that_was_then_this_is_now 's review for:

Ulysses by James Joyce

5.0

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Who am I to say anything about such a masterpiece? I read it with a study- guide at my side (pre-internet and MOOCs) and pretended to be attending a class of great literature. Not my first enounter with stream of consciousness but surely the most disorienting. Startling and memorable (of course) an adventure on a patriarchal template, men interpreting women (some aspects I could identify with), whimsy and bittersweet dripping from the pages. It was one of the first DAUNTING books I had decided to read as a challenge to the fear inculcated feeding my ignorance. James Joyce's other material was a "cake walk" afterwards. In total contrast with "The Dubliners". I read it and survived. I am the richer for it. I learned how patient books are, how they wait for you, and chide you not for having a rough moment. I see Ulysses spine some where ANY where and I nod my head, tip my alpine hat, remembering that rarified air, that babbling brook, the wet and colors, the meanderings of the mind and marvel at how little time had passed within the narrative from opening page to closing page, while so much endless time had passed for me as I waded through the flow of issues. What a cunundrum. I know I can read, and have read, ANY book I dare want to. Perelman and Tytecha's New Rhetoric in Italian?!!!! SURE! I have been dipped in Ulysses