Ulysses

ULYSSES, considered by many to be the preeminent novel of the modern era, has been recorded for audio before. But this new version, featuring narrator John Lee, has much to recommend it. Even though he's English, Lee can summon up a convincing Irish accent, and his petulant reading gives the book a great deal of vigor. His pace is ideal, neither too fast to follow the complex novel nor too slow to be wearying. However, one problem plagues this reading: The monologue of Molly Bloom, which is the final chapter of the book, is read by Lee himself, rather than by a woman (as is the case in one other version). While Lee is certainly convincing, the lack of a female voice at the conclusion of this audiobook leaves this listener disappointed. K.M. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

It is an imposing enough task to attempt a quality unabridged recording of James Joyce's ULYSSES. Add to that the aim to provide the listener with 18 smoothly segued musical transitions consisting of songs and opera excerpts mentioned in the novel; a booklet with a track-by-track commentary, introduction, and explanatory essays; and finally a CD-ROM packed with further supplements (Web links, booklists, interviews with the performers, sound files of Joyce reading excerpts, and more)--and you have as ambitious and rewarding an audio production as any that exists, an audio experience that truly deserves to be cherished. Joyce's celebrated novel follows Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom as they travel in Dublin on June 16, 1904. Joyce's inspiration was THE ODYSSEY and the fullness of humanity he recognized in Odysseus, whose adventures he obliquely recreates in the wanderings of Bloom. Following along with the novel while listening to the discs reveals the enormous care that director Roger Marsh and reader Jim Norton lavish on the project. Their orchestrated performance is a work of love and respect for Joyce and his experimental, poetic, funny, musical epic book. Jim Norton has a wonderfully rich and friendly voice, appreciative of the humor and cadences of the text and even of the onomatopoetic textual noises of cat purrs, door creaks, and print-press groans: "Everything speaks in its own way." His performance turns a challenging book into an inviting, even a hypnotic, one. Marcella Riordan satisfyingly performs the dialogue of Molly Bloom, including the 24,000-word unpunctuated stream-of-consciousness passage that concludes the novel. Readers of ULYSSES have long been encouraged to read out loud the more difficult sections for added comprehension and enjoyment of the language. Now, thanks to Naxos, the entire book is available in a performance to savor. It is safe to say that anyone wanting to experience the preeminent work of modern fiction has in this package the perfect audio companion. G.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 2005 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Except by the most dedicated scholars, much of James Joyce's masterpiece has been unreadable, in large part because it has been unhearable. But Irish actor Donal Donnelly and the people of Recorded Books have brought Ulysses to those of us who are only dimly able to hear Joyce's magnificent language through silent reading. Oral interpretation has rarely achieved such heights. In an almost maniacal homage to human consciousness as it interprets itself through the most inventive and poetic language imaginable, Joyce delivers us into the minds of the novel's often-comic hero, Leopold Bloom; his earthy wife, Molly; and intellectual son-surrogate, Stephen Daedalus, as all three experience a day of interaction with one another and with their rich Dublin world--June 16, 1904, to be exact (now known throughout the literary world as Bloomsday). It's obvious that Donnelly and the production and research staff of Recorded Books care about every word and sentence. Whether speaking Latin, French, Spanish, Greek, German, Hebrew, Italian, Gaelic, or biblical English, Donnelly maintains linguistic integrity without losing meaning. Miriam Healy-Louie, a lovely voiced Irish actress, performs with natural ease the traditionally daunting and famously obscene 45-page (and eight-sentence!), sleepy Molly Bloom soliloquy, which ends the novel. The pacing is perfect for literature of this density, with plenty of pauses to allow the wonderful language to do its work. Donnelly tirelessly performs dialects of all types; conveys the humor and satire so easily missed in relatively toneless silent reading; pushes through some of the most outrageously convoluted, elaborate and erudite sentences in the English language; breaks into all manner of song; and, all in all, celebrates with Joyce the joy of language. This oral interpretation opens up the inaccessible. P.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine