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smashbreads 's review for:
Ulysses
by James Joyce
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Reading Ulysses felt like being dropped in the middle of someone else’s brain and told, “good luck, kid.” It’s messy, brilliant, frustrating, funny, and gross. Sometimes all in the same paragraph.
Stephen Dedalus broods. Leopold Bloom buys kidneys, carries soap forever, and quietly aches his way through Dublin. Molly Bloom gets the last word, and it’s glorious. In between, there are pints, puns, death, lust, racism, nationalism, boogers, birth, absurdity, and about a million narrative experiments that either left me in awe or completely lost.
Joyce can make you laugh at the bleakest things, cringe at how human his characters are, and then, in one unexpected line, punch you straight in the soul. He’s unapologetic in how much he demands of you as a reader. I hated it. I loved it. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
The final pages... Molly’s voice, her contradictions, her yes.... made all the slogging, the stylistic whiplash, the endless tall tales and detours worth it.
To answer the only questions that matter at the end... Did I make it? Did I like it? Will I read it again (one day)?
Stephen Dedalus broods. Leopold Bloom buys kidneys, carries soap forever, and quietly aches his way through Dublin. Molly Bloom gets the last word, and it’s glorious. In between, there are pints, puns, death, lust, racism, nationalism, boogers, birth, absurdity, and about a million narrative experiments that either left me in awe or completely lost.
Joyce can make you laugh at the bleakest things, cringe at how human his characters are, and then, in one unexpected line, punch you straight in the soul. He’s unapologetic in how much he demands of you as a reader. I hated it. I loved it. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
The final pages... Molly’s voice, her contradictions, her yes.... made all the slogging, the stylistic whiplash, the endless tall tales and detours worth it.
To answer the only questions that matter at the end... Did I make it? Did I like it? Will I read it again (one day)?
“yes I said yes I will Yes”