In Venice, California, there is a reading club who reached an unusual milestone to say the least: after well 28 yearsits members managed to complete the reading of Finnegans Wakethe most complex and experimental work of James Joyce. The company began in 1995under the guidance of Gerry Fialkawith an initial rhythm of Two pages a month which soon reduced to a page to meet, given the extreme difficulty of the text.
Finnegans Wakepublished in 1939is considered one of the most texts enigmatic of modern literature. Composed of 628 pagesthe novel stands out for one non -linear structurethe use of dozens of languagesword games and a syntax without conventional punctuation. Joyce himself conceived the work as a dream without clear boundaries of space, time or defined characters, a text that more than telling a story, invites the reader to get lost in language.
Venice’s reading club managed to keep the project alive despite the passage of time: Many members have changedsome returned after years of absence, but the collective commitment has never failed. Each meeting was dedicated to analyzing fragments of the text without looking for a single interpretationbut rather creating a real Shared reflection space.
They took more than Joyce employed writing it
Curiously, the group has employed more time to read the work of how much Joyce employed a write it: the Irish author employed “only” 17 years To complete it. Furthermore, nature cyclical of the novel influenced the club’s final decision: despite having finished reading, they decided to start again chief. This is because the last phrase of the book stops halfway, continuing directly with the beginning of the text.
Today, the club of Venice It has no intention of changing books. As Fialka points out, “There will not be another next book: only this, forever“. An idea that fully reflects the spirit of Finnegans Wakea work that seems thought not to be “over”, but to be experience And rectractive Infinite times.
Worldwide, there are about 50 groups dedicated exclusively to Joyce, distributed between cities such as Austin And Zurichconfirming that The experience of reading It can really become an endless journey.
