I made it! Finally! My first journey through the published fiction & poetry of James Joyce has finally concluded after 22 years, almost 21 of which were spent sitting at base camp atop [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428891345l/338798._SY75_.jpg|2368224], [b:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man|7588|A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554800429l/7588._SY75_.jpg|3298883], [b:Dubliners|11012|Dubliners|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334138184l/11012._SX50_.jpg|260248], and [b:The Complete Poetry of James Joyce: The Collections Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach and Other Poems from the Author of Ulysses, Dubliners, Finnegans Wake & A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man|28812885|The Complete Poetry of James Joyce The Collections Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach and Other Poems from the Author of Ulysses, Dubliners, Finnegans Wake & A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1454248809l/28812885._SY75_.jpg|7427823], staring up at the massive mountain that is Finnegan's Wake and gathering the energy to take it on. When Read Harder 2021 put "read a book you've been intimidated to read" at the very top of this year's challenges, I figured it was finally time to take this on. Many sherpas were called into service to support this climb up literature's Everest: [b:A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake: James Joyce's Masterwork Revealed|59478|A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake James Joyce's Masterwork Revealed|Joseph Campbell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388352260l/59478._SY75_.jpg|57898]; [b:Finnegans What?: Finnegans Wake - a guide by an idiot|45014555|Finnegans What? Finnegans Wake - a guide by an idiot|Lucy Brazier|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554902560l/45014555._SY75_.jpg|69680653]; [b:Introducing Joyce: A Graphic Guide|26247494|Introducing Joyce A Graphic Guide (Introducing...)|David Norris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441665252l/26247494._SX50_.jpg|306275]; multiple recordings of the Irish drinking song "Finnegan's Wake" by the Irish Rovers, Dropkick Murphys, and the Dubliners (including their live album "Finnegan Wakes"); a recording of two chapters performed by actors Cyril Cusack and Siobhan McKenna (available on Audible!); a recording of the entirety of Book One performed by The Most Ever Company (a thinly veiled incarnation of The Residents); CourseHero's online chapter summaries for the book; Tangerine Dream's album, "Finnegan's Wake"; and The Residents' "Walter Westinghouse." That's the largest collection of supporting texts I've ever mustered into the service of working through a single core text in my life. And for all that? Well, reading Finnegan's Wake is like reading a transcribed score of improved atonal anti-melodic modern jazz. As Joyce himself advised, when in doubt, read aloud, preferably in a Dublin accent, and that does help with catching a lot of the puns, which range from the dad joke variety ("salvocean," in the context of discussing healing waters) to the New York Times Sunday Crossword multilingual smarty-pants ilk ("Sin Showpanza" for a lean Sancho Panza, possibly), but most frequently of the dirty uncle Playboy Party Joke kidney (instead of workman's compensation, "Wolkman's Cumsensation"). The overall experience is a shower of words, so many of which are neologisms and wordplay both erudite and pervy, and which strike the eye and ear briefly before flowing on down the drain. I confess that I did not get the sense of character or narrative that Joseph Campbell claims can be derived from the book with careful reading, but it wasn't a wholly meaningless and absurd experience either. So, it defies the Goodreads star-classification system, and I'll leave it at that. 'Twas an experience indeed.