The book

Here's Kirk Douglas. Strapped to a ship mast

so that he may hear, but not be seduced by,

the usually fatal Song of the Sirens. The theme

of Joyce's Ulysses is based on Homer's epic of

the same name. I've read the novel but avoided

the movie; Kirk's a wee bit too young, I fear 

Last night a 90-minute TV documentary devoted to a single novel! One that even many of the world’s intelligentsia haven’t read! Starting at 21.00 which in the UK is prime time TV! Satisfying but there's never enough!

Gotta to be James Joyce’s Ulysses. It was and is and ever will be.

I’m not really entitled to cut another slice of this cake. I’ve often referred to it in Tone Deaf, most recently in July of this year. In November 2013 I posted on a US judge’s decision, in 1933, that Ulysses is not pornographic. One comment. My fault no doubt.

On October 21, 2019 (Literary Ton), it figured in “a hundred books that have entertained me” although it wasn't part of the list. Certain uphill sections of France’s great bike race, the TdF, are graded according to difficulty (1, 2, 3); others are labelled hors catégorie (beyond categorisation) and that’s where Ulysses lies in the literary world.

I’ve read Ulysses more than once and I suppose that's boasting. So be it. I’ve always said I would never recommend it to anyone; that readers should come to it via their own inclination or leave it alone. I stand by that.

Why is Ulysses so great and so damn difficult? I might be able to tell you but not within the limitations of this shimmering screen. Over several nights egalitarian conversation lubricated by a few bottles of Pierre Ponelle’s 1945 Richebourg, a burgundy that cost £550 a bottle in 1995, the year I retired from journalism.

So, a cop-out. Not exactly. I’d love to try. Might have been born to do just that. But you’d have to listen carefully. Bring your own copy. And pay the wine bill.