THE JAMES JOYCE AUDIO COLLECTION

Joyce’s work doesn’t lend itself to excerpts--ULYSSES and FINNEGAN’S WAKE are challenging (or incomprehensible) enough as completed works. But this collection, for the most part, is successful. First, there are two complete stories from DUBLINERS, read with skill and pathos by Jim Norton and Colm Meaney. There are also some virtuoso set pieces: Cyril Cusack’s Christmas dinner scene from A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST and Siobhan McKenna’s soliloquy of Molly Bloom are both magnificent. And as a special treat, the listener can compare McKenna’s brilliant interpretation of an episode in FINNEGAN’S WAKE with the same passage read by Joyce himself in 1932. (Another recording of Joyce reading from ULYSSES in 1924 is an intriguing, if barely audible, piece of audio history.) Ultimately, this is an appetizer rather than a meal, but it’s an awfully tasty one. D.B. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]