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A review by myeonghopabo
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
4.5
"You made me confess the fears that I have. But I will tell you also what I do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a life-long mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too."
Through its intricate and delicate narrative languages, Portrait tracks a young sensitive Irish boy growing up in a chaotic turmoil of geo-politics, religion and family politics. Laced with the appropriate yet fragmented epigrams that have been downloaded into the protagonist's mind, his shift from wanting to be captured by literature–abiding and relating to it–to desiring for literature to capture him makes this novel actually quite heart-warming despite the pessimistic and dreary premise it originates from. However, this isn't the easiest read because of the shitload of references; i had one finger in the endnotes at ALL times reading this so for that trouble i'm docking 0.5!
Through its intricate and delicate narrative languages, Portrait tracks a young sensitive Irish boy growing up in a chaotic turmoil of geo-politics, religion and family politics. Laced with the appropriate yet fragmented epigrams that have been downloaded into the protagonist's mind, his shift from wanting to be captured by literature–abiding and relating to it–to desiring for literature to capture him makes this novel actually quite heart-warming despite the pessimistic and dreary premise it originates from. However, this isn't the easiest read because of the shitload of references; i had one finger in the endnotes at ALL times reading this so for that trouble i'm docking 0.5!