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danmacha18 's review for:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
35th book of 2022
Last summer, I read Ulysses and had an utterly miserable time with it. Not only did I find Ulysses to be incredibly difficult to read, but I really struggled to find anything within it remotely related to my life, making an already difficult book substantially more difficult and boring. As a result, I built an unspoken grudge against Joyce, and I would never have read another one of his texts had a series of unrelated circumstances led for me to pick up A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and slowly read it over the course of a couple weeks. Now, having read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I find myself much more sympathetic towards Joyce, although still not anxious to read more of him.
What I liked about A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is that the book, as a whole, is much more accessible to the reader. The stream-of-consciousness and that distinctive poetic Joycean style still very much permeates the book, but I never thought there was a moment where it was too much. If anything, the book encourages and rewards slow reading. So, stylistically, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a great introduction to Joyce, and although I don’t regret reading Ulysses first, I feel one could take a lot more from the novel by reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – and Dubliners, although I haven’t gotten to it yet – first.
But style isn’t everything in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and because the novel is autobiographical, there’s a lot of focus on Stephen’s progression as a person, intellectual, and artist. The novel itself is character-driven – whereas Ulysses is more style-driven, making it much easier as a reader to find a level of shared humanity on the pages. And I found Stephen to be quite a relatable character on many different levels. Stephen struggles with his place in life, exiled from his nation, church, family, and social groups, and especially given my current situation, I felt that separation, that need to exile yourself. But also, Stephen’s artistic goals are focused on questioning and pursuing human freedom:
It’s quite difficult to express my thoughts about such a complicated book that I read very slowly. I enjoyed reading through it, and I’d like to read it again in the future.
Last summer, I read Ulysses and had an utterly miserable time with it. Not only did I find Ulysses to be incredibly difficult to read, but I really struggled to find anything within it remotely related to my life, making an already difficult book substantially more difficult and boring. As a result, I built an unspoken grudge against Joyce, and I would never have read another one of his texts had a series of unrelated circumstances led for me to pick up A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and slowly read it over the course of a couple weeks. Now, having read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I find myself much more sympathetic towards Joyce, although still not anxious to read more of him.
What I liked about A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is that the book, as a whole, is much more accessible to the reader. The stream-of-consciousness and that distinctive poetic Joycean style still very much permeates the book, but I never thought there was a moment where it was too much. If anything, the book encourages and rewards slow reading. So, stylistically, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a great introduction to Joyce, and although I don’t regret reading Ulysses first, I feel one could take a lot more from the novel by reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – and Dubliners, although I haven’t gotten to it yet – first.
But style isn’t everything in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and because the novel is autobiographical, there’s a lot of focus on Stephen’s progression as a person, intellectual, and artist. The novel itself is character-driven – whereas Ulysses is more style-driven, making it much easier as a reader to find a level of shared humanity on the pages. And I found Stephen to be quite a relatable character on many different levels. Stephen struggles with his place in life, exiled from his nation, church, family, and social groups, and especially given my current situation, I felt that separation, that need to exile yourself. But also, Stephen’s artistic goals are focused on questioning and pursuing human freedom:
-to discover the mode of life or of art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom
It’s quite difficult to express my thoughts about such a complicated book that I read very slowly. I enjoyed reading through it, and I’d like to read it again in the future.