The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste 1904-1920 by John McCourt (review)

Reviews Everything you do yields terrifying results. Never, not for any price, not even the life of Fandor, would I become an instrument of your nefarious work...." Such dialog creates its own sense ofenjoyment, beyond the literal meaning ofthe words themselves. (49; emphasis added) Chapters two and three, "The Lament of Fantômas" and "Murder, Mirth and Misogyny," may be ofspecial interest to detective and crime buffs. They appear sandwiched between two chapters ("The Baedeker of Hives" and "Is Suicide a Solution?") that deal in depth with the topic heralded on the title page, like the creme filling of an Oreo™ cookie and just as yummie. They are the "pulp" of "pulp surrealism" and offer an excellent excuse for eating the filling first. Overall, the book is valuable for its glimpses ofearly twentieth-century Paris and the influence of that scene on the emerging surrealist movement. However, different parts ofthe book will appeal to different readers. A journey from cover to cover may leave you wishing the author had included a Guide Bleu to the interior ofeach chapter, rfc John McCourt. The Years ofBloom:JamesJoyce in Trieste 1904-1920. Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 2000. 306p. Lynn Deminc Nf.w Mf.xioo Institute of Mining andTf.chnoi.ogy As John McCourt says in his introduction, "The Years ofBloom ... reassesses the impact oftheTriestine Years, from [Joyce's] arrival in 1904, aged just twenty-two (significantly Stephen's age in Ulysses), until his final reluctant departure in 1920, aged thirty-eight (Bloom's age)" (4). If taken literally, the title misrepresents the contents ofthis engaging account ofJamesJoyce's years inTrieste, Italy, for it suggests that Joyce's focus in these years is solely his creation of Leopold and Molly Bloom, central characters of Ulysses; however, taken metaphorically the title is apt, for the book reveals not only the influences in Trieste that enabled Joyce to develop these now-famous characters but how these influences developedJoyce himself , how he bloomed artistically, politically, and personally while in this busy, political, multicultural city. While in Trieste, Joyce wrote all or parts of many of his most famous works: Dubliners,A PortraitoftheArtistasaYoungMan (originally Stephens Hero), Exiles, and Ulysses. As a teacher ofEnglish at the Berlitz school, Joyce encountered many and diverse students who often became friends, and further, inspirations for his writing. McCourt provides example after example ofcharacter traits, names, even words and statements thatJoyce incorporated in his fiction. For example, Ettore FALL 2001 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * 113 Schmitz, says McCourt, is "one of the most important prototypes for Leopold Bloom" (89). Schmitz, aTriestine businessman some twenty years older than Joyce, was, like many Triestines, a "hybrid": "He was Italian by language and politics, Austrian by citizenship, Austro-German by ancestry and education, Jewish by religion" (86). And from Schmitz' wife, Livia, Joyce got the name Anna Livia Plurabelle, a character in Finnegans Wake. Another model for Bloom wasTeodoro Mayer, a HungarianJewwhose newspapers "led the irredentist struggle" (94), and who published a number ofJoyce's articles. Joyce, who considered himself a socialist during his first years in Trieste but whose socialism waned, was sympathetic to the irredentists and their nationalist movement. When Mayer asked him to write for his newspaper, Joyce saw it both as a financial opportunity and as an opportunity "to introduce the Triestines to the art, literature and mystery of Ireland and to educate them about the tragedy ofits politics" (108). McCourt draws many parallels between the struggles ofthe Irish against the English and the Italian Triestines against the Austrians, who held political control ofTrieste. Clearly, Joyce too saw these parallels. He was distressed by the violence, poverty, and suffering in Ireland; he was angry at the English, but he was also angry at the Catholic Church, which, as McCourt points out, Joyce attacks in A Portrait ofthe Artist as a Man. The stories in Dubliners, too, reflect Joyce's bifocal views on nationalism and Irish life and customs, especially "The Dead," in which Gabriel declares that his language is not Irish, yet he praises the Irish tradition ofhospitality. Joyce is clearly proud ofand frustrated by his homeland and his heritage. After a visit to Dublin in a final attempt to have Dubliners published...