Students at the Greenfield-based chapter of The Literacy Project took on sections of the book because their teacher, Joseph Panzica, wanted to challenge them.
Richard J. Riddle, left, of Greenfield, is studying to prepare for his GED with help from instructor Joseph F.
Panzica at The Literacy Project, located at 15 Bank Row in Greenfield.
GREENFIELD – Richard J. Riddle left high school in the 12th grade to join the Marines. He never received his high school diploma. He didn’t read novels – his interests were women, cars and sports magazines.
But now the 55-year-old has puzzled his way through chapters of “Ulysses” – the James Joyce novel that Modern Library declared was the best English-language novel of the 20th century.
Riddle and his fellow students at the Greenfield-based chapter of The Literacy Project took on sections of the book because their teacher, Joseph Panzica, wanted to challenge them.
“The work should be very hard, very challenging,” Panzica said. “You basically try to set it up where everyone is challenged. People are going to get different things (out of it.)”
“It’s a very hard book to understand if you don’t focus,” said Riddle, who read the passages six or seven times, and then skimmed over them a few more times.
“You have to concentrate on every word the author puts out,” he said.
While reading it was challenging and complicated, “I would rather learn something hard than easy. It’s boring (otherwise.)”
While the project has offices in Orange, Ware, Northampton and Amherst, the Greenfield office was the only one that took on the reading, said Judith Roberts, executive director.
She said this was the first time she heard of a general equivalency diploma program tackling the stream of consciousness novel that follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and other characters – real and fictional – on a single day, June 16, 1904.
Part of the Literacy Project’s mission is to instill the need for critical thinking. “We know a GED alone is not enough. (If) people are taking strides on the road out of poverty, they have to have a higher education. That’s also in part why we’re doing these kinds of readings,” Roberts said.
“It’s really exciting. It’s opening doors to them. They want to read Milton, Shakespeare,” and other writers that Joyce refers to. “It’s really challenging their minds.”
“I like challenges,” Riddle said. “I don’t like doing one and two equals three.” After reading “Ulysses,” he said, “I feel more confident. I am aware I can tackle harder subjects.”
And this summer, he’s hoping to read the entire novel – in the 700- to 800-page length, depending on the edition.
The Literacy Project will be joining in the international celebration of the work on Bloomsday Thursday at The Sierra Grill in Northampton and The People’s Pint in Greenfield from 7 to 9 p.m. The event – in which sections of the book will be read – serves as a fund-raiser for the Literacy Project.