Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake

This review is based in good part on Joan Acocella 's comprehensive review which first appeared in 'The New Yorker'. It also makes use of information provided by D.T. Max in a story on Joyce's grandson , Stephen Joyce and his efforts to protect the family from too close public scrutiny. Shloss worked for many years on this book, and her aim is to both rehabilitate Lucia Joyce from the image given of her by Joyce scholars Richard Ellmann( The great Joyce biographer) and Brenda Maddox( Biographer of Nora Joyce). As Schloss sees it Lucia Joyce was herself a creative artist who was not simply an inspiration but a real collaborator with her father in the creation of 'Finnegan's Wake'. This claim is one Acocella believes there is no real evidence for, and is in fact the major exaggeration of the book. Other claims of Schloss however are given greater credibility. The primary one is that Lucia Joyce was victimized, institutionalized unnecessarily through the treacherous actions of her brother Georgio. As Schloss sees it James Joyce was Lucia's defender in the family , loved her and believed in her genius. But in his dedication to his work, especially to the completion of 'Finnegan's Wake' he did not take the time and effort to stand up to his wife Nora and son Georgio who worked against Lucia. Lucia's sad story, her schizophrenia, her rejection by three assistants of Joyce, including Beckett and Alexander Calder, her failed efforts at a dancing career, her tale of childhood wanderings with an indigent father artist, her language difficulties , her long period of institutionalization is told here in great detail. Schloss has tremendous sympathy for her subject. Unfortunately she in trying to make Lucia Joyce a subject of interest is unable to change the fact that the reason most people have had or will have interest in her is because of the possible light her life throws on that of Joyce itself. Certainly the illness of his daughter was for Joyce a major source of worry grief and frustration. Yet in the way Schloss tells the story Joyce himself too appears a victim, both of his other family members, and of his genius. He also appears as an often neglectful but nonetheless largely caring father who could not prevent his child from having a life of great pain and suffering.