*Ø* Blogmanac | Ireland's Shakespeare?

John Sutherland responds to Roddy Doyle's criticism of James Joyce's Ulysses

"'Ulysses could have done with a good editor'. A neat put-down, Mr Doyle, but less memorable than that of Mrs Joyce, the author's (very cut-him-down-to-size) wife: 'I guess the man's a genius, but what a 'dirty' mind he has, hasn't he?'

"Dirty it was. Most readers of Ulysses (and it's not 'quite' as gruelling or off-putting as Roddy Doyle suggests) rush with mounting excitement through the final, unpunctuated Penelope section (what, one wonders, would a good editor have done?) as Molly Bloom drifts into slumber, the events of her life swirling around her like snowflakes.

"Her stream of semi-consciousness rises to that sleepily orgasmic 'yes'. But what did Joyce 'mean'? What, in his (dirty) genius way, was he getting at? He explained his intentions to a friend, Frank Budgen (who may not have been much enlightened): ... "

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