce travelling Europe, seeking loans wherever he may and all the while writing. Sharing something of the same Irish background, Edna O'Brien is uniquely suited to write this short biography.'

 

Journal Entry 2 by Cassiopaeia from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, March 19, 2007

I have read this book as a companion to the Ulysses Readalong and have found it wonderfully informative. Edna O Brien being herself an author who suffered at the hands of the censors and often surrounded by controversy, had done a wonderful job of depicting Joyce and Nora and their lives together in exile and debt, she brings Joyce alive in a very accessable way.