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Fabulous Voyager
A guidebook for the layman to Joyce's most famous work, Ulysses. A piece of literary detection. A valuable introduction to the whole mystery of James Joyce
- GenresLiterary Criticism
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 31, 2017
I had high hopes for Richard M Kain's Fabulous Voyager: A Study of James Joyce's Ulysses. First published in 1947, I deemed sufficient time had elapsed since the publication of Ulysses in 1922 for copious exegetic insights to spill forth from the pages. Kain himself had been a trustee of the James Joyce Foundation and served on the editorial board of the James Joyce Quarterly.
The first hint of disappointment to come may be found on page 4 when Kain indicates his indebtedness to Harry Levin's book James Joyce: A Critical Introduction, an early (1941) and rather lackluster attempt to tell the James Joyce story before any of the guides we now rely on had yet been written. On page 5 Kain expresses in no uncertain terms his dissatisfaction with Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses: a Study, which remains a cornerstone of studies of Ulysses to this day. This was another ill omen.
I'm perfectly willing to read a book that puts forward opinions that agree with mine or that are diametrically opposed to mine, provided those opinions are supported by reasoned arguments. The problem with Kain's book is not even that it doesn't offer any supporting arguments or evidence, but that he rarely even puts forward an original opinion. In effect what he has done is to rewrite and resequence Ulysses, recasting it in his own words. Think about that. Chapter after chapter of someone telling you what Joyce said, and offering no interpretation. I mean, wouldn't you really rather just read what Joyce said, in the order that he said it, in his own words? Wouldn't you rather just read Ulysses?
This is a terribly dull book, and the only book about Joyce that I've had to struggle to read all the way through. On the rare occasions when Kain does voice an original opinion about Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, he tends to demonstrate an embarrassing sophomoric understanding of his subject, as when he suggests Joyce's use of motifs (central to Joyce's writing technique) is excessive since most of them won't be noticed by the reader, or when Kain downplays any advantage for the reader to pay attention to the Homeric correspondences, or when he calls Finnegans Wake "a long nightmare" which Joyce "is merely writing for the fun of it."
In Chapter 12 Kain begins to speak about Irish politics, and suddenly the book comes to life. It is quite evident that this was an area of particular interest to him. A giveaway is when he calls "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" one of the best stories in Dubliners: I'm certain I've never encountered anyone else making that claim. We can learn a little about Irish history here that is helpful in understanding the novel. However, when Kain begins disparaging Leopold Bloom's politics, and saying such as: "The ineffectuality of good will in a world dedicated to the use of force, overt or hidden, is a common oversight among liberals," we have to take a moment to pause and reflect. Kain makes clear where his own politics lie, and it may be worth remembering this book was published a few years after the end of WWII. In a way ― not the same way, but in a way ― Kain ends up betraying himself, much as Stanislaus Joyce did, more than he elucidates James Joyce.
In the last few chapters Kain begins straying from Ulysses, a subject with which he's evidently bored, and talking more about Finnegans Wake, in spite of the title of this book; unfortunately, as before, he has little of interest to tell us about Joyce's last novel, either.
Kain adds several appendices at the end which function something as [im]practical indices for Ulysses: practical because they can help you find desired passages, impractical because most of their entries are matters of interest to no one. Online, searchable texts of Ulysses have now made these appendicies of little use.
The first hint of disappointment to come may be found on page 4 when Kain indicates his indebtedness to Harry Levin's book James Joyce: A Critical Introduction, an early (1941) and rather lackluster attempt to tell the James Joyce story before any of the guides we now rely on had yet been written. On page 5 Kain expresses in no uncertain terms his dissatisfaction with Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses: a Study, which remains a cornerstone of studies of Ulysses to this day. This was another ill omen.
I'm perfectly willing to read a book that puts forward opinions that agree with mine or that are diametrically opposed to mine, provided those opinions are supported by reasoned arguments. The problem with Kain's book is not even that it doesn't offer any supporting arguments or evidence, but that he rarely even puts forward an original opinion. In effect what he has done is to rewrite and resequence Ulysses, recasting it in his own words. Think about that. Chapter after chapter of someone telling you what Joyce said, and offering no interpretation. I mean, wouldn't you really rather just read what Joyce said, in the order that he said it, in his own words? Wouldn't you rather just read Ulysses?
This is a terribly dull book, and the only book about Joyce that I've had to struggle to read all the way through. On the rare occasions when Kain does voice an original opinion about Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, he tends to demonstrate an embarrassing sophomoric understanding of his subject, as when he suggests Joyce's use of motifs (central to Joyce's writing technique) is excessive since most of them won't be noticed by the reader, or when Kain downplays any advantage for the reader to pay attention to the Homeric correspondences, or when he calls Finnegans Wake "a long nightmare" which Joyce "is merely writing for the fun of it."
In Chapter 12 Kain begins to speak about Irish politics, and suddenly the book comes to life. It is quite evident that this was an area of particular interest to him. A giveaway is when he calls "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" one of the best stories in Dubliners: I'm certain I've never encountered anyone else making that claim. We can learn a little about Irish history here that is helpful in understanding the novel. However, when Kain begins disparaging Leopold Bloom's politics, and saying such as: "The ineffectuality of good will in a world dedicated to the use of force, overt or hidden, is a common oversight among liberals," we have to take a moment to pause and reflect. Kain makes clear where his own politics lie, and it may be worth remembering this book was published a few years after the end of WWII. In a way ― not the same way, but in a way ― Kain ends up betraying himself, much as Stanislaus Joyce did, more than he elucidates James Joyce.
In the last few chapters Kain begins straying from Ulysses, a subject with which he's evidently bored, and talking more about Finnegans Wake, in spite of the title of this book; unfortunately, as before, he has little of interest to tell us about Joyce's last novel, either.
Kain adds several appendices at the end which function something as [im]practical indices for Ulysses: practical because they can help you find desired passages, impractical because most of their entries are matters of interest to no one. Online, searchable texts of Ulysses have now made these appendicies of little use.
July 29, 2017
This book is an introduction to James Joyce's Ulysses, and I think it does a decent job. Relations and interrelations within the novel are adduced, and the analysis is simple, but cogent. Despite that, however, Kain was unable to defend the reason why Ulysses is so bloated. I didn't need 700+ pages for Joyce to show that he was a genius: he showed it already in the first hundred pages. Still, this book proffers a wonderful insight to the greatest 20th century novelist's magnum opus.
August 11, 2020
An early study helping to explain much of what Jayce was doing in the writing of Ulysses. Helping to clarify this masterwork of modern fiction was appreciated. The appendices will be extremely helpful when reading Ulysses for the first, or indeed any, time.
July 28, 2019
Another Ulysses study I read while reading Ulysses itself. Since I buy all my books at library sales and thrift shops, I don't often get the most up-to-date guides--I had this and Stuart Gilbert's study on my shelves when I decided to finally tackle's Joyce's book, so those were the two I used. No doubt there are others that are as good or better.
I actually liked the Kain book a bit better than Gilbert, though I think a few times there were things that bounced off of one and supported the other. Gilbert's guide was written when the text of Ulysses wasn't widely available, and it seemed like his goal was to give as many excerpts as possible, with some basic guidance as to what was happening over the course of the book so that interested readers might come away from his study with at least a partial understanding of why the book is important. Kain, on the other hand, seems to explore larger themes across the book, and even across Joyce's work as a whole. So there are times when he quotes from Dubliners, Stephan Hero, Portrait, and Finnegan's Wake in order to amplify a thought that Joyce may have pursued and elaborated on beyond the text of Ulysses.
I'd heard bad things about this book before I started it, though I don't recall exactly what the objections were--most likely people disagreed with Kain's interpretations. I can't say I felt that way--I thought Kain had a lot of enthusiasm for Ulysses, which actually made me think more about it, even though I was pretty down on Joyce's book while I was reading it.
The one thing that Kain's book is not is a study guide in the sense of explaining the text, or enlarging on Joyce's meaning in a particular way. It's much more expansive than that--so if you are looking for detailed answers, it would probably be better to look for a annotated version of Ulysses, because that's not Kain's purpose. Kain will take a particular theme, say social realism, and draw out how Joyce illustrates the reality of social life in Dublin throughout the book, even dipping into Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man if it suits.
As far as suggesting alternate ways of looking at Joyce's work as a whole, I thought Fabulous Voyager was pretty good. While I was reading Ulysses, I got frustrated and annoyed often because I was stuck in details that didn't seem to be related to anything else. Kain's book helped me see how these things were actually connected, and actually made me feel a tad bit better about the book. Not enough to want to read it over again, at least not for a long time, but better anyway.
I actually liked the Kain book a bit better than Gilbert, though I think a few times there were things that bounced off of one and supported the other. Gilbert's guide was written when the text of Ulysses wasn't widely available, and it seemed like his goal was to give as many excerpts as possible, with some basic guidance as to what was happening over the course of the book so that interested readers might come away from his study with at least a partial understanding of why the book is important. Kain, on the other hand, seems to explore larger themes across the book, and even across Joyce's work as a whole. So there are times when he quotes from Dubliners, Stephan Hero, Portrait, and Finnegan's Wake in order to amplify a thought that Joyce may have pursued and elaborated on beyond the text of Ulysses.
I'd heard bad things about this book before I started it, though I don't recall exactly what the objections were--most likely people disagreed with Kain's interpretations. I can't say I felt that way--I thought Kain had a lot of enthusiasm for Ulysses, which actually made me think more about it, even though I was pretty down on Joyce's book while I was reading it.
The one thing that Kain's book is not is a study guide in the sense of explaining the text, or enlarging on Joyce's meaning in a particular way. It's much more expansive than that--so if you are looking for detailed answers, it would probably be better to look for a annotated version of Ulysses, because that's not Kain's purpose. Kain will take a particular theme, say social realism, and draw out how Joyce illustrates the reality of social life in Dublin throughout the book, even dipping into Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man if it suits.
As far as suggesting alternate ways of looking at Joyce's work as a whole, I thought Fabulous Voyager was pretty good. While I was reading Ulysses, I got frustrated and annoyed often because I was stuck in details that didn't seem to be related to anything else. Kain's book helped me see how these things were actually connected, and actually made me feel a tad bit better about the book. Not enough to want to read it over again, at least not for a long time, but better anyway.
July 9, 2022
Acquired 1992
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews