The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904-1920

Rating:
Summary: Superbly researched, documented and accessibly written.
Review: John McCourt's The Years Of Bloom: James Joyce In Trieste, 1904-1920 is a remarkable and original contribution to Joycean studies. McCourt was able to acquire information never before published about Joyce's activities in the years he resided in Trieste, and which influenced his career as one of the truly great writers in the English language. Superbly researched, accessibly written, thoroughly documented, and impressively presented, The Years Of Bloom is a major work of outstanding scholarship and a welcome, enduring, seminal contribution which will be part of every college and university reading list and reference collections on the life and writings of James Joyce.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific resource, and a good read too
Review: Like many other readers of Joyce, I considered Trieste to be merely "anywhere but Dublin" -- i.e., it was significant to the author only because it was where he began his self-imposed exile from Ireland. In his writings, I felt, Joyce never really left Dublin, and he could as well have been in Mombasa or Ulan Bator for all the effect that his city of residence had on his work. So this book was a revelation to me: although Joyce originally landed in Trieste by happenstance, he quickly grew to feel at home there, and the city provided a cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and culturally rich environment in which his art grew to maturity.

McCourt provides ample and convincing evidence of the degree to which Joyce's experiences in Trieste influenced his most important works, from the Triestine puns in "Finnegans Wake" to the main characters of "Ulysses," and how productive he was as a writer during his years there. What I found especially fascinating were the details McCourt unearthed about the rest of Joyce's life: in his perennially unsuccessful pursuit of financial stability, he was (inter alia) a partner in a cinema, a bank clerk, and a would-be exporter of Irish woolens; his domestic life was continually in uproar (Nora lacked his facility at learning languages, and was marooned at home with a series of babies and, from time to time, Joyce's transplanted siblings); but he was a good English teacher, and, through his private tutoring, he became acquainted with many financially and intellectually influential members of Triestine society. (The influence went both ways: the writer/businessman Ettore Schmidt was on the verge of giving up his literary ambitions when Joyce convinced him not to, and he went on to write several classic novels under his pen name, Italo Svevo.)

This book was originally a doctoral dissertation, and it suffers at times from the graduate-student tendency to include Absolutely Every Detail relevant to one's subject (I sympathize: been there, done that). But, in general, it's readable, clearly written, well organized, and, although the basic structure is chronological, the author gives each chapter enough of a thematic focus to make it more than a mere recitation of dates and events. I found the book entertaining as well as informative, and I feel it's a valuable resource for anyone interested in Joyce or, for that matter, in early 20th century European literary history.