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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
You know that feeling you get when you understand each word individually but the sentence put together makes no sense whatsoever? That's what reading this book was like.
May tackle it some other time.
May tackle it some other time.
I have no idea how to rate this. I read this in a comp-lit seminar for uni and thank god I did because I would have been utterly loss without it. One star for enjoyment level but 4.5 stars as a work of literature. There is no debating the impact and the artistry of this novel.
slow-paced
This was brutal. Episodes 14 and 15 were incomprehensible. I really only enjoyed Episode 17, with is incredible number of vocabulary words. Maybe someday I will reread this Episode, just to understand all the words.
Finally finished, Jesus Christ what a difficult book.
I don't feel right giving this a score at the moment, given that I understood maybe a third of the book on my first read through. What I will say is that the audacity of Joyce to even try writing something like this (let alone finish it) is amazing. There is so much going on here and the way he plays with the English language is amazing.
Also - I wouldn't recommend reading this unless you've got a lot of free time and a Sparknotes guide sitting next to you. This book will fight you.
I'll revisit this sometime down the road and hopefully feel a bit more comfortable rating it. I definitely enjoyed my read, I just don't know how much.
I don't feel right giving this a score at the moment, given that I understood maybe a third of the book on my first read through. What I will say is that the audacity of Joyce to even try writing something like this (let alone finish it) is amazing. There is so much going on here and the way he plays with the English language is amazing.
Also - I wouldn't recommend reading this unless you've got a lot of free time and a Sparknotes guide sitting next to you. This book will fight you.
I'll revisit this sometime down the road and hopefully feel a bit more comfortable rating it. I definitely enjoyed my read, I just don't know how much.
I’m still not sure if this was ridiculous rubbish or if it’s bloody brilliant.
Woo I started this book the day after Thanksgiving last year. It's one of the most creative novels in terms of writing style I've ever read but also frustrating. It can be difficult to understand at times. Each chapter is written in a different style. Usually, by the end of the chapter, I had gotten used to the style and was starting to understand, then Joyce switches everything up at the start of the next chapter. It was a fun experience.
I also listened to a youtuber Chris Reich summarize and draw your attention to certain parts of the chapter. He has a video for each chapter so I would watch it after reading the chapter. That helped a lot with understanding.
I don't see myself reading this one again as it's a big effort, but I could see myself going back to reread certain chapters or sections at some point.
I also listened to a youtuber Chris Reich summarize and draw your attention to certain parts of the chapter. He has a video for each chapter so I would watch it after reading the chapter. That helped a lot with understanding.
I don't see myself reading this one again as it's a big effort, but I could see myself going back to reread certain chapters or sections at some point.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was, without a doubt, the worst reading experience I've ever had! I generally enjoy reading classics and normally can find at least something worthwhile even in the challenging ones, but reading Ulysses was just a painful, painful chore!
I have been reading it for a university class (and boy, I just can't wait having to write a termpaper on this one, ugh) and even though discussing all the chapters in class certainly helped finding some semi-interesting angle for each, the discussions cannot redeem this book in my eyes!
The plot is convoluted and boring and the characters are very unlikeable and either insufferable (Stephen) or disgusting (Bloom) - and don't get me started on the way women are portrayed in this book, ugh!... I know that, as a modernist novel, Ulysses focuses primarily on style and breaking all sorts of writing traditions - but I have had another class on Modernism this semester which also required me to read challenging modernist literature and none of the novels we read in that class were as insufferable as Ulysses...
I'm not saying there aren't any kernels of interesting concepts hidden within this book, but they get absolutely overpowered by the tedious and self-indulgent way in which Joyce wanted to show off his 'genius' here! 🙄
In my opinion, Ulysses is an absolutely frustrating and unrewarding challenging read - so not worth the time or nerves it takes to get through it!
I have been reading it for a university class (and boy, I just can't wait having to write a termpaper on this one, ugh) and even though discussing all the chapters in class certainly helped finding some semi-interesting angle for each, the discussions cannot redeem this book in my eyes!
The plot is convoluted and boring and the characters are very unlikeable and either insufferable (Stephen) or disgusting (Bloom) - and don't get me started on the way women are portrayed in this book, ugh!... I know that, as a modernist novel, Ulysses focuses primarily on style and breaking all sorts of writing traditions - but I have had another class on Modernism this semester which also required me to read challenging modernist literature and none of the novels we read in that class were as insufferable as Ulysses...
I'm not saying there aren't any kernels of interesting concepts hidden within this book, but they get absolutely overpowered by the tedious and self-indulgent way in which Joyce wanted to show off his 'genius' here! 🙄
In my opinion, Ulysses is an absolutely frustrating and unrewarding challenging read - so not worth the time or nerves it takes to get through it!
Every time I put a book down, a barometer for my general thoughts of the read in question somewhat asserts itself. I'm left with the lucidity of silence, a conscious decision to separate my interior monologue from one an author has provided me with. Usually, if a novel is providing me with a generally positive experience, I clamor to pick it up again, and the converse occurs when it's generally negative. This novel kind of shattered that schema for me.
Joyce has written a novel that, in the grand scheme, is equally agonizing, patronizing, self-indulgent and enamoring, wondrous, and inspiring. As everyone discusses, it is a long trudge through a linguistic plenitude of references, puns, etc. and a blatant mastery of the English language. It is pretentious. It is brutal. It is irritating. I hated picking it up for the first few hundred pages.
And then it just kind of clicked. I did not read this with a particular guide. I decided to read it as it came. If I was to miss a host of allusions and such, oh well, so be it. I just wanted to read it as it was and hope for the best in my journey. Lo and behold, I close my copy with such a deep admiration for Ulysses, the antithesis to my feelings early in my reading. When Leopold Bloom goes to sleep, I teared up. When Stephen and Leopold experience hallucinations of their dead kin, I felt this wave of malaise. There is a realism to the narrative through the absurdly detailed stream of consciousness that Joyce curates and yet, there is so much comedy, so much formalistic nonsense, so much emotional projection, so much that is working within diegetic and nondiegetic bounds that he supersedes realism's goal of representing the regular, the daily, the "real," and instead writes a text revelling in the messiness and drudgery of the daily through the lens of the past, present, and future.
This is one of the only books I can think of, that I have ever read, that immediately reveals its waves of influence once I was a bit over halfway done. Joyce wrote a book that makes it seem impossible to do anything new. I now understand, after liking Portrait and being more neutral about Dubliners, where all of the acclaim is coming from. I'm officially just another pretentious lit major praising the book of all book, the most pretentious of all the pretentious, and yet, it really feels beyond justified.
Joyce has written a novel that, in the grand scheme, is equally agonizing, patronizing, self-indulgent and enamoring, wondrous, and inspiring. As everyone discusses, it is a long trudge through a linguistic plenitude of references, puns, etc. and a blatant mastery of the English language. It is pretentious. It is brutal. It is irritating. I hated picking it up for the first few hundred pages.
And then it just kind of clicked. I did not read this with a particular guide. I decided to read it as it came. If I was to miss a host of allusions and such, oh well, so be it. I just wanted to read it as it was and hope for the best in my journey. Lo and behold, I close my copy with such a deep admiration for Ulysses, the antithesis to my feelings early in my reading. When Leopold Bloom goes to sleep, I teared up. When Stephen and Leopold experience hallucinations of their dead kin, I felt this wave of malaise. There is a realism to the narrative through the absurdly detailed stream of consciousness that Joyce curates and yet, there is so much comedy, so much formalistic nonsense, so much emotional projection, so much that is working within diegetic and nondiegetic bounds that he supersedes realism's goal of representing the regular, the daily, the "real," and instead writes a text revelling in the messiness and drudgery of the daily through the lens of the past, present, and future.
This is one of the only books I can think of, that I have ever read, that immediately reveals its waves of influence once I was a bit over halfway done. Joyce wrote a book that makes it seem impossible to do anything new. I now understand, after liking Portrait and being more neutral about Dubliners, where all of the acclaim is coming from. I'm officially just another pretentious lit major praising the book of all book, the most pretentious of all the pretentious, and yet, it really feels beyond justified.
4.5(?) stars?
Wouldn’t say it’s “the greatest novel ever written” but certainly earned its place as one of the greats.
Delivers on its promise of being a poignant affirmation of life and an encyclopedia of literature and culture up to the modernist period (though I probably missed out a lot of the references
Wouldn’t say it’s “the greatest novel ever written” but certainly earned its place as one of the greats.
Delivers on its promise of being a poignant affirmation of life and an encyclopedia of literature and culture up to the modernist period (though I probably missed out a lot of the references
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced