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A review by alan_m
Ulysses by James Joyce
4.0
Took a couple weeks to stew on this one.
First of all, it's too long. I'm sure Joyce was deliberate with his every word (he was a very particular writer) but lord have mercy, entertainment value ought to be a priority too. A few chapters are unforgivably long and painful; it's a minority of chapters, for sure, but if 5% of this book sucks, then that's like 50 bad pages. Considering the often difficult prose, that's over an hour of my life reading bad pages.
One other thing I didn't like was the racism. And this isn't a Huckleberry Finn situation--the book isn't ABOUT racism. There are just occasional jabs at black people's appearance and character throughout the narration, and considering how antisemitism is a major theme, I found that hypocrisy awfully disappointing.
But I admit. The real worst thing a book can be is boring, and most of this book is very much not boring.
First of all, it's too long. I'm sure Joyce was deliberate with his every word (he was a very particular writer) but lord have mercy, entertainment value ought to be a priority too. A few chapters are unforgivably long and painful; it's a minority of chapters, for sure, but if 5% of this book sucks, then that's like 50 bad pages. Considering the often difficult prose, that's over an hour of my life reading bad pages.
One other thing I didn't like was the racism. And this isn't a Huckleberry Finn situation--the book isn't ABOUT racism. There are just occasional jabs at black people's appearance and character throughout the narration, and considering how antisemitism is a major theme, I found that hypocrisy awfully disappointing.
But I admit. The real worst thing a book can be is boring, and most of this book is very much not boring.