The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs is the story of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of renowned author James Joyce. I was not a fan of what is considered his masterpiece Ulysses. I thought it was pompous and boring. However, it's theme of looking for a loving father plays very heavy in this fictionalized story of Lucia's search for a father who would love her as a father and not as property.

Lucia only wanted to dance. In 1928 a Paris newspaper hailed her performance as a rhythmic dancer. She thought she was on her way to leading a life of artistic joy and independence but emotional manipulation by her parents instead denied her these dreams. Believing that marriage might be a way to escape her stifling life she falls in love with soon to be famous men such as writer Sam Beckett. They all let her down and break her heart.

By 1934, six years after her rave reviews, she is in an insane asylum being treated by the father of psychoanalysis Carl Jung. In fact, the book opens with a revealing session that honestly made me squirm with its suggestions of sexual and emotional abuse that Lucia may have suffered from her parents.

There are more secrets that come out throughout the novel. Here is where writing biographical fiction comes under scrutiny. Many facts are easy to confirm. Lucia was in and out of asylums her whole adult lives. Those records have been destroyed. So these revealing secrets are just part of the writer's creativity. They help us see Lucia as a victim of her family, the men she loved, and the society she grew up in. They all led to her mental breakdown per the writer.

I could write a whole thesis on this book but it's fair to say it made me very emotional and all accolades go to the author for bringing these real life characters to life for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I read Ulysses in college when I thought it would be great to get four credits (really!) for reading one, countem one book. Hah. Although we also discussed Joyce's life, I had no idea, none, about Joyce's daughter Lucia, who had a vivid if constrained life of her own. Abbs has taken the skeleton of what we know about Lucia (there isn't much out there) and brought her to life. Lucia was a dance, a painter, a choreographer. She had a love affair (of sorts) with Samuel Beckett. She was basically a servant to her father, who institutionalized her. She was analyzed by Carl Jung. You might find yourself doing what I did- googling the various people to see who's real and their own histories. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is for fans of bio-fiction, especially of individuals who aren't well known. You'll get a sense of time and place, learn something, and enjoy a good read.

This is the story of Lucia Joyce, daughter and muse of the famous author James Joyce. Lucia was a very talented modern dancer and could have had a career in dance if it weren't for her father's demands. Instead, her father required her nearby at all times, never letting her move out and become her own woman. She finally had a mental breakdown and was committed to a mental institution. The book alternates between sessions with her therapist, Dr Carl Jung, and her telling the story of her life.
I enjoyed learning about a new historical figure that I didn't know about before. This was a very difficult, depressing read that dealt with some very heavy subject matter. While interesting, this is definitely not a light read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange or an honest review.

I’ve never read James Joyce, so I didn’t know much about him or his family going into The Joyce Girl, but I was intrigued to know more, especially since the blurb hinted at Lucia’s “tragic” life and the dysfunctional relationship she has with her father.

This book is absolutely beautiful, often in a haunting way. Lucia is so full of life and promise, but I love the way her demons are foreshadowed until things break down and she’s finally institutionalized. And having the earlier years juxtaposed against her therapy sessions with Carl Jung further helped to illustrate this.

Abbs admits that the book is heavily fictionalized, due to gaps in the historical record created due to the people involved destroying records, so I understand why some people might not be into it, if they value strict accuracy, but I think fiction is the only place one can safely speculate about some of these topics, as long as readers don’t take it as gospel and the authors are upfront about what they changed.

I loved this book, and I will certainly be thinking about it for a while, and do further reading into Lucia. I recommend this to anyone looking for deeply thought provoking historical fiction.

This was a difficult read and even more difficult to review. The topic of mental illness alone is disturbing especially given the times Lucia Joyce lived in. To never fulfill your dreams or find happiness in the shadow of greatness is a tragedy in itself. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciate a good period piece of historical fiction but the Joyce Girl did not grab hold of me like I had hope it would. I just could not finish this one as hard as I tried which made me sad.

Lucia's father wrote Ulysses which is considered porn by some. She is going to a doctor. She use to be close to her brother.samuel Beckett was her first lover. I liked that Lucia was a dancer

I love the time period, so I really wanted to try this, but I just could not get into it and gave up. And the reviews I found on here did not compel me to force myself through it. Sorry.

I found this book to be a little unclear at times. The plot was choppy and unconvincing. It was a book about a dancer that thought she had clairvoyant abilities. The two just didn't come together for me at all. I also couldn't feel a connection to the protagonist. Unfortunately, I didn't finish this novel, which happens very rarely. I gave this book a chance up to the 50% mark. I didn't complete it.

This is a highly fictionalized account of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of and muse to James Joyce.. She is consumed by dancing from an early age and fancies herself in love with Samuel Beckett who has been been hired as one of Jame's helpers. As her parents push her away form dance and limit her opportunities to have her own life, she becomes increasingly unhinged and ends up under the care of Carl Jung.
First I'd like to say I was happy to be finished with this story. It became increasingly disturbing on so many levels.
I know little about the Joyce's lives as there's little to know but I felt that Lucia and her troubles were too easily dismissed. The bit about incest was overplayed and seemed especially cruel.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC copy. 3.25

I am always interested in books about women who support the more famous male artists in their lives. For example, I was a huge fan of The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler. I was initially interested in The Joyce Girl for similar reasons and expected it to have kind of a similar vibe.

Ultimately, I could not connect to any of the characters, and especially not to Lucia Joyce, the primary character and James Joyce's daughter. Instead, the entire dynamic felt very off, which I think was on purpose? The writing is pretty solid, but the dialogue feels just a little bit cold, and I wasn't super drawn into the setting and atmosphere (as I was for the other three). I think this would be a good read for someone who is a bit more interested in Joyce himself.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

Lucia Joyce (1907-1982) is a talented dancer. Her talents extend to singing, painting, and plying the piano. She is the muse for her father’s books. Despite making her name as a dancer, she is known as James Joyce’s daughter. This story brings a few years of her life, when she is the most successful in her career, trying to be recognized under her own name and not her father’s. These are a short few years before she is diagnosed with mental illness.

Paris, 1928. Lucia wants to be recognized for her talents and not her father’s. At 21, she meets young Samuel Beckett, who is teaching English in Paris and who wants to be a great scholar. She is smitten with him from the very beginning.

With her hard work of constant dance practices, she becomes one of the greatest dancer and choreographers. Her career develops parallel to her love story, which may not be progressing as fast as her career and as fast as she’d like it. Paris is “the dance center of the world,” where dancers are “forging a whole new philosophy of movement, or rhythm.” And she wants to be part of that.

The romantic love with Beckett propels her to extraordinary. It gives her courage and audacity. She feels liberated. But at the same time, her genius father needs her as his muse. She is torn and forced to go with her family wherever they take her and put her career on hold.

A trip with her family gives her a clear vision. She needs to take control of her fate and to remove herself from the “suffocating, clawing influence” of her family. But when a job offer in Germany comes her way, she is pushed again into guilt as her father going blind needs her.

When one lie after another comes out and her overprotected parents suffocate her, she continues to retreat inside herself. Resulting in nightmares and violent behavior, which materializes in her real life.

Zurich, 1934. The story alternates with her having psychoanalysis with Dr. Jung, who tries to find out why she never moved out on her own; why her parents treated her like a child; why it’s so hard for her to reach to her childhood and reveal what he is looking for in order to help her.

This story is a touching portrayal of a young ambitious woman, who craves independence and is constantly sheltered by her parents. She has a loving relationship with her father, but clashes with her mother. When she craves her brother’s love, he craves comfort. He feels humiliated by his once family’s poverty. Once “the best and closest of friends.” Now, they drift because of her refusal to marry an aristocrat. She can’t marry for money. That’s not in her.

Poignantly imagined, this tragic and moving story reveals a talented young woman, who works tirelessly to come out of her father’s shadow, only to downfall because of her father’s destructive love.

Woven with vivid imagination, beautiful prose and tinge of humor, making it a fascinating read.

The topic of this book grabbed my attention and I was excited to dive in. While I do think that the book was illuminating and I learned (and want to learn more) about interesting people and a time period in history. Unfortunately, I found the narrator to be a little unlikable and it was hard for me to feel connected to the story. Her voice felt at times a bit immature for her age, and at others it felt too mature. I also found that the story's pacing was a little difficult to get through.

The Joyce Girl is a little stiff, it isn't one of those books that you just fall into. However, it is an interesting telling of Lucia Joyce's life. Her relationship with her illiterate mother, and author father, James Joyce, as well as others like Samuel Beckett and Carl Jung who was her therapist. Lucia wants to be a professional dancer, but her mother hates that idea, and her father has his own demands on her. Her father wants to keep her by his side at all times, and has many demands on her. She eventually slides into mental illness and is sent to Zurich for help. While this book is based on real people, much of the actual book is conjecture, little is really known about Lucia. So conversations and even whether or not she met Zelda Fitzgerald are the author's artistic license. Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read #TheJoyceGirl

I was very interested in this book because I find both James Joyce and Carl Jung to be very interesting. I think the book fell flat. It was hard to gain interest and I wanted to DNF after only a chapter in. I kept at it though, but speed read and skimmed parts. I didn't think the incest hints were appropriate, since these are real life characters. I also felt that the parts with Carl Jung could have been more elaborated and in-depth to make an interesting story. Over all, there just wasn't much to the story to keep me going.

The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs is a fabulous, historical fiction that focusses on the real-life daughter of author James Joyce, Lucia Joyce.

Even though I know of James Joyce, but I will be honest in that I did not know anything about his daughter. It is stunning to know how little we know about her now despite the fact that she lived from 1907-1982. All of the person letters, communications, writings, medical records concerning Lucia have been destroyed. Since reading the novel, I have researched what I could on Ms. Joyce. Between the book and the further information, knowing that she was an up and coming modern dancer with such talent in France 1920s to all of a sudden being treated and committed into sanitariums, adds even more mystery to this dramatic shift and adds to a feeling of loss that I experienced as I read this tragedy unfold.

This is definitely not light material, and it was hard to read about the life of a woman with such promise shift towards confusion, mental illness (?), and disappearance. My heart went out to her and her searches for acceptance, solace, approval, love, and happiness....yet finding it all elusive and empty.

The author clearly has spent a massive amount of time on researching her subjects, and it clearly shows through her beautiful prose and plot. The author, I feel, stayed true to the time, location, and the characters that were known and unknown throughout the book. I literally felt that I was there in Europe during the decade of change and excess and the literary descriptions provided such beautiful, vivid images. Beyond impressive.

After finishing this novel, I am still haunted by what Lucia must have experienced and what she lost. I wish things could have been different for her.

5/5 stars beyond amazing.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishing for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

This book was so good. I didn't to put it down! The characters were well rounded, and the storyline sucked you into it and made you feel like you were really there. The author did an great job telling this story.

Lucia Joyce, daughter of the author James Joyce, was a figure completely unknown to me prior to reading this book. Now, I couldn't be more fascinated by her life, much of which has been lost to history due to the actions of her nephew (but that's a whole other story not covered in this novel - do a deep dive after you're finished reading this book).

The author clearly did a lot of work exploring what little information there is on Lucia in order to create an account that is historical, but speculative by necessity. Lucia's life, while clearly unconventional, being the daughter of a famous author, whose books at the time were described as being "obscene," was also shaped by the time period and its expectation of women in society. It's markedly similar to that of Zelda Fitzgerald's (who appears in the story), two talented women oppressed by the men in their life, both with a domineering mother, both struggling to express themselves artistically, both deemed insane and condemned to spending the rest of their lives in a mental institution (NOT a spoiler, this is revealed in the first chapter of the book).

I think my opinion of this novel has a lot to do by the fact that it illuminated a fascinating life, but I can't pretend that Lucia, as the narrarator, was all that sympathetic. Her voice seemed a little too childish, and it was difficult getting through some of the passages in which she behaves like the greatest stage five-clinger. We have no way to know what her voice was actually like, since most of her first person accounts were destroyed, and it sort of rubbed me the wrong way that she was written to be so pathetic at times, especially without the factual evidence to prove this, and when there were zero other sympathetic characters in the story (except maybe her best friend, Kitten, who lacked any emotional depth to actually become sympathetic).

Warning: Big *trigger warning* on this one. I would avoid this one altogether if you are sensitive to themes containing sexual abuse, including incest.