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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I genuinely have no idea how to rate this, I feel like I'm not qualified to have an opinion on it! So I've given Ulysses three stars based on my personal enjoyment.
There were some really beautiful passages and it was funny in places. If I had more knowledge of all the references Joyce uses I think it would have been funny throughout, but as a casual reader, I think (know) a lot of it was lost on me.
One of my personal favourite episodes was 'Cyclops', which I felt I understood more of than the previous chapters. It seemed to talk a lot about Irish independence, the role of Irish heroes and mythology, and the meaning of being Irish. Joyce seems to mock the idealism of backwardness of Irish revivalists such as Yeats through 'The Citizen', instead celebrating modern Ireland, and where the country might go next.
I also loved 'Ithaca', for Bloom's passage on women and the moon, which I thought was beautiful, and 'Penelope', because the writing style was immediate, engaging, new, and personal. It reminded me of 'Solar Bones', by Mike McCormack. However, episodes such as 'Circe' and 'Eumaeus' I found completely nonsensical. I would love to read up about 'Ulysses' and fully appreciate it, but part of me wonders what the point of a novel is if it isn't accessible to the casual reader. Joyce seems much more concerned with keeping the professors busy!
Overall I'm really glad I read 'Ulysses', it was certainly interesting, and I'd love to reread in a few years time and uncover a little more of it!
There were some really beautiful passages and it was funny in places. If I had more knowledge of all the references Joyce uses I think it would have been funny throughout, but as a casual reader, I think (know) a lot of it was lost on me.
One of my personal favourite episodes was 'Cyclops', which I felt I understood more of than the previous chapters. It seemed to talk a lot about Irish independence, the role of Irish heroes and mythology, and the meaning of being Irish. Joyce seems to mock the idealism of backwardness of Irish revivalists such as Yeats through 'The Citizen', instead celebrating modern Ireland, and where the country might go next.
I also loved 'Ithaca', for Bloom's passage on women and the moon, which I thought was beautiful, and 'Penelope', because the writing style was immediate, engaging, new, and personal. It reminded me of 'Solar Bones', by Mike McCormack. However, episodes such as 'Circe' and 'Eumaeus' I found completely nonsensical. I would love to read up about 'Ulysses' and fully appreciate it, but part of me wonders what the point of a novel is if it isn't accessible to the casual reader. Joyce seems much more concerned with keeping the professors busy!
Overall I'm really glad I read 'Ulysses', it was certainly interesting, and I'd love to reread in a few years time and uncover a little more of it!
This is just one of those things where either you Get It or you don't; I don't. Oh, well. Gave up real early on this one.
“To reflect that each one who enters imagines himself to be the first to enter whereas he is always the last term of a preceding series even if the first term of a succeeding one, each imagining himself to be first, last, only and alone, whereas he is neither first nor last nor only nor alone in a series originating in and repeated to infinity.”
3.5/5. Hugely indebted to the RTE production of Ulysses that definitely helped me understand and enjoy the hugeness of this work. Not much to add; crazily enough I was each day looking forward to the next part that I would read, so that’s a win I’d say. There are obviously elements I was bothered with but I will definitely re-read (by bits, most likely) and dig into references and analyses.
3.5/5. Hugely indebted to the RTE production of Ulysses that definitely helped me understand and enjoy the hugeness of this work. Not much to add; crazily enough I was each day looking forward to the next part that I would read, so that’s a win I’d say. There are obviously elements I was bothered with but I will definitely re-read (by bits, most likely) and dig into references and analyses.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Made it 200 pages in. I started the book strong and eager enough, but it just became too much work to keep track of anything, I got super fatigued with it, and I couldn't face another 800 pages. It is too much difficulty just for the sake of it. What is the point of being overly complex for the sake of it? What do you prove by writing a chapter that is nearly incomprehensible? What do I gain by reading paragraphs that are so difficult my eyes just start skimming over the words and waiting to see something I recognize again? I have reclaimed my time by choosing to say, at 200 pages, that I have finished this book. Reading should be fun and interesting. That's why I read. I don't read to drag myself through someone's unbearably overcomplicated day. Also worth mentioning, there is a lot of antisemitism in the book from some of the side characters. I understand that this may be intended to impact the main character, who's father is Jewish, but in a book this over-stuffed with nonsense, it certainly doesn't make much effort to clarify what the point of the antisemitism is, other than to be antisemitic. Gave me bad vibes.
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am not giving this book a five star rating because it was fun to read, or because I learned a lot from reading it, or because it's a renowned classic. Joyce gets five stars for Ulysses for the feeling of this book, the experience of reading it itself. I felt confusion, awe, enlightenment, boredom, amusement, and more (gonna put in some quotes for examples.) This odyssey of humanity is a capsule of one extraordinary life that can offer the patient and diligent reader numerous insights into the breadth of their own humanity.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Ulysses by James Joyce - Though this monstrous brick is supposed to be an allusion to the Odyssey, the real journey is through James Joyce's head in my opinion. Pray no one ever assigns you the whole of this thing! Happy Reading!
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes