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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
If I never read any of his other books, this one alone would make Joyce my favorite author. It isn't a book for everyone, but if you're patient with it, it's a very rewarding read. This book is one of a handful that gets consistently better with each reading. The first go is the hardest, but I encourage you to finish it. Joyce said that he wanted to paint a portrait of Dublin so complete that if it were to disappear, it could be recreated from what was described in his book. I don't know how true that statement is, but I have never read a more complete description of human nature as that presented in this book.
I have a long and complicated relationship with the works of James Joyce. I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at 18 and did not like it; I found it pretentious and tedious. A year later I read "The Dead" and saw the film; it was moving, but I didn't feel any deep need to read more of his works.
So, 30-plus years passed. Two years ago, I traveled to Dublin...one of my ancestral homes (my father was Irish). I loved Ireland and felt at home there. So, I decided to give Joyce another try.
So, Ulysses.
My impression of the novel? It's a concept car; it's not meant to be mass produced, but its innovations drive improvements and progress. Not all modern novels are meant to be that esoteric or experimental, but most modern writers, from Don DeLillo to Stephen King, use narrative strategies pioneered by Joyce.
The real brilliance of Ulysses is that the concept carries the sharp characterizations, the you-are-there setting, and the intricate plot while dazzling the reader with its innovation.
I know that I need to read this novel again...the first reading is the one week tour of European capitals. You are there, you see the marquee highlights, but it will take a lifetime of visits and re-visits to get those citiies' true essences.
Love is not the word (for me) for the Ulysses experience. Appreciation is. I am haunted by this novel, and will be, until I pick it up again.
So, 30-plus years passed. Two years ago, I traveled to Dublin...one of my ancestral homes (my father was Irish). I loved Ireland and felt at home there. So, I decided to give Joyce another try.
So, Ulysses.
My impression of the novel? It's a concept car; it's not meant to be mass produced, but its innovations drive improvements and progress. Not all modern novels are meant to be that esoteric or experimental, but most modern writers, from Don DeLillo to Stephen King, use narrative strategies pioneered by Joyce.
The real brilliance of Ulysses is that the concept carries the sharp characterizations, the you-are-there setting, and the intricate plot while dazzling the reader with its innovation.
I know that I need to read this novel again...the first reading is the one week tour of European capitals. You are there, you see the marquee highlights, but it will take a lifetime of visits and re-visits to get those citiies' true essences.
Love is not the word (for me) for the Ulysses experience. Appreciation is. I am haunted by this novel, and will be, until I pick it up again.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
I don't even want to rate this. It was a journey (I read along with Bloomcast, which read the whole thing), and I'm glad I did it, but it's not going to happen again.
I will write more about this monumental book after I process it a bit more. It was absolutely one of the most challenging and flat-out life-changing books I’ve ever read.
I finished Ulysses at 11:15 pm on Jan. 17th, in a bathtub in a hotel room in Barbados. It is without a doubt a momentous moment for me. Although they’d never let me teach a course on Ulysses (my degrees are in writing, and I don’t have a PhD, and things can be quite regimented in academia), I’d love to teach a course titled “Come Read Ulysses with Me and Say WOW a Lot.” I’m not trying to convince anyone to read the book, and I’m not interested in debating its place in the pantheon of literature, but I said “WOW” a lot while reading the book.
It certainly isn’t an easy book, but it is quite readable, even if you need some help from other folks. I had lots of help from two books in particular. Don Gifford’s Ulysses Annotated provided incredible insight into all sorts of elements of the novel, but as I got deeper into the book, I felt I needed Gifford less and less. Patrick Hastings’s The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses was a wonderful companion on the journey. It basically kept things simple, and reminded me time and again that as long as I was reading carefully, that Ulysses would teach me how to read Ulysses.
You don’t need a class to understand or enjoy this book, but if there was a class available, I’d take it in a heartbeat, because the thing missing from reading Ulysses solo is that there really isn’t anyone to talk to Ulysses about. I’d love to talk about this book. Here are a few thoughts about Ulysses:
1). Everything is always happening at once in this book. You can’t be sure how on any given page. All the pages relate to any given page.
2). These are not fancy people with fancy words.
3). You don’t have to understand it. It’s okay to be confused.
4). Even the furniture, the rain, the trees, the farts have a voice. There is music everywhere.
5). These are ordinary lives writ large as our greatest myths.
6). Joyce put everything into the story. Near the end, this includes an unbelievable journey to the edges of the cosmos and down into the unknowable infinitesimal worlds of particles.
7). It is also about a body’s functions, odors, abilities, failings, and urges.
8 I’ve rarely, if ever, felt a character as deeply as I do Bloom--his wandering mind, his problematic thoughts, his desire to be a part of, his desire to be left alone, his guilts and shames and joys and generosities and deep loves. I’m overwhelmed just thinking about him.
9). Ulysses is hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention how hilarious Ulysses is.
10). The prose. WOW. Over and over.
11). And an added bonus: Samuel Beckett once said that “Joyce put everything into Ulysses,” so the only thing left for him to do with his fiction was “take everything out.” I love Beckett, and suddenly, I understand his work differently.
12). You can read Ulysses, but you have to want to. If you are forced to read it, or if you start and aren’t into it, it’s going to be a dismal endeavor. I really wanted to read the book, and the book welcomed me in a way that no other book ever has. It’s made me feel grateful for literature in a way that I’ve not experienced before.
I finished Ulysses at 11:15 pm on Jan. 17th, in a bathtub in a hotel room in Barbados. It is without a doubt a momentous moment for me. Although they’d never let me teach a course on Ulysses (my degrees are in writing, and I don’t have a PhD, and things can be quite regimented in academia), I’d love to teach a course titled “Come Read Ulysses with Me and Say WOW a Lot.” I’m not trying to convince anyone to read the book, and I’m not interested in debating its place in the pantheon of literature, but I said “WOW” a lot while reading the book.
It certainly isn’t an easy book, but it is quite readable, even if you need some help from other folks. I had lots of help from two books in particular. Don Gifford’s Ulysses Annotated provided incredible insight into all sorts of elements of the novel, but as I got deeper into the book, I felt I needed Gifford less and less. Patrick Hastings’s The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses was a wonderful companion on the journey. It basically kept things simple, and reminded me time and again that as long as I was reading carefully, that Ulysses would teach me how to read Ulysses.
You don’t need a class to understand or enjoy this book, but if there was a class available, I’d take it in a heartbeat, because the thing missing from reading Ulysses solo is that there really isn’t anyone to talk to Ulysses about. I’d love to talk about this book. Here are a few thoughts about Ulysses:
1). Everything is always happening at once in this book. You can’t be sure how on any given page. All the pages relate to any given page.
2). These are not fancy people with fancy words.
3). You don’t have to understand it. It’s okay to be confused.
4). Even the furniture, the rain, the trees, the farts have a voice. There is music everywhere.
5). These are ordinary lives writ large as our greatest myths.
6). Joyce put everything into the story. Near the end, this includes an unbelievable journey to the edges of the cosmos and down into the unknowable infinitesimal worlds of particles.
7). It is also about a body’s functions, odors, abilities, failings, and urges.
8 I’ve rarely, if ever, felt a character as deeply as I do Bloom--his wandering mind, his problematic thoughts, his desire to be a part of, his desire to be left alone, his guilts and shames and joys and generosities and deep loves. I’m overwhelmed just thinking about him.
9). Ulysses is hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention how hilarious Ulysses is.
10). The prose. WOW. Over and over.
11). And an added bonus: Samuel Beckett once said that “Joyce put everything into Ulysses,” so the only thing left for him to do with his fiction was “take everything out.” I love Beckett, and suddenly, I understand his work differently.
12). You can read Ulysses, but you have to want to. If you are forced to read it, or if you start and aren’t into it, it’s going to be a dismal endeavor. I really wanted to read the book, and the book welcomed me in a way that no other book ever has. It’s made me feel grateful for literature in a way that I’ve not experienced before.
Wow, put this off for years, now sorry I waited so long to read it. Some definite slow parts, run ons that felt out of place but still so well crafted. Savored every word of the last 6 or 7 pages, didn’t want the book to end.
Will have to read it again. Absolutely a book that should require various reads before fully grasping every bit of it. Mixed emotions about the book