From Publishers Weekly
If we regard biography as a kind of archeology, Joyce's Richard Leakey is unquestionably Richard Ellman, whose 1959 opus James Joyce established the terrain for all future biographies of the great Irish writer. And there have been many. Few, however, quite measure up to McCourt's informative, lucid and wholly engaging record of Joyce in Trieste, which in Joyce's day was as polyglot as Ulysses, as multicultural as any cosmopolitan city of today. Firmly in control of his subject and material, McCourt effortlessly interlaces the details of everyday lifeAmarital storms, economic worries, work habitsAwith larger historical and cultural concerns: Jewish life, the emergence of the futurists, socialist politics. In this milieu, the alchemy of Joyce's most potent art transformed many of the people, places and incidents of Trieste into important sections of Ulysses, which Joyce himself described as "the epic of two races (Israel and Ireland)." Laboring in relative obscurity, Joyce struggled not only with Leopold Bloom, but also with timid publishers who balked when it came to releasing Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While honoring the work of his predecessors in Joyce scholarship, McCourt (who was born and educated in Dublin and now teaches at the University of Trieste) also examines material that was until recently unused or unavailable. This, along with his understanding of the culture and dialect of the once-vibrant port city, deepens our appreciation of Trieste both as a crossroads of cultures and as a profound influence on Joyce's thinking and writing. As one critic has it, "Joyce was born in Dublin... [but] grew up in Trieste." (July.- grew up in Trieste." (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Richard Ellmann's massive biography of James Joyce (originally issued in 1959 and revised in 1982) has warned off new biographers for many years. McCourt (English, Univ. of Trieste) makes the case for a more detailed study of Joyce's life for nearly 16 formative years and, even more persuasively, for Trieste's seminal influence on Joyce's major works. All of the oeuvre except Finnegans Wake were written while Joyce lived in this cosmopolitan port, and McCourt argues that the life and language of Trieste and the friends and contacts Joyce made there were far more important than Ellmann had thought. McCourt has unearthed a few new sources and successfully debunks some others while painting a detailed picture of life in the then-Italian metropolis. While aimed at Joyce scholars with a detailed knowledge of Joyce's life and writing, the book gives an unusual overview of European political and cultural life in the early years of the century. For specialized collections. (Photographs and index not seen.)DShelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The immense status accorded James Joyce in twentieth-century literature may have moderated some in the last decade, but his life and work continue to be of great interest to scholars and writers, and this volume on his years in Trieste should help to sustain that interest. McCourt sees Trieste in 1904 as an important "commercial and cultural crossroads between Western Europe and the East," and he traces the impact of this crossing of people, cultures, and ideas on Joyce, especially the latter's complicated indebtedness to "Irish Orientalism" and the development of Jewish characters in his fiction, most notably Bloom in Ulysses. McCourt gives details about the elements of daily life and culture that were vibrant in the largely middle-class, education-oriented Trieste, and shows Joyce's developing interest in theater and opera. McCourt also effectively captures the considerable financial woes which Joyce and his wife, Nora, and their family suffered at this time, during which Joyce nonetheless wrote many of his shorter works, and a number of chapters from the longer Ulysses. James O'Laughlin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Since the publication of Richard Ellmann's James Joyce in 1959, Joyce has received remarkably little biographical attention. Scholars have chipped away at various aspects of Ellmann's impressive edifice but have failed to construct anything that might stand alongside it. The Years of Bloom is arguably the most important work of Joyce biography since Ellmann. Based on extensive scrutiny of previously unused Italian sources and informed by the author's intimate knowledge of the culture and dialect of Trieste, The Years of Bloom documents a fertile period in Joyce's life. While living in Trieste, Joyce wrote most of the stories in Dubliners, turned Stephen Hero into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and began Ulysses. Echoes and influences of Trieste are rife throughout Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Though Trieste had become a sleepy backwater by the time Ellmann visited there in the 1950s, McCourt shows that the city was a teeming imperial port, intensely cosmopolitan and polyglot, during the approximately twelve years Joyce lived there in the waning years of the Habsburg Empire. It was there that Joyce experienced the various cultures of central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. He met many Jews, who collectively provided much of the material for the character of Leopold Bloom. He encountered continental socialism, Italian Irredentism, Futurism, and various other political and artistic forces whose subtle influences McCourt traces with literary grace and scholarly rigour. The Years of Bloom, a rare landmark in the crowded terrain of Joyce studies, will instantly take its place as a standard work. "This book changes our entire view of Joyce's Trieste. It establishes the city as a vibrant microcosm of three cultures. Joyce was born in Dublin, but as John McCourt shows, he grew up in Trieste."-Colm Toíbín

About the Author
John McCourt was born and educated in Dublin. Since 1991 he has lived in Trieste, Italy, where he teaches at the University of Trieste and where he founded and directs the annual Trieste Joyce School. He is author of an illustrated biography of Joyce, James Joyce: A Passionate Exile as well as Dubliners: A Guide to Text Analysis and, with Renzo Crivelli, Joyce in Svevo's Garden.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since the publication of Richard Ellmann's James Joyce in 1959, Joyce has received remarkably little biographical attention. The Years of Bloom, based on extensive scrutiny of previously unused sources and informed by the author's intimate knowledge of the culture and dialect of Trieste, is possibly the most important work of Joyce biography since Ellmann, re-creating this fertile period in Joyce's life with an extraordinary richness of detail and depth of understanding.

In Trieste, Joyce wrote most of the stories in Dubliners, turned Stephen Hero into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and began Ulysses. Echoes and influences of Trieste are rife throughout Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Though Trieste had become a sleepy backwater by the time Ellmann visited there in the 1950s, McCourt shows that in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the city was a teeming imperial port, intensely cosmopolitan and polyglot. There Joyce experienced the various cultures of central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. He knew many Jews, who collectively provided much of the material for the character of Leopold Bloom. He encountered continental socialism, Italian irredentism, Futurism, and various other political and artistic movements whose subtle influences McCourt traces with literary grace and scholarly rigour. The Years of Bloom, a rare landmark in the crowded terrain of Joyce studies, will instantly take its place as a standard work.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

If we regard biography as a kind of archeology, Joyce's Richard Leakey is unquestionably Richard Ellman, whose 1959 opus James Joyce established the terrain for all future biographies of the great Irish writer. And there have been many. Few, however, quite measure up to McCourt's informative, lucid and wholly engaging record of Joyce in Trieste, which in Joyce's day was as polyglot as Ulysses, as multicultural as any cosmopolitan city of today. Firmly in control of his subject and material, McCourt effortlessly interlaces the details of everyday life--marital storms, economic worries, work habits--with larger historical and cultural concerns: Jewish life, the emergence of the futurists, socialist politics. In this milieu, the alchemy of Joyce's most potent art transformed many of the people, places and incidents of Trieste into important sections of Ulysses, which Joyce himself described as "the epic of two races (Israel and Ireland)." Laboring in relative obscurity, Joyce struggled not only with Leopold Bloom, but also with timid publishers who balked when it came to releasing Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While honoring the work of his predecessors in Joyce scholarship, McCourt (who was born and educated in Dublin and now teaches at the University of Trieste) also examines material that was until recently unused or unavailable. This, along with his understanding of the culture and dialect of the once-vibrant port city, deepens our appreciation of Trieste both as a crossroads of cultures and as a profound influence on Joyce's thinking and writing. As one critic has it, "Joyce was born in Dublin... [but] grew up in Trieste." (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Richard Ellmann's massive biography of James Joyce (originally issued in 1959 and revised in 1982) has warned off new biographers for many years. McCourt (English, Univ. of Trieste) makes the case for a more detailed study of Joyce's life for nearly 16 formative years and, even more persuasively, for Trieste's seminal influence on Joyce's major works. All of the oeuvre except Finnegans Wake were written while Joyce lived in this cosmopolitan port, and McCourt argues that the life and language of Trieste and the friends and contacts Joyce made there were far more important than Ellmann had thought. McCourt has unearthed a few new sources and successfully debunks some others while painting a detailed picture of life in the then-Italian metropolis. While aimed at Joyce scholars with a detailed knowledge of Joyce's life and writing, the book gives an unusual overview of European political and cultural life in the early years of the century. For specialized collections. (Photographs and index not seen.)--Shelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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