DUBLINERS

Start with what is perhaps the most influential story collection in English, add a dozen Irish readers (many with extensive experience performing Joyce) and you should wind up with a brilliant result. And indeed, there are some outstanding performances: Brendan Coyle’s “A Little Cloud” and Jim Norton’s “Counterparts” are particularly haunting and sad. Unfortunately, Malachy McCourt and Fionnula Flanagan feel uncomfortable with the text, and Donal Donnelly (who, unimaginably, has recorded an unabridged Ulysses) is simply bombastic. But overall, even if it falls a wee bit short of expectations, there can be no better way to revisit Joyce’s most accessible work than this veritable brogues’ gallery. D.B. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 00]