I am not big on historical fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Paris is my favorite city and I think that helped me enjoy it more. Lucia, a dancer, painter, singer, and more, struggles to be seen for her talents under herself and not under her fathers name. She develops a mental illness and focuses her life on choreography and dancing. I loved reading about her life and her dealings with her mental illness.

This was a really tough and difficult read. Lucia is a very tragic character. She goes through so much emotionally. She spends most of the novel clinging onto men who just were not good for her. She also spends time in an insane asylum. Thus, I could not help but root for the protagonist and wish things turned out differently for her.

I was not able to get interested in this book and I did not finish it. The characters and the plot were not able to catch or keep my attention.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC. I did not know anything about this family when i first started reading but wow they were a little weird. I wanted Joyce to be able to get out from under her parents. It was a hard read for me but I am glad i stuck it out.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book. It was well written.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

this was a really enjoyable read, the characters were great and I really loved the time period in the book. I had a lot of fun reading this book.

I love how the best historical fiction is both immersive and informative. That is certainly the case for Abbs’s debut novel, The Joyce Girl.

Many readers are familiar with the names of James and Nora Joyce, even if they have never successfully made it through one of Joyce’s novels. They may be less familiar with Joyce’s daughter, Lucia, the subject of this book. Lucia wanted to dance and worked very hard at her craft. However, her father’s need for her help as he lost his eyesight was also great.

What happened to Lucia? Where does her relationship with Beckett go? What is it like to be treated by Jung?

If these questions, characters and time period appeal to you, give The Joyce Girl a read.

Many thanks to NetGalley for this title . All opinions are my own.

Thank you for the opportunity to read The Joyce Girl. Unfortunately, I was not able to connect with the story and will not be leaving a full review. Thanks again.

A very intelligent novel on Lucia Joyce and her family. I’ve been a fan of James Joyce since high school. This is a look into the Joyce family from a different angle. Thank you NetGalley!

Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, just wants to dance. Her parents want her around to help her father whose sight is failing. Lucia also believes that she sees the future, and that she is destined to marry Samuel Becket who is brought in to also help her father. Lucia is tormented, pulled in two, and ends up in the care of Dr Jung...

A moving, fascinating look at the daughter of James Joyce. We are soon drawn in the complex world of this young lady that dreams of being a dancer but lives under the pressure of her parents. Fan of Paula McLain will enjoy the detail of this book and the world that the Joyces lived in.

I read this in preparation for Annabel Abbs' appearance at a virtual event for my workplace, Town Hall Seattle. I am not submitting a formal review, since I didn't read it with that critical lens but rather with event marketing/communications in mind.

I love reading historical fiction that is based on real life people. Lucia was the daughter of James Joyce and wants to become a famous dancer. Her successful dancing puts her in contact with Samuel Beckett, who she believes she is meant to be with. Lucia must fight emotional and psychological issues, including staying in an asylum. This story is heartbreakingly true for the most part. The author did a great job with this!

Lucia Joyce, daughter of writer James Joyce, was a talented dancer in her own right. Living in Jazz Age Paris, Lucia is exposed to all the latest ideas, a wide variety of artists and writers, and a night life that caters to all tastes. But the family has some dark secrets that prove to be too much for Lucia's fragile psyche. As her behavior becomes increasingly erratic, her family has her committed to a sanatorium and arranged for psychoanalyst Carl Jung to treat Lucia with the "talking cure."

Written in the first person in Lucia's own voice, the author provides a look into a damaged soul. Lucia has a rich fantasy life, and when she is attracted to a man, she quickly conjures their entire lives together even though her obsession is not returned. There are too many descriptions of Lucia lurking in hallways waiting for Samuel Beckett, writer and acolyte to her father, but also for the artist Alexander Calder, although it does help to illustrate her obsessive nature. There are hints of incest with both her father and brother which are very disturbing. Overall, I was interested in Lucia's life but the writing was a little flat.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.

I wanted to like this book, but it just didn't grab me. The focus of the book is Lucia Joyce, a pioneer in modern dance and the daughter of author James Joyce. The framework for the book is Lucia talking to her shrink, who is none other than Carl Jung. This set-up had all the ingredients for a great read, but it just didn't have the storytelling element to keep my interest.

I'm a little conflicted about this book. In general, I think it's tough to write quality fiction about historical figures. In this case, the author took some speculative details from the historical record and made it the central focus of the story arc and I don't think it worked. Particularly having read the author's note, I thought that taking a small salacious detail that may or may not have been true and conflating it to the driving force of the character did a disservice not only to the character but to the author's credibility.

The Joyce Girl alternates between 1928 Paris and Zurich in 1934. In Paris, Lucia Joyce is trying to achieve her dream of a career in dance. The daughter of the writer James Joyce, she is thwarted in her desire for fame and independence by both of her parents. Her father tells her that she is his muse and cannot be without her, while her mother sees Lucia's dancing as immoral and is more interested in promoting the talents and ambitions of her son, Lucia's brother Giorgio. Through her father, 21 year old Lucia meets and falls in love with the writer Samuel Beckett. Meanwhile in 1934 Zurich, Lucia is being treated by Carl Jung, after a series of breakdowns brought on by the overprotection and suffocation of her parents, as well as her disappointments with real and imagined love affairs.

This is a fascinating look into the life of Lucia Joyce and the fine line that exists between genius and insanity. Was Lucia destined to life in a mental institution, or was it a product of her thwarted ambitions and family dynamics. Well researched and skillfully written, this is a novel that will appeal to fans of historical, biographical and psychological fiction; as well as fans of women's fiction.

A tragic but riveting story of a young woman struggling to find her place in art and in love despite the demands of her family that she place the needs of her famous father (the writer James Joyce) first—a task complicated by her unerring ability to pick the wrong man. First Samuel Beckett (yes, the one who later wrote Waiting for Godot), then Alexander Calder (the painter), attract Lucia’s attention and desire, only to abandon her when she expresses her interest. Meanwhile, her family constantly tells her that she is her father's muse, his inspiration for the novel that will become Finnegan's Wake.

By 1930, Lucia—still no more than twenty-three—supposedly exhibits signs of psychiatric disturbance, starting a long progression that includes treatment by the analyst Carl Jung, a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and decades in mental hospitals that last until her death in 1982. But is she really insane, or is this just another example of “inappropriate” behavior by women being punished in the same crusade that swept up Zelda Fitzgerald and many others in the 1920s and 1930s?

Find a more detailed discussion of the novel at my blog post, linked below.

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.