Ulysses is a lot like the Cresta Run: there are certain places at which people go whizzing off, unable to complete. There are three points where readers of Ulysses often give up. The first is the title page. The second is the chapter that begins: “Ineluctable modality of the visible: at last that if not more . . . ”
The third — the Cresta Run equivalent is Shuttlecock — is the chapter that begins: “Deshil Holles Eamus. Deshil Holles Eamus. Deshil Holles Eamus. Send us bright one, light one Horhorn, quickening and wombfruit . . . ”
It is, then, a book not without its challenges — though it’s also full of dirty words and dirty deeds as well as food, drink, song (so much song) and endless, endless talk. What is it about? Everything, obviously. “Touch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O, touch me soon, now. What is that word known to all men?”
And that is the book’s theme — that word known to all men, all women too, though it prefers not to say so directly. And here’s the marvellous thing about this project from Radio 4: a slowly unfolding day-long performance will take us effortlessly round those fearsome corners that send so many readers whizzing off-piste.
The day-long sound of the words will lead listeners through the world in a day that is Ulysses.
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Thus we will all get closer to each of the 18 chapters as they unfold at a pace ripe for understanding, lovingly taking us through the difficult bits and allowing us to glimpse the eternal and mythic significance of a morning shave, fig rolls, a walk on the beach, the famous breakfast kidney, a bath, a funeral, a bunch of hard-talking hacks, a glass of wine, a tipsy theory of Shakespeare, a street meeting, flirty barmaids, a pub squabble, a pretty girl’s knickers, a booze-up in a maternity hospital (of all places), a whore or two, two noctambules, a nice cup of cocoa and yes I said yes I will Yes.