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Stanislaus Joyce - My Brother's Keeper: My Brother's Keeper is a difficult book because Stanislaus was basically a disagreeable person. He fought with Joyce. Nora disliked him and Joyce's sisters when they lived with Joyce and Nora disregarded him and treated him badly. He never overcame the hate he had for his father and it showed in all his actions and in his writings. The evidential quality of his writings have been called into serious question. Scholars have observed that he wrote and rewrote his diaries until he had a result that pleased him. (One fact the scholars noted was the reuse of paper and dated material on the verso presented inconsistencies with dates on the recto.) What this did to immediacy of testimony is problematical but certainly reduces the value of his work. The complete Dublin diaries have been published. There is a short pamphlet of recollections and My Brothers Keeper. Without enormous help from Ellmann that last book would never have been published. There are other guides to Ulysses better than Gorman's.Joyce was not at his best when he acted as puppetmaster to other writers as he did with Gorman and Gilbert and the writers of Examination. The second edition of Gifford's Annotations to Ulysses is outstanding and Tindall's Reader's Guide to James Joyce is also good. Best Bob |