Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing

Kevin Barry compiles a collection of James Joyce's critical writings in Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing. This collection includes articles, manuscripts, and lectures that had been previously published in Irish and Italian journals. Most of the writings parallel what he wrote about in Dubliners, Ulysses, and his creative poetry. Barry suggests that the journalistic criticism that James Joyce wrote about Ireland were to be published in one single volume, which was supposed to be geard toward an Italian audience in which he lectured to in Trieste. This book offers readers an insight on Joyce's political and critical meanderings that relate to all gamuts of Irish society. As one reads these writings, one will observe a sense of naivite in Joyce's early writings, but will see his growth and maturation as a writer in later ones. Joyce covers history as well as literature in long and short vignettes. The articles, book reviews, and manuscripts were written over a 40 year period of Joyce's life. They show his growth as a critical writer and author from a teenager to an adult. He relates issues pertaining to Irish society and literature, James Clarence Mangan, Oscar Wilde, and George Meredith as well as the most prominent writers in British literature, Daniel Defoe, William Blake, and Charles Dickens. In particular, several of the writings have both a serious and humorous tone that makes Joyce's writings even more interesting to read. Barry does a fine job at presenting these samples of Joyce's writings. The footnotes and the explanatory notes are extremely helpful in providing background information for the book. Conor Deane deserves praises for translating Joyce's works from Italian to English, and for those who want to see the original transcript of each writing, they are included in Italian and French in the Appendix section of the book. Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing is recommended reading for readers interested in having a better understanding of James Joyce's literary criticism. In addition, the works offer insight to how he approached his early and colossal work, Dubliners and Ulysses. It is, indeed, recommended for the curious literature reader or Joyce aficionado.