Armchair Adventure

   Have you ever heard of Mt. Everest? Of course you have. Would you like to be able to say that you've climbed Everest? I would. But I'm not going to do it. Wouldn’t be prudent. I think I’m up to the rigors and risks, especially if a Sherpa is carrying my stuff. But it’s the cost that holds me back. It’s over half a million dollars and lots of people who pay their money never get to the summit, usually because of bad weather. No refunds are offered. 

   I compensate by climbing the Mount Everests of literature. And there's only one work in literature worthy of the comparison: the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. As an English major, I skipped the course on Ulysses. In another course we had to read one chapter, which turned out to be the most incomprehensible chapter in a book not known as a good beach book.

   Once I got my literature degree, I knew I'd always consider myself a fraud unless I got through this unavoidable landmark. Right after college, I joined the Navy. The good thing about the military is that you have lots of downtime. For many, that means marrying a bar stool. I'm too much of a cheapskate, so I got a copy of Ulysses and slogged away. By the end of my enlistment, I had finished the book.

   I can't say I enjoyed or understood Ulysses, but at least I could now say I had read it. The next thing I did was get married. Once things got settled down, house, kids, etc. there was the occasional half hour to myself so I decided to give Ulysses another shot. It was supposedly very funny, something I hadn't noticed my first time around. It took a year or so. It made a bit more sense, but it still wasn't funny.

   Having read the book twice, I was now an expert. I knew the book was structured around Homer's Odyssey. The book Ulysses is about a man looking for his son and the entire 700 page novel takes place on a single day in Dublin. Ulysses, the hero of the Odyssey took ten years to get home from the Trojan War. Joyce has his hero, Leopold Bloom, experience all of Ulysses' adventures in a single day, June 16, 1904. There's even a cyclops, though you'd need a scorecard to pick him out.

   Two years ago, Kim Hruba suggested we read Ulysses in tandem, so that she would be able to understand this notoriously difficult book. Kim was under the illusion that I had understood the book myself. I know Kim is crazy-busy with five kids and all kinds of literary projects going on. I thought she'd never have time for the work reading this book would require. I was talking to Jackpine Savage (JPS) around that time. She could see I wanted to read the book again and said, "You should do it. I'll join you."

   So very early on January 10, 2020, I picked JPS up at her cabin in the woods and we drove to Kim's home near Warroad. We had all read the first of the book's eighteen chapters and set to work figuring out what was going on. Since my last reading of Ulysses, the internet had been invented. There are commentaries galore to explain what the heck is going on. Is this cheating? If it is, I don't care.

   For chapter two in February, we decided to meet at 11:00 am and the host would provide lunch. This was at my place. It was JPS's turn for chapter three on March 13, the same day the White House announced we were officially in a pandemic. The president urged all bookclubs to meet remotely.

   So for chapters four through seventeen Kim sent us monthly invitations to our Zoom book club meetings. It worked well, though a couple of times Kim had to call me and ask if I was joining the meeting. How embarrassing.

   I won't spoil the book for you by going into details. You can read the whole book on the Joyce Project website. The potentially confusing parts are colored and you can click on them for an explanation. There are many, many commentaries. One of the best is UlyssesGuide.com. And finally there is YouTube. Lots of people have put their reading of the book online. By far the best is the Deselby ensemble performance. They bring the book to life as you read along.

   This past Wednesday, June 16, was Bloomsday, the day on which the novel takes place. We left our Zoom studios and gathered at Wannaskan Almanac Global Headquarters for our final discussion. Teresa joined us for a lunch of Guinness beef stew and soda bread. Kim brought appetizers and JPS baked a cheesecake.

   We had done it. We had read and understood the great Ulysses. We even found the funny parts. Will I read the difficult novels that have been inspired by Joyce? No. Will I read Ulysses again? Yes. Climbing Mount Everest once would be enough. But I've got the key to Ulysses right here in my noggin. I will follow Poldy on his rounds again. Yes.