Reading Joyce can be hard and puzzling work at first, but it’s a singular experience that no comicbook, movie or foreign language translation can ever replace. My work here should be seen as an accompaniment to that experience of the novel, so, to that purpose, we’ve set it up this site. There are some added features here that make the whole thing a bit easier and more interactive.

Each page of the comic holds a direct link to our “Readers’ Guide” installments by Mike Barsanti. Mike’s comments on the novel’s events and themes, their depiction and various mysteries, are the first step into the deep waters of understanding Joyce. This part of the site is written in a blog format so that readers are able to ask questions and offer insights. Portraying all of the moments and details of the novel accurately is something I can use a lot of help with, frankly. You’ll find as many questions from me in this part of the site as you will anyone’s.  You can get there two ways—either click on the “Reader’s Guide” button at the top of each page, or just simply click on the comic panels themselves and a new window will open with the “Reader’s Guide” for that panel.

Many passages in the novel are in languages other than English. When those passages appear here, readers can scroll over that portion of the page to get a “pop-up” English translation.

Still have questions?  Of course you do.  Visit the House of Keyes, where information is grouped by topic instead of linearly with the comic.  You’ll find things like a “Dramatis Personae” summarizing the roles of pertinent characters and linking them to areas in the comic and beyond, and the “Share a Cocoa” feature providing a space for basic Q&A.  For the Joyce trekkies, the House provides various discussion threads for everything from critical scholarship to Joyce-related travel tips.

The work here, as Joyce did with the original novel, is be presented in an on-going serialized form. There’s a page at the end of each update that allows readers to sign up to receive an email for future installments. No spam. Promise.

Thanks for reading and, as always, we invite and appreciate your comments on ways to further explore and understand this singular, touching and hilarious novel. Click here to begin, or here to select a chapter.