miagw962 's review for:

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

4.0

challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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"This race and this country and this life produced me, he said I shall express myself as I am."

Oh wow, so this one took me QUITE A BIT OF TIME to get through, considering it's actually quite short. It's a whole lifetime! (or what seems like a lifetime!) I did for the most part enjoy this, especially the beginning. I was enamoured with James Joyce's writing style, so eloquent but almost juvenile?? That juxtaposition made for a really enlightening time. SO many passages that were just exquisite - I love stories that are just about a person discovering who they are and questioning everything...this book is definitely that! BUT there may have been too much of that, some sections, particularly in the middle of the book that just dragged on and on. I liked everything Joyce was trying to do here but think maybe sometimes it was all a bit much for me. I am very interested in his other works though.