Reviews

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

caleboh_1's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

idk what has happened. this book has washed over me. i have felt everything stephen has felt. hes just like me fr. a lot has been lost on me, but everything worked as joyce intended i think. i felt the radiance of art in this dead irishman's mind. 

bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition

1.0

I haven't been this disappointed and frustrated by a book since reading The Catcher in the Rye. I care very little for stream-of-consciousness writing. With no plot, character development, or world-building, this novel has no anchor, little reason to care.

I approached this novel with an open mind, and because Joseph Campbell (among other myth-oriented folks) are huge fans of Joyce. A major letdown.

maferencak's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.5

abbytruestory's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

need_to_read's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

blasfeminin's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I too changed my entire worldview after seeing a woman’s thighs

theliteraryapothecary's review against another edition

challenging

3.5

Last night I finished listening to the audiobook version of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, narrated by Colin Farrell. This was a reread for me, and let me tell you – audiobook is honestly the only way to make any sense of James Joyce writing. Joyce uses punctuation very sparingly, which makes it different for readers to follow and understand his writing. Joyce’s books are regularly discussed in their difficulty to read. By listening to the audiobook, you are essentially letting the narrator do most of the work for you. With that being said, though, and even though this is a reread for me, I honestly still don’t really have a good idea what actually happened in this book – more on this in my CAWPILE breakdown. (* Note: I did add an eight category in our CAWPILE ratings to account for the audiobook narration.)

CAWPILE Breakdown:

Characters: 6 – Some characters were good, but they mostly felt like they all blended together. I still had a hard time keeping them all seperate in my mind.

Atmosphere/Setting: 6 – 4/6 points goes to the setting, which was done wonderfully! 2/6 points goes to atmosphere, which I felt a few times but wanted more of.

Writing Style: 4 – I continue to struggle with James Joyce’s writing style, although listening to it on audiobook certainly helped.

Plot: 3 – Honestly, even after a reread, I still don’t really have a good idea of what the plot actually was in this book, let alone how it developed. It seemed like there was more religious and political and philosophical discussion than an actual plot.

Intrigue: 5 – Does it count as intrigue if I’m really just trying to figure out what’s going on?

Logic/Relationships: 5/6 points for relationships, which as far as I could tell were written well. 1/6 for logic – still didn’t make much logical sense to me.

Enjoyement: 6.5 – Colin Farrell helped increase the enjoyement of this book dramatically with his audiobook narration.

Audiobook narration: 8 – Colin Farrell did saints work narrating this audiobook. Thank you! He made it much more enjoyable and slightly easier to follow along. His thick Irish accent made it really feel like an Irish book.

CAWPILE(A) Total: 44.5/8 = 5.5 = 3.5 stars 

56bumblebees's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sashahawkins's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.0

davidkinnonn's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.75