Here is the quote from the book (I found it in the NY Times book review, obviously they think highly of it too):

''Henry thinks the city is a success, a brilliant invention, a biological masterpiece -- millions teeming around the accumulated and layered achievements of the centuries, as though around a coral reef, sleeping, working, entertaining themselves, harmonious for the most part, nearly everyone wanting it to work.''

How utterly magnificent.

Oh, and duh: Virginia Woolf was so very Joyce.