Rating: 
Summary: this is bad
Review: This book is bad, and I think it was intended to be so. Probably upset with the over analysis of Ulysses, Joyce must have set out to play a trick on the literary world. This book has no value except to make you laugh at how far some people would go to pretend that it could be interpreted. There are better wastes of ones time, for example staring at a blank wall.
Rating: 
Summary: Wake up with Finnegan
Review: Possibly the most difficult book in the English language (if that is what it is in) but worth all the trouble in deciphering, which is immensely helped by the Introduction. I recommend also all the other guides to The Wake because, believe me, you will need all the help you can get in getting through this book. Then, read it again; then, read it again. Soon the mesmerizing language of this dreamscape will reveal its many beauties. Well worth any effort.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good as Dubliners
Review: I liked it when Finnegan woke up. There was also the part when James Joyce wrote the second chapter - that was good too. Not as good as Dubliners though.
Rating:
Summary: Bizarre, confusing, enigmatic, overwhelming- but wonderful!
Review: I just finished reading FW last night after almost six weeks of thorough plowing-ahead through it. I don't know where to begin in my review of it. I would start by summing it up in the word amazing. This book reinvents language. All through school, we're taught grammar, spelling, punctuation, the format for writing essays, letters, etc., but Joyce rejects that education, says the hell with it and does his own thing. What interpretation of a word is right? Is there a correct interpretation to be conceived? Is there any possible way to wrestle the magnitude of this book to the ground and pin it down to really understand what's going on?? Who knows. Joyce has the reader in the palm of his hand, and it's frightening what FW can do to one's mind. I'm sure that now everything else I read will make me think of Joyce in one way or another. I probably don't know 2% of the amount of foreign languages, literary, geographical, historical and mythological allusions and references which are crammed into the book, but the parts that I CAN decipher are very clever. It's not an interesting "story", but it's captivating simply because it's such an enigma of a book.
There is not so much a story here as there is a SERIES of stories or vignettes parodying various myths, historical events, etc. But several patterns occur and reoccur. Variations of the initials H C E and A L P (What does Joyce achieve with FW? Why, He Confuses Everyone! All Living Persons!), rearrangements of the name of Finn MacCool, the mythological Irish hero, and the predominant Vicoian theme of history repeating itself. H C E is born and reborn as Adam, as Humpty Dumpty, as Finn MacCool himself.. ad infinitum. Joyce deliberately left the whole thing open-ended so that every word can be interpreted in any way, depending on the individual readers personal knowledge. The more you learn, the more meanings will apply themselves to FW. Tip.
And those of you who call this book a piece of garbage have to admit one thing- at least it's original and unique. There's no other book quite like it. Joyce didn't write for other people to understand him. He didn't write to appeal to the literary elite. Joyce wrote for Joyce, and if the reader can be in on the joke, it can produce great results. If you don't get it and call it a pretentious collection of random phrases, then darn it, it's your loss. And don't criticize people for saying they like it. And no, I'm NOT "pretending" to like it- I LIKE IT! Certainly it has some dull spots, but it's 90% great!
It Awnly tuck me sicksweex to reed the hole booke, anned I enjoid it vary moch. Tip. To you extramely pretentious revousers who say that knowbody has ever red it all the weigh thru (whaat maycs you so dammed shore of it in the fursed plays?!), then increase the number of people of all time who have read it all the way through from "zero" to ONE. That one being me. Not only did I read every last word, but I ENJOYED it, and very much so. So stack that in yore piep und smoe kit!
On to bigger and better(?) things! I'm starting Ulysses tonight!
Rating:
Summary: Great. Puzzling, but great!
Review: The type of book that stands alone. It is a true masterpiece and a sentinel for the English language. I was not able to follow the story very well but the the combination of words that are strung together are magnificint. It is something that I think should be read aloud as ther reader will be able to put the sounds together in a more coherent structure. It is enigmatic and incomprehensable. A mystery that will take scholars centuries to try and decifer but guess what? The never will. Not for your average reader but for the lover of words and language.
Rating:
Summary: Confused? Good, you're supposed to be.
Review: A lot of people say that 'Finnegans Wake' is a worthless book because they don't understand it. They're right, of course--nobody fully understands this book. That's the whole point. 'Finnegans Wake' does not tell a story; it plunges the reader into it. The reader becomes the dreamer-- things are slightly out of focus, the real and the unreal mix freely, words and thoughts blur and merge together, everything has multiple connotations, and it is both beautiful and baffling. However, its not simply unstructured chaos-- there is a "plotline" which seeks to examine the relationships between members of a family through the dreams of H.C.E (the central character and father) and his wife. But Joyce extends the "plot" far beyond the specific characters, so (like 'Ulysses') 'F.W.' becomes timeless. Speaking of Ulysses, I think many people (I, in some ways, was one of them) are upset when they realize that F.W. is entirely different, because Ulysses is so amazingly beautiful and perfect. Many reviewers here ask why Joyce didn't write more of the gorgeous prose-poetry of 'Portrait...' and Ulysses. Here's why: Joyce was genius. And geniuses never hold still for very long. Ulysses proves Joyce as a literary master. F.W. proves Joyce to be a master of ideas, art, and language itself. Comparing Joyce's previous work with F.W. is like comparing apples to oranges, as his aims and motives are entirely different. 'Portrait' and 'Ulysses' are both literary masterpieces, while F.W. is simply a masterpiece (though it may perhaps fail as "literature" because it isn't meant to be-- that probably won't make any sense to those who have not read it). The structure, ideas, and concepts Joyce puts forth allows F.W. to transcend the medium of a book; it really belongs on its own seperate shelf at the library or in a museum. Bottom line: 'Finnegans Wake' is a work of art. Those who dismiss it because it is confusing as well as those who try to analyze the meaning of every word are missing the point. Its beauty lies in its confusion, double-meanings, and wordplay. Yes, it is difficult, but reading F.W. is an experience that no other book compares to. It is beautiful. It is chaotic. It is magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: Atonement
Review: Finnegans Wake is amazing. Buy it. There's really not much more that anyone could say. I theorize that perhaps James Joyce was a little irritated at everyone over-analyzing Ulysses, and, while having a whole lot of fun himself with the subject, made a book to raise a sort of middle finger to the literary analysis crowd. I also wouldn't put it past him to have written this about an entirely different subject than sleep and the nightlife, claiming it is such so he can have a good laugh as everyone eats it up. I find it interesting that amazon claims that for every literature book that I've looked at online recently (spanning a broad range of categories, mind you) that other people who have read the books have read Ian McEwan's Atonement. I'd be quite interested to see what it has to do with Finnegans Wake, and believe it to be more of a scummy marketing ploy than anything else. I bet it's a bad book, too. Don't be fooled by their petty con-jobs. Maybe a boycott of the book would be appropriate as well: does McEwan (or whatever other authors they've used this same scheme for) feel that his book is so weak that people must be tricked into buying it? Shame.
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Hoax
Review: There are scholars who make their careers on Finnegans Wake. I have read many of them, hoping to understand this book. However, among the scholars, there is no agreement as to what this book is about, or even if it is about anything, or even if it is readable. To those of us who have enjoyed Joyce's other works, such as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Dubliners, Finnegans Wake is a real disappointment.
The book consists of 628 pages of crypticisms, foreign languages, and languages that haven't yet been invented. In those 628 pages one will struggle to find two words that actually go together to form a discernable thought. Of his works, Joyce said, "Ulysees is the day; Finnegans Wake is the night." Well, I take a lot of walks at night, and even on moonless nights I can make out shapes and shadows, something that is quite impossible in The Wake.
No one will ever deny that James Joyce was a brilliant writer. But, It took him 13 years to write Finnegans Wake. If he actually meant to say anything, 13 years is enough time to come up with a way to do so that actually communicates. This book actually seems like Joyce took a set of the Oxford English Dictionary, placed it atop a couple of sticks of dynamite, detonated the dynamite, and walked through the fragments, writing down whatever his failing eysight was able to pick up. Hence, one is left with the conclusion that Joyce has succeeded in pulling off a hoax, the literary equivalent of the Sokol hoax on the high-brow journal Social Text. And this is what is so disappointing about Finnegans Wake.
If you feel that you must read James Joyce (and you should), then by all means, read one of the aforementioned books. But avoid The Wake; you have better things to do with your time.
Rating:
Summary: Weird
Review: ... Yes, this book is hard to understand and read. That's where its beauty lies. For me, it's a pleasure to read it. Although the story's wiven through the book, you can follow it hardly. But for me, the story is not what the book's about. The book is just a great series of great sounds, wordplays and everything and it is in it's form as great as any other piece of abstract art. Because that's what it is. Abstract art. We have abstract paintings (do I have to name examples?), abstract music, so why can't we have abstract literature? I think it's very interesting to read this and give your own meaning to it, as you (might) do with abstract paintings and/or music. In that way it's a great effort of James Joyce, since you can give anything your own meaning: music, paintings... except for books. Books are beautiful but at the same time there are unwritten rules for books: a storyline, grammar... I could go on for hours. James Joyce breaks with this tradition. But that's great! It has been done before in every form of art! Look at the way music evolved: from classical music all the way to grindcore. There's such a big difference between all those. Music can be simple, and difficult, and I dunno how to explain it. It's just not so rule-based as literature. And therefore, once again, we should cherish this piece of art. It's groundbreaking. Can't say anything to that.
Rating:
Summary: This isn't as bad as it seems
Review: OK, first of all, I can't help but notice that in many of the negative reviews of Finnegans Wake the reviewer admitted to "not getting past the first page" or some such thing. I think that anybody trying to read this book needs to realize that it's not nearly as difficult as it seems on first impression. You need to approach it with an open mind, though. Don't expect it to follow any familiar rules, and don't feel lost when it doesn't. People who couldn't get past the first few pages probably let their biases of what a novel "should be" interfere with their enjoyment of the book. Example: I just started reading FW for the first time, and I'm about halfway through it. So far I've enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm also a 17 year old senior in high school. I don't have the background to understand many of Joyce's allusions, I only speak two (English and Spanish) of the sixty languages he uses. But I still understand enough to know that I like what I'm reading. And even when I don't understand, it doesn't matter - simply the sound of the language is enjoyable. "As we there are where are we are we there from tomtittot to teetootomtotalitarian. Tea tea too oo." What the hell does that mean? Who knows! But it doesn't matter, it rocks! The point is that with an open mind and occasional extra research, I've gotten something out of Finnegans Wake. I know I haven't even scratched the surface, but it just goes to show that as inaccessible as this book may seem, there is something in it for everyone.
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