“I began wondering. If Ulysses was the Jewish Ulysses—and the Irish Ulysses, too, one would think—shouldn’t other cultures have Ulyssi of their own? Having worked as a weekly book reviewer, I came across marketese like this all the time: ‘Known in its nation of origin as the Icelandic Ulysses‘ —publicity talk for ‘a difficult but ultimately rewarding novel by a dead man from Reykjavik.'”
Joshua Cohen, author of Witz, tracks down “12 novels that have been described, whether by critics or the authors themselves, as the Ulyssi of their respective cultures” in honor of Bloomsday.
Update: Read “The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #3: Kevin Lincoln in Conversation with Joshua Cohen.”