Customer Reviews
This Naxos AudioBook is an abridged version - By: A Reader, 19 Jun 2007 
As is usual for Naxos, this Naxos AudioBook reading of 'Finnegan's Wake' is excellent value for money. Nevertheless, buyers should be aware that this is an abridged version of the book.
finnegans wake - By: T. Molyneux, 28 Jan 2007 some good reviews for this book, it does tend to provoke some strong reactionsin its readers. joyce, a genius? an overbearing egotist? maybe both? a difficult question for some, but whatever, this book has caused a stormin the literary world since its publication. it is indeed difficult to readin the conventional sense, &in scope (through its often obscure allusions & language) is incredibly huge, covering ancient mythology, history, both of ireland & of the whole human race, language, christian theology etc etc, a mind bending project & probably as valuable as you care to make it. This text is definately demanding & requires a great deal of effort & concentration on the part of its readers, & while it is all too easy to give up on it as pompus intellectual showing off, or to try extremely hard to understand & master this book when you arent really gaining much from it, my advice would just to be honest & open minded, try it & see what you can learn from it (if anything).in my opinion joyce is an a grade 1st class superfunk human being, respect etc.
The Book of Books - By: , 14 Mar 2006 People who don't like Finnegans Wake often feel obscurely resentful, & can't believe that anyone else genuinely does like it. I firmly believe that you can't persuade anyone to like anything, so I'm not going to argue with anyone who thinks that I'm fooling myself, or trying to show off. Saying you like Finnegans Wake isin any case a bit like saying you like Arnold Schoenberg's music; most people won't know what you're talking about, & most of the rest won't believe you & think you're pretentious anyway, so the moral is, there's very little kudosin saying that you _do_ like the damn book.
It's just the ultimate novel. All novels, even the simplest, have various layers of allusion or symbolism going on; this one just has more. All novels are written with some kind of self-conscious style; this is the most stylish. All novels are structured one way or the other; this is uber-structured. I've often thought that Finnegans Wake isin many ways a precursor of HTML. Some genius should do an online version of it. Practically every word would be a hyperlink, leading to a page or so of annotation (Roland McHugh's book 'Annotations to Finnegans Wake' is the most ambitious print venture of that sort, but with the novel itself you get the most alarming sense that the layers go on forever...)
Every novel is difficult if you've never read novels before. If you've only read trash, then even a middling good novel is tough going; the writer demands more of the reader. James Joyce merely wants you to spend the rest of your life reading this book. Personally I think that's one of his better jokes. To go back to Schoenberg again (yeah, I know it's not exactly enticing to compare Joyce to Schoenberg, but bear with me), the essential thing is that there's just more going on here; Schoenberg has a million tunes going on at once, Joyce has a million linguistic things going on at once. I don't call that "having a shoddy grip on his talent", I call that generosity.
After trying to work out why people resent this book so much, I've come to believe that some people hate to think that there's anyone out there who's effortlessly smarter than they are. I, for one, am happy to accept that Joyce can just write anyone else off the planet.
Personally, I believe that the book becomes a lot more realistic if you read it with an Irish accentin your head. But try it & see. Nobody will seriously believe that you're reading it, so what have you got to lose?
Leave all inhibitions and prejudices at the entrance, please - By: Larry, 08 Oct 2005 Before you read this, forget absolutely everything anybody has ever told you or anything you have ever read previously about the book. Perhaps even the very review you are reading right now. I've read something a guy wrote here about Joyce not being an intellectual - wrong. He was,in my opinion, of a mammoth intelligence quite difficult to comprehend. Everything he published was a masterpiece, though I think we all know that deep down. You don't have to be Irish to enjoy his work, but it helps.
The beauty of Joyce's art was his ability to craft literature that was representive of all existence as we know it by using symbolisation & observant detail into ordinary happenings. His work was never based around conventional plots. Ullyses was a close detail of two character's thoughts & actionsin the space of one day, yet it symbolised more than any other novel ever written before or after... with the exception of Finnegans Wake.
The impression I've got from the majority of Joyce's critics with negative reactions is fear. The fear of misunderstanding. They fear they are, for some reason, unable to comprehend these works like others can, & so they slander it & dismiss it as meaningless jargon. No one can understand Joyce's works (he himself was the only one who could truly do so), the most they can do is form a personal interpretation. That is all these endlessly open texts demand of their readers. Some might prefer their meanings writtenin stone. If so, Joyce is not the author for you. That's something I've never understood - you don't like Joyce, so what? Joyce appeals to readersin search of something more mysterious, something to dig into, something to live in. Those looking for a summer-holiday paperback may look elsewhere.
Finnegans Wake has no beginning or no end. It does not grip the reader, the reader must grip it. There are over a thousand ways to enjoy this book. Some may find it lyrically beautiful, some may find it amazingly detailed & complex, some may find it hilariously witty, some may find it a maze of subtle delightsin which they can seek & find, & so on. I enjoy itin all of the above ways. Seeing as Joyce spent sixteen years writing it, there's obviously a lot of depth & meaning to it, but it is hiddenin layers of linguistic prowess. It is a history of the universein the language of dreams. It is completely still & timeless, open to observation, but never changing. There is no limit to it's possibilities, no definition of its nature. There is no right or wrong way to interpret it. Study it, any way you wish, & it is yours for as long as you live.
So, if my description enthralls you to read this masterpiecein any way, I recommend you should. If you find what I have written to be an overwhelming piece of pompous trash, stick to your Dan Brown paperbacks. No offence intended - it's just not for the casual reader. So,in hope that you are of the former, I ask you to completely forget everything, like I said at the start, & buy the book, open a page & allow your mind to grip its words within itself & explore its vast & bottomless planes.
Intriguing - By: John Egbe, 22 Jan 2005 You will probably consider this novel to be difficult. I agree with anybody who thinks so. It is very difficult. It certainly is hard to grasp, but once you get into it, that is it. James Joyce stretched the language & brought the book to a far higher form of writing that is uncommon around. Uncommonin the sense that you have to get into it to love it. For easier, compelling reads, I recommend the works of Janvier Tisi. DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE is lovely
