Conversations with James Joyce FROM THE PUBLISHER
This is the first paperback edition of Arthur Power's unique and fascinating account of his friendship with James Joyce during the 1920s. Power, a young Irishman working as an art critic in Paris, first met Joyce in a Montparnasse dancehall, and the two men maintained a prickly friendship for several years. Power re-creates his conversations with the master on a remarkable range of topics, literary and otherwise. We read of Joyce's thoughts on writers past and present: Synge, Ibsen, Hardy, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gide, Proust, T. S. Eliot, Tennyson and Shakespeare. Joyce also speaks of the looming might of America ('Political influence, yes, but not cultural'); of religion ('Do you believe in the next life?' 'I don't think much of this life.'); and of his own work.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
While working in Paris as an art critic for the Irish press, Power became friends with Joyce during the 1920s. The Dubliners shared many a conversation over many a drink, and afterward Power wrote down as much of these exchanges as he could remember. In this volume, released in 1974, Power recounts many of those discussions on a variety of subjects with the long-deceased Joyce. Though Power acknowledges that he might not be recalling Kinch's exact words, LJ's reviewer found that the book "has the ring of authenticity" (LJ 9/1/74). This is a must read for Joyce fans as it offers unique insights into his very private character. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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