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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
I never read "Ulysses" in college, even though I was an English major. Instead, one of my professors covered Virginia Woolf's book "Mrs. Dalloway," telling us that it was similar in terms of publication date and experimentalism. Most importantly, it was much easier to cover as one book of many in a ten-week course.
I decided to read "Ulysses" on my own, because I have been listening to "Epic the Musical" lately, which led to a reread of Homer's "The Odyssey" a couple of months ago. I figured, if there is any time in my life when I will be able to understand and appreciate the references to "The Odyssey" found in "Ulysses," that time is now.
I was daunted when I discovered that my library has a 1,000-page book of annotations for "Ulysses." Just the annotations. The book is another 783 pages on its own. Because I hesitated, the book of annotations ended up being placed on hold by someone else, and I decided to start the novel without it.
I wound up using minimal outside materials: an online resource called The Joyce Project that labeled each section with its "Odyssey" reference (Circe, Telemachus, Nestor, etc), and a WikiHow article listed the gimmick in each section (making fun of literary theorists, in the style of a catechism, an emphasis on sound, etc).
These resources helped immensely, and while I can't say that I understood "Ulysses" in its entirety, I am satisfied with the extent to which I feel that I understood it. I could explain the book to someone who's never heard of it, for example, and I can say what I find most interesting about each character and what I wish Joyce had expanded upon more clearly.
However, I can't say that I especially liked the book, even if I enjoyed the challenge of reading it. On the one hand, I respect what "Ulysses" is trying to do, and in some ways, it made me feel inspired about the potential for experimentation in literature and the ability of writers to try out various styles and flourishes just because they can.
On the other hand, I found this passage in an article I was reading after finishing the novel, and I am simultaneously annoyed by Joyce's obnoxious intentions and impressed by his sense of self-confidence and -importance: "James Joyce famously said that he ‘put so many enigmas and puzzles [into Ulysses] that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.’"
"Ulysses" is definitely pretentious, and it sounds grueling to read in a classroom setting, especially if you feel as though you should be better at understanding such a famous work of literature. Embracing that it doesn't always make sense is probably essential to getting through the book without driving yourself up the wall in frustration.
All in all, I'm glad that I took the time to read "Ulysses," even though I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to others. It doesn't have to be essential reading, but if you'd get a kick out of trying it, then by all means, be brave, and give it your best shot.
I decided to read "Ulysses" on my own, because I have been listening to "Epic the Musical" lately, which led to a reread of Homer's "The Odyssey" a couple of months ago. I figured, if there is any time in my life when I will be able to understand and appreciate the references to "The Odyssey" found in "Ulysses," that time is now.
I was daunted when I discovered that my library has a 1,000-page book of annotations for "Ulysses." Just the annotations. The book is another 783 pages on its own. Because I hesitated, the book of annotations ended up being placed on hold by someone else, and I decided to start the novel without it.
I wound up using minimal outside materials: an online resource called The Joyce Project that labeled each section with its "Odyssey" reference (Circe, Telemachus, Nestor, etc), and a WikiHow article listed the gimmick in each section (making fun of literary theorists, in the style of a catechism, an emphasis on sound, etc).
These resources helped immensely, and while I can't say that I understood "Ulysses" in its entirety, I am satisfied with the extent to which I feel that I understood it. I could explain the book to someone who's never heard of it, for example, and I can say what I find most interesting about each character and what I wish Joyce had expanded upon more clearly.
However, I can't say that I especially liked the book, even if I enjoyed the challenge of reading it. On the one hand, I respect what "Ulysses" is trying to do, and in some ways, it made me feel inspired about the potential for experimentation in literature and the ability of writers to try out various styles and flourishes just because they can.
On the other hand, I found this passage in an article I was reading after finishing the novel, and I am simultaneously annoyed by Joyce's obnoxious intentions and impressed by his sense of self-confidence and -importance: "James Joyce famously said that he ‘put so many enigmas and puzzles [into Ulysses] that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.’"
"Ulysses" is definitely pretentious, and it sounds grueling to read in a classroom setting, especially if you feel as though you should be better at understanding such a famous work of literature. Embracing that it doesn't always make sense is probably essential to getting through the book without driving yourself up the wall in frustration.
All in all, I'm glad that I took the time to read "Ulysses," even though I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to others. It doesn't have to be essential reading, but if you'd get a kick out of trying it, then by all means, be brave, and give it your best shot.
challenging
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Did the author of this review enjoy reading Ulysses?
No, generally no, but sometimes yes.
Does the author of this review recommend reading Ulysses?
Yes, generally yes, but sometimes no.
What did the author of this review feel when he finished Ulysses?
yes, you've finally finished this long and boring mundane slog through the muck and mire of incomprehensible syntax and pages upon pages of ununderstanding without a clue as to what is actually happening with the little plot there is and so you begin to think real hard like real hard about this book and whether you enjoyed it or not but you did not and no uou did not but you sometimes did and you get to thinking about the beginning which was intriguing and encouraging but also confusing but you liked it then for a little while but somewhere in the middle you lost your way and it became too difficult and too unclear and too frustrating and you had to slog through myriad pages of meandering nothingness and you hated it but you kept on keeping despite growing to hate it because other people think it's the greatest book of all time and so maybe you're stupid yes or you're not trying hard enough yes and then all of a sudden you're mesmerised by a flash of brilliance rising out of the dirty smogtax and you can't help but think this is where it's finally going to get good yes and you'll understand why other people love it so much but instead it just gets boring and dull and difficult again and so you're sad and angry and frustrated and now you're googling bad reviews because you hate Joyce and his incessant pretentious linguistic snobbery and you cant help but agree with everyone who crucifies it as pretentious and overwrought yes and you're sure now that all those five star reviews are exclusively published by masochists and psuedo-intellectuals the latter of whom want to have a wank to their superiority and the former to their inverse but then you keep on keeping because you made it this far yes and because well it was brilliant once so maybe it could get brilliant again and maybe it really is brilliant no and im just too stupid yes but then it doesn't get better or even so much as interesting for a long time and so you don't pick it up for a few days but then you do because it's supposedly a masteryes and you read on and it's still boring but a bit more bearable now and then fraaaapooooooww!! another flash of brilliance and you laugh and you smile and you think to yourself Joyce you dirty old wonderful bastard bitch cunt maybe I do love you and you do a little dance in your head because yes you finally understand what it's all about but then you keep on keeping and there's still nothing there nothing at all you don't understand the sentences and you're not sure if they can be understood but it's much worse this time around because it's so much darker when a light goes out then it would've been had it never shone but you keep reading anyway because Joyce could've written the best book you've ever read but he simply chose not to do it the dirty bastard prick cunt bastard how dare he and why instead he made this brick of nothingness and but so you keep at it and it's boring and difficult and frustrating but then you can't help but think that that's kind of what life is like because sometimes when you discover a new song or watched a good movie or read a book that's actually enjoyable and not this long and boring demoralizing slog then there's this little flash of happiness and lightness where the 9-5 doesn't seem that unendurable anymore and the universe a little less cold and uncaring and the loneliness a little less heavy and the grief looms less and then you go on because time must go on and you are a child of time and so you must too and then it becomes dull and boring and bland again but then so another thing happens that might keep you happy for a little while and then again sometime in the near future but those moments are few and far in between and you're kind of always wishing that there were more of them because you deep down inside know that life is beautiful even though you can't always see it but at least the flashes come sometimes and keep you going for a little while but maybe the flashes are blinding because maybe everything is a little flash if you really look at it like really look at it because Bloom wiping his ass with a newspaper is actually pretty poignant and funny if you stand still and consider it and the heaventree of stars hanging with humid nightblue fruit is always there waiting for you to appreciate it and it must be pretty boring and dull and difficult for it too to be waiting around all the time for you to stand still long enough to appreciate it and so maybe you did the book a disservice by glancing over the mundane in search of the brilliant because why maybe they are inseparable and maybe there's deeper beauty hidden within the everyday then there is without the fleeting and so maybe it's your entire attitude to life that's misguided and you should start looking up at the heaventree a little more often and so yeah the book is a long and boring slog but maybe just maybe that makes it the most honest book you've ever read and maybe all the books that were far and far more enjoyable and understandable are a little bit dishonest because yes life is beautiful sometimes but it isn't always and so maybe those books are really just selling fleeting fantasies and no one ever really has lived happily ever after but everybody lives very dull and bored and difficult and sometimes happy but very sometimes and little and so you close the book after the final page and you think what? what was that all about? and you don't know not a clue as to what it all meant and so you can't help but think that that is all it means that nothing really means anything if you don't give it any meaning but that everything has meaning if you want it to and that meaning is such an arbitrary and untrustworthy thing that it doesn't matter whether there's a singular interpretation definition category but that all that matters is what you interpret it as and that that's fine and that life is out there written endlessly upon the sky and the ground and the office desk and the bedroom walls and the coffee and how really beautiful it is that everything is life and nothing is not life and that may be just the most beautiful thing ever and so you begin to think about how to rate the Odyssey you've just been on and you realise you kind of can't because an Odyssey is never a straight path but then a valley then a cave then a mountain and then a mineral spring and all our Odyssey's never really end because you're always moving through time and always changing through life and so how do you rate something that's so enigmatic and fleeting and elusive and neverending you can't so it doesn't matter whether you give it five stars despite hating it or one star despite loving it there is no honest rating because life is sometimes a five and sometimes a one and other times somewhere in between but all of that is beautiful and all of that is confusing and all of that is out there for the taking if only you say yes just say yes Yes.
No, generally no, but sometimes yes.
Does the author of this review recommend reading Ulysses?
Yes, generally yes, but sometimes no.
What did the author of this review feel when he finished Ulysses?
yes, you've finally finished this long and boring mundane slog through the muck and mire of incomprehensible syntax and pages upon pages of ununderstanding without a clue as to what is actually happening with the little plot there is and so you begin to think real hard like real hard about this book and whether you enjoyed it or not but you did not and no uou did not but you sometimes did and you get to thinking about the beginning which was intriguing and encouraging but also confusing but you liked it then for a little while but somewhere in the middle you lost your way and it became too difficult and too unclear and too frustrating and you had to slog through myriad pages of meandering nothingness and you hated it but you kept on keeping despite growing to hate it because other people think it's the greatest book of all time and so maybe you're stupid yes or you're not trying hard enough yes and then all of a sudden you're mesmerised by a flash of brilliance rising out of the dirty smogtax and you can't help but think this is where it's finally going to get good yes and you'll understand why other people love it so much but instead it just gets boring and dull and difficult again and so you're sad and angry and frustrated and now you're googling bad reviews because you hate Joyce and his incessant pretentious linguistic snobbery and you cant help but agree with everyone who crucifies it as pretentious and overwrought yes and you're sure now that all those five star reviews are exclusively published by masochists and psuedo-intellectuals the latter of whom want to have a wank to their superiority and the former to their inverse but then you keep on keeping because you made it this far yes and because well it was brilliant once so maybe it could get brilliant again and maybe it really is brilliant no and im just too stupid yes but then it doesn't get better or even so much as interesting for a long time and so you don't pick it up for a few days but then you do because it's supposedly a masteryes and you read on and it's still boring but a bit more bearable now and then fraaaapooooooww!! another flash of brilliance and you laugh and you smile and you think to yourself Joyce you dirty old wonderful bastard bitch cunt maybe I do love you and you do a little dance in your head because yes you finally understand what it's all about but then you keep on keeping and there's still nothing there nothing at all you don't understand the sentences and you're not sure if they can be understood but it's much worse this time around because it's so much darker when a light goes out then it would've been had it never shone but you keep reading anyway because Joyce could've written the best book you've ever read but he simply chose not to do it the dirty bastard prick cunt bastard how dare he and why instead he made this brick of nothingness and but so you keep at it and it's boring and difficult and frustrating but then you can't help but think that that's kind of what life is like because sometimes when you discover a new song or watched a good movie or read a book that's actually enjoyable and not this long and boring demoralizing slog then there's this little flash of happiness and lightness where the 9-5 doesn't seem that unendurable anymore and the universe a little less cold and uncaring and the loneliness a little less heavy and the grief looms less and then you go on because time must go on and you are a child of time and so you must too and then it becomes dull and boring and bland again but then so another thing happens that might keep you happy for a little while and then again sometime in the near future but those moments are few and far in between and you're kind of always wishing that there were more of them because you deep down inside know that life is beautiful even though you can't always see it but at least the flashes come sometimes and keep you going for a little while but maybe the flashes are blinding because maybe everything is a little flash if you really look at it like really look at it because Bloom wiping his ass with a newspaper is actually pretty poignant and funny if you stand still and consider it and the heaventree of stars hanging with humid nightblue fruit is always there waiting for you to appreciate it and it must be pretty boring and dull and difficult for it too to be waiting around all the time for you to stand still long enough to appreciate it and so maybe you did the book a disservice by glancing over the mundane in search of the brilliant because why maybe they are inseparable and maybe there's deeper beauty hidden within the everyday then there is without the fleeting and so maybe it's your entire attitude to life that's misguided and you should start looking up at the heaventree a little more often and so yeah the book is a long and boring slog but maybe just maybe that makes it the most honest book you've ever read and maybe all the books that were far and far more enjoyable and understandable are a little bit dishonest because yes life is beautiful sometimes but it isn't always and so maybe those books are really just selling fleeting fantasies and no one ever really has lived happily ever after but everybody lives very dull and bored and difficult and sometimes happy but very sometimes and little and so you close the book after the final page and you think what? what was that all about? and you don't know not a clue as to what it all meant and so you can't help but think that that is all it means that nothing really means anything if you don't give it any meaning but that everything has meaning if you want it to and that meaning is such an arbitrary and untrustworthy thing that it doesn't matter whether there's a singular interpretation definition category but that all that matters is what you interpret it as and that that's fine and that life is out there written endlessly upon the sky and the ground and the office desk and the bedroom walls and the coffee and how really beautiful it is that everything is life and nothing is not life and that may be just the most beautiful thing ever and so you begin to think about how to rate the Odyssey you've just been on and you realise you kind of can't because an Odyssey is never a straight path but then a valley then a cave then a mountain and then a mineral spring and all our Odyssey's never really end because you're always moving through time and always changing through life and so how do you rate something that's so enigmatic and fleeting and elusive and neverending you can't so it doesn't matter whether you give it five stars despite hating it or one star despite loving it there is no honest rating because life is sometimes a five and sometimes a one and other times somewhere in between but all of that is beautiful and all of that is confusing and all of that is out there for the taking if only you say yes just say yes Yes.
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A lot funnier than I expected. I found myself telling my wife several lines from the book. I don't feel properly equipped to fully review this one. I plan to return to it with a reread eventually. Feels nice to cross it off the bucket list.
Ugh. I never wished more for a book to end, than this one. It didn't start to pick up until the last chapter after 27 hours of listening to it. *sigh
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just not meant to be an audio book...for me at least.
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes