The Joyce girl : a novel of Jazz Age Paris
(Book)
Copies
| Location | Call Number | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central - Adult Fiction | F ABBS | Checked Out | June 11, 2025 |
Description
“Abbs has found a gripping and little-known story at the heart of one of the 20th century’s most astonishing creative moments, researched it deeply, and brought the extraordinary Joyce family and their circle in 1920s Paris to richly-imagined life.”—Emma Darwin, bestselling author of A Secret Alchemy and The Mathematics of Love
For readers who adored novels like The Paris Wife, Z, and Loving Frank, comes Annabel Abbs highly praised debut novel, where she spins the story of James Joyce’s fascinating, and tragic, daughter, Lucia.
“When she reaches her full capacity for rhythmic dancing, James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father . . .”
The review in the Paris Times in November 1928 is rapturous in its praise of Lucia Joyce’s skill and artistry as a dancer. The family has made their home in Paris—where the latest ideas in art, music, and literature converge. Acolytes regularly visit the Joyce apartment to pay homage to Ireland’s exiled literary genius. Among them is a tall, thin young man named Samuel Beckett—a fellow Irish expat who idolizes Joyce and with whom Lucia becomes romantically involved.
Lucia is both gifted and motivated, training tirelessly with some of the finest teachers in the world. Though her father delights in his daughter’s talent, she clashes with her mother, Nora. And as her relationship with Beckett sours, Lucia’s dreams unravel, as does her hope of a life beyond her father’s shadow.
With Lucia’s behavior growing increasingly erratic, James Joyce sends her to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Here, at last, she will tell her own story—a fascinating, heartbreaking account of thwarted ambition, passionate creativity, and the power of love to both inspire and destroy.
The Joyce Girl creates a compelling and moving account of the real-life Joyce Girl, of unrealized dreams and rejection, and of the destructive love of a father.
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Published Reviews
Booklist Review
She wanted most of all to dance. And she did so, sometimes brilliantly, as at the International Festival of the Dance in 1928 in Paris, where she earned second place despite being the overwhelming audience favorite. But Lucia Joyce has other responsibilities: the daughter of James Joyce, she is both helpmate and muse to her father as he struggles, with worsening eyesight, to finish the work in progress that turns out to be Finnegans Wake. Lucia's first-person narrative toggles between Paris in the late 1920s and Zurich in 1934, where she is treated by Carl Jung after being institutionalized for increasingly erratic behavior. In Paris, where she lives with her parents and older brother, Giorgio, she has romances with her father's assistant, Samuel Beckett, who remained the love of her life, and Alexander Calder, hired by her father to teach her art and divert her from dance. With solid research, Abbs illuminates the life of a woman whose natural ability, determined motivation, and incredibly hard work were obstructed by family demands, leaving her dreams unfulfilled. In Abbs' vibrant prose, this moving debut novel delivers a luminous portrait of the Joyce girl, who was destined to become not a headlining dancer but instead a footnote in the history of literature. Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* She wanted most of all to dance. And she did so, sometimes brilliantly, as at the International Festival of the Dance in 1928 in Paris, where she earned second place despite being the overwhelming audience favorite. But Lucia Joyce has other responsibilities: the daughter of James Joyce, she is both helpmate and muse to her father as he struggles, with worsening eyesight, to finish the work in progress that turns out to be Finnegans Wake. Lucia's first-person narrative toggles between Paris in the late 1920s and Zurich in 1934, where she is treated by Carl Jung after being institutionalized for increasingly erratic behavior. In Paris, where she lives with her parents and older brother, Giorgio, she has romances with her father's assistant, Samuel Beckett, who remained the love of her life, and Alexander Calder, hired by her father to teach her art and divert her from dance. With solid research, Abbs illuminates the life of a woman whose natural ability, determined motivation, and incredibly hard work were obstructed by family demands, leaving her dreams unfulfilled. In Abbs' vibrant prose, this moving debut novel delivers a luminous portrait of the Joyce girl, who was destined to become not a headlining dancer but instead a footnote in the history of literature. Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020 Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.
Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Abbs, A. (2020). The Joyce girl: a novel of Jazz Age Paris (First U.S. edition.). William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Abbs, Annabel. 2020. The Joyce Girl: A Novel of Jazz Age Paris. New York, NY: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Abbs, Annabel. The Joyce Girl: A Novel of Jazz Age Paris New York, NY: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2020.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Abbs, A. (2020). The joyce girl: a novel of jazz age paris. First U.S. edn. New York, NY: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Abbs, Annabel. The Joyce Girl: A Novel of Jazz Age Paris First U.S. edition., William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2020.