It begins with a fat man wanting to shave, his dressing gown billowing out behind him, intoning in Latin the beginning of the Catholic Mass. It ends with an orgasm and a long-awaited period. It unfolds over the course of one day, covering pedestrian miles. It proffers life as found in a city — a grimy, industrial, toiling city. It shows people in their daily lives, at their worst and best, taking part in the struggles of the quotidian. “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant,” said the author, “and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”
A piece about Bloomsday from my first year in Spokane. Read the rest here.