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Title: The Joyce Girl

Author: Annabel Abbs

Narrator: Leith McPherson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-30-18

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

James Joyce was her father. Samuel Beckett was her lover. This is her story. A mesmerising fictionalisation of Lucia Joyce's life told for the first time.

Paris, 1928. Avant-garde Paris is buzzing with the latest ideas in art, music and literature from artists such as Ford Madox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. Lucia, the talented and ambitious daughter of controversial genius James Joyce, is making her name as a dancer. But when Lucia falls passionately in love with budding writer (and fellow Irish expat) Samuel Beckett, he is banned from the Joyce family home.

1934. Her life in tatters, Lucia is sent to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. For years she has kept quiet. Now she decides to speak.

Profoundly moving and stunningly written, The Joyce Girl brings to light the untold tale of Lucia Joyce. It will entrance and educate you. You will fall in love with this compelling woman, but she will break your heart, too.

Critic Reviews:

"A hugely impressive debut. Annabel Abbs has brought to life an extraordinary cast of characters - Joyce, Beckett et al. - and painted their rackety, bohemian world in vivid technicolour." (The Observer)

"Here is a powerful portrait of a young woman yearning to be an artist, whose passion for life and rage at being unable to fulfil her talent burns from the pages." (The Guardian)

"Funny, clever, tragic, poignant." (Australian Women's Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Bravo!

A most excellent book! The story of James Joyce's daughter is captured with empathy and heartbreaking sensitivity. The author brings the forgotten girl to life. I cannot say how much I enjoyed and appreciate this novel. Bravo!

Three Stars

A very complex book

Lucia is brought to life

Review

After many years of moving around, the Joyce family, Giorgio, Lucia and their parents James and Nora were now settled in their home in the Square Robiac.

The Twenties in Paris were known as the âAnnées Follesâ - the Crazy Years, a time of massive cultural change encompassing art, literature, music and fashion. The publication of Ulysses had made James Joyce a literary star, everyone wanted to know him. People gave their time freely to read to him or to help in other ways.

Though they appeared to live lavishly at times, Joyce spent his patrons monetary contributions on maintaining this lifestyle, his family were always short of money.

The opening chapter:

It is now 1934 and twenty-seven year old Lucia Joyce is taking the short ferry trip from Zurich to Kusnacht. Three times a week she does this to keep her appointment with Dr. Jung, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist. As part of her treatment, Lucia agrees to write a memoir of what has led her to this point in life:

âI know where to start my memoirâ I say. I shall start with the first stirrings of desire and ambition that pushed their way, like the greedy tendrils of a weed, into my young heart. Because that was the beginning. No matter what anyone else says, that was the beginning. (p6)

This then, is how the story is told, moving back in time to Paris 1928 which Lucia deemed to be âthe beginning,â at intervals, moving forward again to 1934 to Kusnacht and another session with Dr. Jung.

The beginning for Lucia was 1928, her father arranged a special dinner to celebrate the fabulous review she received from The Paris Times for her debut dance performance.