Reviews - Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce

69 reviews for:

Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce

Nuala O'Connor

3.98 AVERAGE

wordsofclover's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

_alyakette_'s review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

krobart's review against another edition

4.0

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023/07/11/review-2203-nora/

youreabiggirlnow's review against another edition

5.0

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

deailbhe's review against another edition

2.5

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

While the writing is easy to read and mostly enjoyable, I don’t feel like I now know more about Nora Joyce. The narrative constantly refers to her an independent woman and the real power within her relationship with James, but fails to ever actually show this to the reader. All I know her as is Joyce’s wife who put up with him despite his many faults, while she is the almost stereotypical “tortured Irish woman”. I think this is possibly because of how long the book spans (and how it tries to note everything within those years) and that it might have benefited from maybe focusing on specific points in Nora’s life with time skips in between.