Ulysses Aside…
Maya Lang’s “The Sixteenth of June”
The Sixteenth of June is dedicated to “all the readers who never made it through Ulysses (or haven’t wanted to try),” which basically means Maya Lang dedicated this book to me. 250-ish pages, I can read this without dedicating, like a month’s worthy of Saturdays to the endeavor, as I would have to do with Joyce’s novel. Really, the entirety of The Sixteenth takes place over the course of one day (6/16/2004), and it’s not hard to say you’ll probably consume this book in a similar amount of time.
WHY haven’t I read Ulysses? It’s not even that I ‘haven’t wanted to try,’ it’s just that I haven’t gotten to it yet. Which sounds like a pathetic excuse from the girl who has now read the unabridged version of Les Miserables three times, but hey, all those reads were important, too. And I’ve read other Joyce – The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, most notably – but never saw the genius others raved about.
That said, even thought the book is dedicated to those of us who haven’t gotten through Ulysses, I have this uncomfortable feeling that I’m just, not understanding the “Importance” of what is going on, or the parallels or the allusions or anything else. I hope Lang wouldn’t be that mean. I think perhaps this book really isn’t in any sort of conversation with Ulysses besides the fact they both take place on this “Bloomsday” (which, I don’t know what that means) and maybe both talk about struggling and yearning and passion and convention and all those touch points.
The story centers around three young people, a pair of brothers and the girl they both love in different ways. Stephen, the oldest, is a graduate and has been for awhile; his younger brother Leo, the easy-going one of the bunch who hates confrontation, drawing things out, and the like; and Nora, a beautiful but fragile singer, Stephen’s best friend for a number of years, now Leo’s fiancé (although they’ve yet to set a date for the wedding).
Of course, Bloomsday comes at a significant turning point in all of their young lives. First off, before the boy’s parents can celebrate their annual Bloomsday party (parties are, after all, a massive deal for the boy’s mother June), there’s a funeral for their grandmother in the morning. It sounds gross to have an unrelated party on the night of your mother’s funeral, yeah? It kind of is. But, the folks weren’t that close to the grandmother; they stuck her in a home, maybe prematurely, and never visited. Stephan, it turns out, is the only one that bothered to look in on her.
The morning of the funeral finds Stephan in an awkward position with his brother and Nora as well. Basically, he doesn’t want the two to get married. He loves his little brother, of course, but cannot understand what Nora sees in him. It’s not that he’s in love with Nora. On the contrary – on this day, he is in fact coming to terms with his own asexuality (his mother, on the other hand, is praying for him to be gay. All her friends have a “cause” they throw parties around and become martyrs for; she would LOVE a gay son and the subsequent coming-out balls. This detail is the most hilarious page of the novel, easily).
And what’s wrong with Nora? She’s just so… out of it. Floaty. She’s just missed the chance for a great Opera career, choosing instead to watch her mother battle chemotherapy. Now, with her mother gone and her career as well, there’s little left for her to grasp onto besides her impending marriage. Except she’s still hesitant to set a firm date for that, either.
I don’t know, any of you that have read Ulysses recognize the story line? It read breath-fresh and dramatic and exciting to me, with more of the urgency of a Virginia Woolf piece that what I have read of Joyce.
Whatever the case, this book stands alone. It’s a rush of energy and light and philosophy all original, and a great summer read. I don’t know if I could say the same about Joyce. These seems like a better novel to pack for my vacation.
