The Ondt and the Gracehoper
A new sort of introduction to Finnegans Wake has just been published. Joyce's retelling of Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper - 'the Ondt and the Gracehoper' - has been extracted from the Wake, illustrated by Thomas McNally, and published accompanied by an extended essay (also by McNally) on the themes in the Wake which illuminate and are illuminated by the spinoozed grimmgest of Jacko and Esaup.
It is a brilliant idea, and it is brilliantly executed. Every sentence is illustrated largely and finely, and the space given the text leads one to pay attention to all the tiny decisions Joyce made, which are lost if one reads at anything like the rate at which one reads a normal novel. The accompanying essay is excellent: clear, accessible, artistically and philosophically competent, and containing original contribution to the critical tradition on the work - which last means that, despite the fact that the work is primarily an induction to the Wake, it also illuminates the work to those who know it.
Anyone interested in but daunted by the Wake, and anyone who knows and loves the Wake and wants to see it in a different light, should certainly consider buying this wonderful book.
The work is the first of a projected series of illustrations of the fables of Finnegans Wake. I hope there will be sequels. (And I hope Lilliput Press is again behind it. From the font to the margins to the paper to the binding, the attention to detail in the publishing is second to none.)