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chgagnon 's review for:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
Amazingly good. I love how it feels to read a great sentence, and this book is a best-ever fireworks display of beautiful sentences.
The story deeply affected me, in a way no other book has. I often had to pause while reading in order to process what the book would surface in my mind about my own life. I’m sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a young man and I have a lot of Irish family heritage, but mostly it’s because Joyce presents Stephen and his world with total immersion for the reader. All of my senses, physical and emotional, were engaged while reading, and I felt transported somewhere else in a way that felt more natural than any other book I’ve picked up.
I’d recommend this book to anyone, and I think it lives up to, and surpasses, all of the praise I’ve seen about it.
Here’s more about how I read it and why it’s so special to me:
I started reading this book, from the beginning, four separate times before finally completing it on this fifth attempt. Every time, I enjoyed it very much, and I was very glad to start again. I kept restarting because in 2020 and 2021, I didn’t have the mental space to read consistently, and if I returned to this book after months away, it was difficult to find my place again. I almost never reread books, but this is one that I’m excited to read again soon.
Oh also, I read the “authoritative” edition from 1964, prepared by Chester G. Anderson and published by Viking Press. It definitely felt like the best edition you could ask for. The notes at the back were super helpful (I used two bookmarks) and I actually plan to read a lot of the backmatter - other works from Joyce, critical essays, and other commentary. Try to get this edition (it’s green in paperback) if you can. Mine was $8.50 :)
The story deeply affected me, in a way no other book has. I often had to pause while reading in order to process what the book would surface in my mind about my own life. I’m sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a young man and I have a lot of Irish family heritage, but mostly it’s because Joyce presents Stephen and his world with total immersion for the reader. All of my senses, physical and emotional, were engaged while reading, and I felt transported somewhere else in a way that felt more natural than any other book I’ve picked up.
I’d recommend this book to anyone, and I think it lives up to, and surpasses, all of the praise I’ve seen about it.
Here’s more about how I read it and why it’s so special to me:
I started reading this book, from the beginning, four separate times before finally completing it on this fifth attempt. Every time, I enjoyed it very much, and I was very glad to start again. I kept restarting because in 2020 and 2021, I didn’t have the mental space to read consistently, and if I returned to this book after months away, it was difficult to find my place again. I almost never reread books, but this is one that I’m excited to read again soon.
Oh also, I read the “authoritative” edition from 1964, prepared by Chester G. Anderson and published by Viking Press. It definitely felt like the best edition you could ask for. The notes at the back were super helpful (I used two bookmarks) and I actually plan to read a lot of the backmatter - other works from Joyce, critical essays, and other commentary. Try to get this edition (it’s green in paperback) if you can. Mine was $8.50 :)