Nora by Nuala O'Connor.

You may recall that I wrote a little piece about Bloomsday on June 16^th. Well, a good Irish friend of mine read it, and kindly sent me a book that she thought I might enjoy. It is called Nora by Nuala O’Connor, A Love Story Of Nora Barnacle And James Joyce. I most certainly did enjoy it, in fact after the Italy v Spain game two nights ago I sat up until nearly 3.00 in the morning to get it finished because I was so enthralled by the story. The author Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway which is where Nora was also born in 1884. Published this year Nora is her 5^th novel. It is a fictionalised account through Nora’s eyes of the love story of James & Nora from their first meeting in Dublin in 1904 when Nora was a chambermaid at Finn’s Hotel. June 16^th, 1904, was their first romantic evening together, which is why that date is always celebrated as Bloomsday. James later asks Nora to move abroad with him, and even though they are not married, Nora agrees. The story follows their lives in Trieste, Zurich and Paris.

James, Nora, Lucia, Georgio.

Their children Georgio and Lucia were born in 1905 and 1907. I found the parts of the story about Lucia particularly moving, from where Nora first noticed what a strange child she was, to her eventual decline into schizophrenia and being confined to a mental hospital. Before reading this book, I did not know that Lucia was a talented dancer, even appearing in a film by Jean Renoir and had an unrequited love interest in Samuel Beckett. What becomes clear is that Nora had an extremely difficult distant relationship with Lucia.

Wedding Day 1931

There are some very explicitly sexual passages in the book. This is not gratuitous but reflects the passionate relationship between James & Nora. When they were apart, they exchanged many erotic letters. I read that one of their letters sold at Sotheby’s for £240,000. I like the humour of this book which appears on many pages. Even when they were living in abject poverty the pair of them would make the most of a bad situation. The wit of James Joyce can be seen in such phrases as when he describes the Atlantic air of Galway as, ‘fresh as a nun’s drawers’. Another thing I like about this book is that I found it very educational. I have learned a lot about the famous and not so famous figures who come to life on these pages. Joyce was fortunate to meet Sylvia Beach at a party organised by Ezra Pound. Sylvia founded the famous bookshop Shakespeare & Company in Paris and she offered to publish Ulysses when nobody else would touch it. I found a fascinating interview with Sylvia when she appeared on RTE Irish television in 1962. It shows what a great and funny lady she was. (I have shared it on this blog site if you want to see it).

It always seemed to be women who kept James Joyce afloat. I learned about his great English benefactor Harriet Weaver from this book. She sent Joyce a huge amount of money which allowed him the time to work on Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake. I had not heard of many of the characters in the book, but kept reaching for Wikipedia to find out more and learned about the likes of Robert McAlmon who typed and edited Ulysses, Maria & Eugene Jolas who published extracts from Finnegan’s Wake in their Transition magazine, Tom MacGreevy an Irish poet friend of Joyce’s, Frank Budgen an English artist and friend of Nora & James, Mary & Padraig Colum who wrote a book called Our Friend James Joyce. I have a copy of that book, which I must read soon. There are many other interesting artistic people on these pages. 

Nora.

I found that reading Nora is very inspirational. Paris in the 1920s must have been a wonderful place to be, with all the great artists and writers drawn there from all over the world. I know that James Joyce achieved immortality almost like a 20^th century Dante or Shakespeare, but he couldn’t have done it without his Nora. If he hadn’t had Nora, he might have drank himself to death, he simply would not have coped with life on his own. Nora (to quote Nuala O’Connor) was his harp and shamrock, his tribe and Queen, his turf and bog cotton, his squirrel girl, pirate queen and cattle raider, his blessed little blackguard, his auburn marauder, his gooseen. Congratulations to Nuala O'Connor , and thank you very much to my friend for sending me this wonderful book. 

Sylvia Beach & James Joyce.