reallivejim 's review for:

Ulysses by James Joyce

4.0

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Feels a little ridiculous to “rate” Ulysses, but wanted to capture that despite, for me, being an incredibly uneven reading experience, one that frequently forced me to rely on peripheral texts far more than I typically like to, one that for a couple of sections needed dramatized audio performance in order to be mentally navigable, despite all that difficulty and frequent consternation—it still, in a very one of a kind way, lived up to its loaded expectations. And yes, largely I suppose because of that difficulty, but my point is that the difficulty neither directly “made” or “broke” the work for me. Its highs were sky high, its lows had my eyes glazing over. So it goes. I am happier to have read this than I was to be reading it, but some books are like that, and well worth it nonetheless.