Joyce's Kaleidoscope An Invitation to Finnegans Wake [Hardcover]

James Joyce'sUlysses, once regarded as obscure and obscene, is now viewed as a masterpiece of world literature. Yet Joyce's final novel,Finnegans Wake, to which he devoted seventeen years, remains virtually unread. Its linguistic novelties, layered allusions, and experimental form can make it seem impenetrable.

Joyce's Kaleidoscopeattempts to dissolve the darkness that surrounds the Wake and to display instead its mesmerizing play of light. Philip Kitcher offers an original, appealing interpretation of Joyce's novel while also suggesting an approach to the magnum opus that will attract readers of every sort. Focusing throughout on the book's central themes, Kitcher proposes thatFinnegans Wakehas at its core an age-old philosophical question- What makes a life worth living? -that Joyce explores from the perspective of someone who feels that a long life is now at its end.

Alert to echoes, Kitcher progresses through the novel, adding texture to his portrait of an aging dreamer who seeks reassurance about the worth of what he has done and who he has been. The novel's complex dream language becomes meaningful when seen as a way for Joyce to investigate issues that are hard to face directly, common though they may be. At times the view is clouded, at times it's the music or sheer comedy that predominates, but one experiences in the retrospective momentum a brilliant clarity unlike anything else in literature. With a startlingly profound compassion and a distinctive brand of humanism, Joyce points us to the things that matter in our lives. His final novel, Kitcher believes, is a call to life itself. Those who heed the call and pick upFinnegans Wake, whether for the first or the fifth time, will find inJoyce's Kaleidoscopean ideal companion.

Philip Kitcher is just the person we need to rein in a virtuoso performance that threatens at every turn to spin out of control. There's no novel more in need olÓ.