written in a manner
similar to Finnegan's Wake, a book published in 1939 by Irish author James Joyce (1882-1941). The book was composed in an elaborate
language of Joyce's own creation, and included foreign words, Irish references, various literary, historical and philosophical allusions,
slang and
puns, as well as various phrases from popular songs,
art and sports. The book
ends with an unfinished sentence which is
completed by a half-sentence at the beginning and took
seventeen years to write. The story itself details the stream of
nightmares and dreams of tavern keeper H. C. Earwicker and his family as they
lie asleep. The name of the
novel is
derived from an Irish hero, Finn MacCool, who was supposed to
return to
life some
day and be the savior of Ireland; and from Tim Finnegan, the hero of a ballad about a
man who jumped up during his own wake (a
watch held over a
dead body before burial, sometimes accompanied by feasting or merrymaking).