Few books of the twentieth century are held in higher esteem by critics and academics than those of James Joyce. From the writer's early stories collected in Dubliners, to the almost impenetrable multilingual wordplay of his final book, Finnegans Wake, Joyce's writing is all but universally revered as the embodiment of the Modern in literature. These books, as well as A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man and especially Ulysses, never fail to show up near or at the top of lists of great books written during the twentieth century. Without them, any version of the Modern literary canon would be incomplete. The writer himself has long since joined the pantheon of English-language storytellers, alongside Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, and Conrad.
It is perhaps surprising, therefore, to discover the extent to which Joyce's passions by no means excluded the commonplace. The evidence lies in his books, though many readers miss it, distracted by his highbrow reputation. Logically enough, practitioners of popular art forms, like movies and rock-and-roll, have mimicked James Joyce's work.
Throughout his lifetime, Joyce maintained an abiding interest in what we today call popular culture. This might in part be explained by his humble beginnings. Though eventually Joyce held an undergraduate degree in modern languages (rather than some more arcane subject), he was born into an enormous lower-middle class family whose fortunes declined as he aged. Joyce's father John was a well-liked salt-of-the-earth type, a habitue of pubs and a talented singer of both light opera and parlor-songs (the pop tunes of the day). His influence rubbed off on Joyce, whose characters are forever buying drinks and bursting into song. Pubs are frequented in "Two Gallants," "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts," and "Grace." And melodies are sung in "Two Gallants," "Clay," "A Mother," and especially "The Dead." In fact, "Sunny Jim" Joyce grew into an inveterate bargoer himself, one known for his beautiful tenor voice and his tendency to dance home at closing time in the manner of Isadora Duncan. His favorite song was called "Oh, the Brown and Yellow Ale."
