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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I took more effort than any book I've ever read, but it was amazing. Took two months, assisted most of the time by audiobook in my ears as I read along, and considerable outside resources such as commentaries, and a lecture series, also on audiobook, to begin to understand it, but it was worth it not only for the aesthetic experience, but to join the ranks of those who have read Ulysees and lived to tell about it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I would give it 5 except its readability is so difficult. Impossible at times. Your own mental journey in attempting to complete the full text. But the brilliance, the words, the insanity... leaves me dumbfounded for how he ever wrote it. Joyce is laughing at us mere mortals trying to piece together the full meaning of his metaphors and symbols sewn throughout the pages -- a labyrinth of cryptic messages that will leave you lost and defeated in this epic he has created. At a literary level, ignoring its likability and that I still haven't even scratched the surface of English Literature, I have little doubt it's most likely the best novel ever written in the English language.
What did I just read? Good thing I had Sparknotes summaries to help with comprehension.
attempting better review
i really do think ulysses' purported difficulty and unreadability is the ultimate disservice to its merit, with the general view among readers not immediately invested in joyce that the novel is primarily intended as some kind of elitist powerflex between author and reader. if ulysses is difficult, it is never gratuitously so. joyce's rendering of the complexities of life are so staggeringly comprehensive and unrivalled, unravelling interwoven fragments of alienation and paternal displacement to create a deeply flawed and indubitably human triptych of modernity.
and that's something, too. ulysses is a humanist work at the end of it all, perhaps the most honest and measured celebration of humanity ever put to text. its primary protagonist, finding his way through the labyrinthian sprawl of modern life, becomes the novel's eponymous hero. to live in full contemplation of life's fractal-like tumultuousness (arguably exacerbated with time), one day to the next, is the greatest testament to the sheer force of human will, surmounting even one's lowest moments of lecherousness, of cowardice. life-affirming, one of the few books that genuinely earn said accolade without a trace of hyperbole.
i really do think ulysses' purported difficulty and unreadability is the ultimate disservice to its merit, with the general view among readers not immediately invested in joyce that the novel is primarily intended as some kind of elitist powerflex between author and reader. if ulysses is difficult, it is never gratuitously so. joyce's rendering of the complexities of life are so staggeringly comprehensive and unrivalled, unravelling interwoven fragments of alienation and paternal displacement to create a deeply flawed and indubitably human triptych of modernity.
and that's something, too. ulysses is a humanist work at the end of it all, perhaps the most honest and measured celebration of humanity ever put to text. its primary protagonist, finding his way through the labyrinthian sprawl of modern life, becomes the novel's eponymous hero. to live in full contemplation of life's fractal-like tumultuousness (arguably exacerbated with time), one day to the next, is the greatest testament to the sheer force of human will, surmounting even one's lowest moments of lecherousness, of cowardice. life-affirming, one of the few books that genuinely earn said accolade without a trace of hyperbole.
Haven't read this since college; time for a re-read of what might (or might not) be the best novel ever.
I'll try again when I'm an old lady and have eons of time to spend slogging through Joyce's attempt to keep me from his work. For now, he wins.