mudder17 's review for:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

4.0

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I think I read this a long time ago when my sister was in high school, and for some reason, I found it readable then. But I wasn't reading it for school, so I don't remember too much about what I read except that I was surprised it was as readable as it was. But I think reading it now as an adult, I probably appreciate it more, and listening to the recording by Jim Norton was helpful for me. I also have a recording with Colin Farrell who does it with an Irish accent, which definitely makes sense since Joyce was Irish. But somehow after listening to both, I decided I preferred the Jim Norton recording. YMMV obviously. I don't think I realized that this story was at least inspired by events in the author's own life and that in spirit at least, it was somewhat of an autobiography. I found Stephan Deadalus' journey from childhood to adult artist to be oddly compelling and rather enjoyed experiencing this book as an adult. Chapter 3 was particularly masterful, I thought, with the feel of attending a Parochial school with the sermons being drummed into you. I felt like he really captured that period of Dedalus' life and it makes me wonder how much of that Joyce experienced. I suspect it would have to be pretty close. The contrast with the next chapter with the girl and the feel of the seaside is so completely opposite you can almost feel the deep breaths being taken. Those two chapters were probably the most compelling for me. Overall, if you've never read this for school, or you did but you didn't like it at the time, this is a pretty quick read and is worth the time spent.