I can't tell if this book club is a form of torture or the most unique bonding experience between a group of people who have stuck with something for three decades.
Fialka said he once saw a list of at least 52 active Finnegans Wake reading groups, though Slote, the Joyce scholar, said he thinks there are even more. A Wake group in Zurich, founded in 1984, has read the book three times in nearly 40 years, and is currently well into its fourth cycle. Their first reading took 11 years.
Different groups have their own local character. “The New York group is really argumentative, and they’re always yelling at each other, but they’re all friends, they’ve all known each other for 20 years.” Quadrino said. His Austin group is “more friendly, more ‘Yes, and’”.
The Zurich group, which attracts a mix of retirees and university students, is “benevolent, although it can also become competitive and contentious,” according to Sabrina Alonso, a member, and Fritz Senn, its host.
At any rate, I feel so much better knowing that it can take that long to read the book I have attempted several times and failed to make any progress whatsoever. I see why a support group may be required to get the person through this thing one page at a time. With that kind of sustained effort, I could as well become a trapeze artist - which may prove to be a whole lot more gratifying as an accomplishment that getting to the end of Finnegans Wake.
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