The Making of Ulysses

Homer's Ulysses spent twenty years trying to complete his heroic task, but it took Joyce even longer to complete and publish his most famous novel

Essay by Ted Gioia

James Joyce’s father once commented on his son: "If that fellow was dropped in the middle of the Sahara, he'd sit, be God, and make a map of it."

In this rumination on the Joycean mindset, John Joyce wasn't talking about the novel Ulysses—he had few words of praise for that book—but he might very well have been describing the process wh…