Penelope Unbound

by Mary Morrissy

On their arrival in Trieste in 1904, James Joyce left Norah Barnacle outside a railway station while he went to scare up money. He got embroiled in a fight with a couple of sailors and was locked up for his troubles. A penniless Norah was left alone for almost an entire day and night sitting on their suitcases at the station in a city where she knew no one and where she didn't speak the language. In real life, Norah waited for him. This novel asks - what if she hadn't? In Penelope Unbound, one of our greatest living novelists weaves a spellbinding speculative history. By unhooking Norah from her famous husband, Morrissy gives her a compelling new voice, with heartbreak and humanity all her own. Sensual, inventive and uproariously funny, Penelope Unbound reimagines a Joycean heroine for the 21st century.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Irish Literature, Novels, Historical

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2023

About the author

Mary Morrissy (born 1957 Dublin) is an Irish writer. Morrissy was educated at the Rathmines School of Journalism. She worked in Australia, and as a sub-editor of The Irish Press. She taught creative writing for the University of Arkansas, and University of Iowa creative writing summer programmes.

She was a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library, for her work-in-progress, The Duchess, an imagined autobiography of Bella O'Casey, the sister of Seán O'Casey. In 2008 - 09, she was Jenny McKean Moore "Writer in Washington" at George Washington University, Washington DC.

Her novel "Mother of Pearl" was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize in 1996.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ‘What if?’ novel, reimagining the relationship between Norah Barnacle and James Joyce, and including Joyce’s friend Italo Svevi, novelist and businessman.
In real life when Joyce left her at the railway station in Trieste Norah sat on her cases and waited for him for 36 hours when he was waylaid. This novel imagines her taking another path and taken home by Svevi with whom she has a relationship.
The book was off to a bit of a slow start but is written beautifully with lively wit and a raunchy approach to Norah’s adventures.
The style owes much to Joyce and is, overall, a delight.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I bought this in avid anticipation of learning more about the life of Norah Barnacle, the wife of James Joyce, having already absolutely enjoyed the experience that Nuala O'Connor created in her wonderful novel Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce. I knew that this would be different, because Mary Morrissy takes a significant turning point in their relationship, after they have left/eloped Dublin, been to Paris and now arriving in Trieste, Italy to begin their lives anew.

Norah has enough experience to know what she doesn't want and already given James/Jim a few ultimatums, and one of them is not to leave her stranded, stood up. So how long does a young woman wait, suitcase in hand, in a foreign country before deciding that she has been left?

This is the point where the author diverges from historical fact and after more than 9 hours waiting at the station, allows Nora to depart with someone other than the man she refers to as her husband Jim.

She'd thought of telling him how she waited for Jim, ten whole hours outside the railway station in Trieste, like a fool, the darkness falling and she weak from hunger, and still no sign of him. And not a farthing on her. Abandoned.

The novel begins though, 10 years later, June 1916, back in Dublin, a day when we learn she is the owner of a boarding house and she leaves to go and wait outside a concert hall. We learn that the day before a man has come calling for her. Before the details of what this is about or who it is that visited - was it Jim or was it a foreign man she is clearly no longer with? It takes 40 pages, with many, many flashbacks - for her to descend the stairs to learn who is/was waiting for her, a clue to why she was waiting outside the concert hall. Snippets of the present, long swathes of memory.

She was Mrs Norah Smith now - that's how she'd signed the contracts of sale, with the H back in her name that Jim Joyce had made her drop. She was Norah, after Hanorah, her grand-aunt. And she wasn't going to let anyone from her past put her down.

The novel then goes back 10 years to the train station in Trieste and the intervening story unfolds. Despite having not waited for him, Jim is never far from her thoughts and much about her new life causes her to relive episodes of their short time together.

Penelope "Unbound" did create an expectation that she might therefore create a life where she acquired some independence, perhaps some may perceive that she did. She remains bound to a household, perhaps even more so, due to her inability to speak the language and never entirely accepted by its inhabitants, apart from the one who rescued her.

Her predicament in being tied to this one person, dependent on him for everything, will ultimately provide her her liberty, only because he has created an unsustainable predicament for himself. Did Norah take charge of her destiny, or was she left with no choice?

And after all those years apart, we will wonder, do soulmates always find each in the end, even when they can not be together?

[David Toms · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been fascinated by the way Joyce is being made new through being the inspiration for other stories, most recently with NORA by Nuala O'Connor and now with Penelope Unbound by Mary Morrissy.

This novel is full of the kind of authentic voices, playfulness and humour that makes Joyce such a pleasure to read. But make no mistake, this is neither pastiche nor mere homage, but its own entire thing and this speculative what-if novel makes a convincing case for an alternate history of her life. An absolute triumph.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penelope Unbound is a reimagined life for Norah Barnacle if she doesn't wait for James Joyce at the train station in Trieste. He gets himself into a fight and is locked up while Norah waits a number of hours for him at the train station with all their luggage. She doesn't speak the language and finds herself in this dilemma. In real life Norah waited for Joyce but in this she doesn't and the story is a what if? We see Norah's life play out without Joyce by reusing the H in here name, her life in Trieste and her return to Ireland.

I wanted to love this book but unfortunately it wasn't for me! I loved the concept and idea of the book but I didn't love the writing style and I found the story dragged out for me. I found myself not wanting to pick up the book and a struggle to finish, it probably should have been a DNF which I hate doing! The writing style in this took the form of how things are pronounced speaking rather than spelt so at times Italian is spelt Eyetalian which really annoyed me throughout. I got that the author wanted you in the mind of Norah and how she thought but I didn't love it! Unfortunately this wasn't one for me but others might enjoy it more.

[penelopewanders]

I haven't quite unraveled the title, unless it's simply the issue of waiting and waiting and then no longer being willing to wait.
I wish I knew more about the life of Joyce - and Italo Svevo.
At times the writing here reminded me of Joyce's writing - almost stream of consciousness, etc.
I greatly enjoyed the mangled non-English languages as Norah perceived them. See Norah...
Interesting, although a bit confusing. As this was a busy time, I wasn't able to read as regularly as normal. I was unsure whether Amelia was someone we'd already encountered during Norah's time in Trieste, or if she was someone new to the story.
I have the impression I need to think on this a bit longer.

[Diane Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel imagines what might have happened if Norah Barnacle had not waited all night for James Joyce in Trieste in 1904. I have two problems with this. One is that I’m not sure if it’s morally justified to write total lies about real people. The other is that, if you are going to do it, at least make it exciting. This was a dull read, not helped by the fact that Norah was not an educated woman and using her as the narrator for the majority of the book only exacerbates the pedestrian nature of the content.

[LeAnne Bremer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A what-if novel about Norah Barnacle, wife of James Joyce, presenting an alternative history of what happened to Norah after being left waiting in a train station in Trieste, Italy, not knowing the eventual celebrated author was spending the night in jail. Instead of waiting for him, as she did in real life, she was off on a frolic of her own spanning many years, keeping us in Italy and ending up in Dublin. Wittily written, mostly from Norah’s uneducated but street smart point of view. Entertaining.

[Islandfielder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly inspired

What an amazing concept and idea. And how beautifully told. I so didn’t want this book to end. I stretched out the last50 pages over days but all good books must come to an end. However Norah/Nora and Jim/Giacomo will live with me for a long time - as will their longing - for each other; for different lives which might have been lived; for different people they might have been …… huge kudos to the storytelling skills of @marymorrissey

[Mandi A · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt kind of intrusive reading this imagined version of the lives of such iconic people, especially the Trieste section, where Jim and Norah really did live together and have their children. That said, the difference in character between the Irish and the Italian families and their interactions were well-drawn. Does everyone have to make out that Holyhead is so grim? Very few people linger long enough to find out. Would like to read of MM's work for comparison.

[Nicki Williamson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story that the author has written but I don't really get the point of using actual people and telling a fake story. Why not just use fictitious people that could have been alive at the time? Them being Norah Barnacle and James Joyce doesn't change the narrative in my opinion, possibly made it less satisfying because it's not at all what their lives were so just sits oddly for me.

[50andsomething · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever re-imagining of Nora's life, had she left Joyce in Trieste. Lots of great coincidences and jokes - Italo Svabo and Blazes Boylan appear. There's a Poldy and the Jesuits.
Nora emerges as a resourceful woman, but Joyce is petty and slippery.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long, winding "what if?" story. I don't understand the need to separate Nora(h) from her husband when she ends up with another man? Like. She's just going from Man A to Man B to Man A again. This takes us nowhere.

2.5/5.

[Annamarie Delaney]

Great. Entertaining and thought provoking.