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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I plowed through this once about 20 years ago and am now taking a second pass with my little book trio, who I'm sure will make this time around much more rewarding.
This was also required reading for high school, but somehow I got away with only reading the 1st page. I should probably try this again someday.
A is for Absinthe, Adultery, and Apophenia
B is for Boom, Birth, and Bardolatry
C is for Cutoff, Cubistic, and Carnivalesque
D is for Death, Dublin, and Driiin Driiin Driiin
E is Eluctable, Elemental, and Experiential
F is for Form, Father, and Flim-flam
G is for Grace, God, and Go-go
H is for Horny, Hallucination, and Horse racing
I is for Inward, Infinity, and Interpretation
J is for June, Jazz, and Jack-in-the-Box
K is for Kunst, Kaput, and Kit-Kat
L is for Luck, Limericks, and Leering
M is for Mojo, Masturbation, and Metempsychosis
N is for Newsy, Nimbly, and Numerology
O is for Olfaction, Oration, and Onomastics
P is for Poetical, Paradoxical, and Pim Pam Pum
Q is for Quantum, Quotidian, and Quintessence
R is for Realistic, Retrospection, and Rat-a-tat-tat
S is for Song, Soul, and Suicide
T is for Thoughts, Theatre, and Thbbft!
U is for Ululate, Undulate, and Ubicate
V is for Verbose, Vérité, and Vivacious
W is for Walking, Wah-wah, and World-making
X is for XL, X-factor, and X marks the spot
Y is for Yes, Yes, and Yes
Z is for Zany, Zippy, and Zigzaggy
B is for Boom, Birth, and Bardolatry
C is for Cutoff, Cubistic, and Carnivalesque
D is for Death, Dublin, and Driiin Driiin Driiin
E is Eluctable, Elemental, and Experiential
F is for Form, Father, and Flim-flam
G is for Grace, God, and Go-go
H is for Horny, Hallucination, and Horse racing
I is for Inward, Infinity, and Interpretation
J is for June, Jazz, and Jack-in-the-Box
K is for Kunst, Kaput, and Kit-Kat
L is for Luck, Limericks, and Leering
M is for Mojo, Masturbation, and Metempsychosis
N is for Newsy, Nimbly, and Numerology
O is for Olfaction, Oration, and Onomastics
P is for Poetical, Paradoxical, and Pim Pam Pum
Q is for Quantum, Quotidian, and Quintessence
R is for Realistic, Retrospection, and Rat-a-tat-tat
S is for Song, Soul, and Suicide
T is for Thoughts, Theatre, and Thbbft!
U is for Ululate, Undulate, and Ubicate
V is for Verbose, Vérité, and Vivacious
W is for Walking, Wah-wah, and World-making
X is for XL, X-factor, and X marks the spot
Y is for Yes, Yes, and Yes
Z is for Zany, Zippy, and Zigzaggy
This is a difficult novel to review as it depends on how you come to read it. I studied it in depth at University & therefore appreciated he tenuous (or madness) within Joyce's writing. How the chapters were firmed, how each is written in a different style to relocate a single trail of thought or the composition of a song; the plays on words, the reflections on past work. Taking all this into account, from a literary perspective, I couldn't hesitate to recommend it.
However, had I simply picked it up of my own accord, I would have surely put it down before the end of the first chapter, confused, possibly tired, & thinking it ain't worth the effort. Especially as nothing of much really even happens. So i would have to recommend n order to fully appreciate the novel, reading it as a group with regular discussion or a tutor would bet he most fulfilling.
However, had I simply picked it up of my own accord, I would have surely put it down before the end of the first chapter, confused, possibly tired, & thinking it ain't worth the effort. Especially as nothing of much really even happens. So i would have to recommend n order to fully appreciate the novel, reading it as a group with regular discussion or a tutor would bet he most fulfilling.
I mean I thought this was pretty great actually. Tedious, sure, full of itself, sure, riddled with references and languages I either got, or as may happen, did not. I'm fine with a bit of navel-gazing, I can appreciate it, but 800 pages is a lot of pages of naval-gazing. Thank god for the audiobook I guess, not sure I would have finished otherwise, and but does that even count? And I wasn't always sure of what was going on or when I was who. But for all that - some of the best prose, an amazing project, an Odyssey for our time, a century ago. I should probably read the Odyssey. I thought the ending a just about perfect ending making for it a just about perfect example of that which it is. The characters were adroitly captured, Dublin adroitly captured, the time, adroitly captured. I liked how the words went together, and they went together in some wild ways. Not my favorite novel, but at the same time maybe the best? I can see why it might be the best.
This took a few false starts, but after several years of trying, I found I loved this book. I also found that the only way I could get through this book was to read it aloud, pacing back and forth. Part of this was to just keep me awake when I hit parts that my mind just was not grasping. But part of it was to allow me to hear the rhythm of the words.
It has the most satisfying ending of any book I have ever read.
It has the most satisfying ending of any book I have ever read.
Yes, I know it's a classic and everyone talks about how layered and fabulous it is. But I'm just going to be honest and say I feel like I just had a conversation with someone who was really stoned and thought they were really brilliant but in actuality were doing a lot of yammering on about bowel movements, being horny, and drinking beer. Not to be a fuddy-duddy but at this point I'm really jazzed about reading a book with an actual plot.
Be sure and get the correctly set Gabler edition ~ it makes a big difference !
Without a doubt, this is as far as you can go in English.
Without a doubt, this is as far as you can go in English.