1.89k reviews for:

Ulysses

James Joyce

3.64 AVERAGE


Cannot believe I finished Ulysses. At least 60% went completely over my head and probably 25% of the rest was simply confusing, but I did it! The final part was worth it.

I've been meaning to read Ulyssess for years, and checked it out from the the library three or four times with that very intention. I'd delay starting it to the point that I could no longer renew it again, and end up having to return it to the library. Finally, I decided that 2017 would be the year I finally slogged through it, and it was just as painful an experience as I had anticipated. I don't like stream of consciousness narratives as a rule — I read to get away from my own mostly mundane thoughts — and this book was almost 800 pages of exactly that. I understand that this novel is incredibly experimental and influential, and has had a huge impact on countless books and criticism written since then; I read the book largely to understand that influence. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Audiobook was an amazing way to re-experience this novel.

DNF @ 25 pages

Lol yeah Joyce is obnoxious and makes me feel stupid as heck. I swear it took me like an hour to read those 25 pages and I can’t tell you wtf happened. Maybe one day I’ll conquer this but today is just not that day

the five stars are for me as a reward for how awesome and cool i am for finishing this

Mitähän tästä nyt sitten sanoisi?

Tosi paljon erilaisia tyylejä! Mua piti otteessaan etenkin se, miten teknisesti taitava tää teos oli. Sisällöstä mulla meni varmasti suurin osa aivan ohi, sillä en tajunnut viittauksia, jotka liittyi a) Irlannin historiaan b) katolilaisuuteen tai c) Odysseiaan. Tosi rikas ja vähän liiankin täynnä kaikkea, pursuileva ja joka suuntaan kurkottava teos. Mut sinänsä onneksi sellainen, koska sitä kautta mäkin sain asioita irti, vaikka aiheet olivat vieraita. Pystyin omasta näkökulmastani pitämään tästä.

Musta pitää puhua myös siitä, että tää on rasistinen teos. Siis joo, Joyce käsittelee tässä juutalaisiin kohdistuvaa rasismia teeman ja aiheen tasolla, juutalaisen hahmon näkökulmasta. Siitä en osaa sanoo, miten onnistuu, mulla ei oo syvempää analyysia. Sen toteaminen, että afrikkalaistaustaisista hahmoista puhutaan kritiikittä tosi rasistisesti, ei kuitenkaan vaadi vielä itsessään syvempää analyysia. Toki ois tarpeen analysoida, miten ja miksi ja miten tää näkyy eri käännöksissä ja missä määrin sitä on käsitelty ja muuta. Mä en esimerkiksi ole kuullut kenekään sanovan, että Odysseus on rasistinen. Nyt kun miettii, niin eipä ois kantsinut muuta kauheesti odottaakaan, mutta ei kukaan ollut sitä eksplisiittisesti sanonutkaan.

Kertoo mun asemasta, että sanon ensin, että pidän teoksesta ja sen jälkeen, että se on rasistinen. Tiedostan tämän.

This is a phenomenal book, well worth the effort!

One of my favorite books. Ulysses is all Of life in one day and most of language, culture and everything. It has a cinematic quality and does so many new things even today.
challenging reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So I doubt I'm going to be able to say anything original about this book, plenty of people cleverer than me have puzzled over it before and all I can hope is that some of them were similarly confused.
It's tempting to accuse Joyce of simply being a troll; creating the most obtuse, profound- seeming nonsense of a book and then laughing at the thought of people trying to figure it out. But even taken as that it's impressive. You need an immense knowledge of the English language to run it through the woodchipper like this, and that's without touching on the various allegories.
As it quickly became apparent how impenetrable I was going to find the book, I decided that this first reading was just going to be for 'the feel'. I wasn't going to look up references, translations or even worry too much if I got muddled about the characters. Even with that there were a lot of sentences and paragraphs I had to reread several times just to get the gist of what was going on, but some of the prose is quite poetic or funny so I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy parts. But it was definitely a struggle. I did look up a few words, but mainly when I started to feel he was just inventing them. 
Now that I've absorbed some of the book, by osmosis it feels, I will in future (when I feel up to it) reread and be ready to look up references and dig a bit deeper into it. 
adventurous challenging slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No