یادداشت Sepehr Karimi

        I have never written a review in goodreads, but I don't know why I felt I must for this book. Reading this book was a dream of mine. A dream seem impossible for me. I live in Iran and we don't have that much free access to literature. Specially those books that have never been translated and are forbidden. I had read Dubliners and Portrait in Persian and found Joyce as one of best writers there is. Then I wanted to challenge myself with reading Ulysses and with lots of difficulties I achieved that too. And Joyce became my favorite writer ever. Then I knew I have to read Finnegans wake. But how? I knew I will not understand 99% of the book. Other than the book being so difficult, English is my second language (it's apparent through my many mistakes in writing this passage!!!). There was no book to guide me through Finnegans. But finally I had my hands on a book called "A key skeleton to Finnegans Wake"(of course someone brought it for me from outside of Iran. You cannot find such things here). Any way, today I finally finished the book and it is something especial for a literature enthusiast in Iran. I don't think many people have the opportunity to read this book here and that is what make this achievement so unique for me. 
OK, enough of me... A few words on the book: the first thing to say and it's abvious is that, this was the most difficult book I have ever read or will read. With all the help from the "key" book, I thing I've only understood 10 percent of it!! And because of this, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed Ulysses or Portrait of an Artist. But still it was an experience never to be forgotten. The poetic language of Joyce, the word plays, the many allusions, dream narrative of the story, the complexity of the plot, everything about this book only points out one thing: Joyce was definitely a genius. No doubt about it. The last few pages of the book was one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. Just amazing...
I really wished I had access to more sources and book to grasp this masterpiece better. But I'm hope if I have the change, I will go through the book once more. Hopefully to understand it better.