Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ is an epic narrative of the journey of Leopold Bloom across his day in Dublin. It parallels the events of Odysseus’ homecoming in ‘The Odyssey’, each episode representing a segment of his journey. On the one hand this was really clever, full of subtle allusions which I appreciated once I clocked onto them, though on the other hand a fair few of these allusions I had to chase up analysis’ of and given how obscure and loosely ties they were in some cases that perhaps takes away from them being particularly impressive as generally they were difficult to pick up and understand. 

A lack of understanding was a common trend in ‘Ulysses’. I would describe most of this novel as simply ‘words’. So much of it was just stream of consciousness lists and playing with the narrative format, imitating other authors or switching to script in parts, but ultimately most of it was just incomprehensible lists and extremely specific descriptions that confused the narrative and made it feel less of a story and more just - words. That being said Joyce was clearly extremely well read and educated, his work is full of philosophy and literary allusions which in the cases that I picked up on and understood made parts of the book very rewarding. I read that ‘Ulysses’ is a testament to how well read you are as a reader dependent on how much you pick up, and in each reread you will learn more and more about yourself and see how far your own personal reading journey has come, and I would be inclined to agree; though it will be a very long time until I can see myself ever having the enthusiasm to try and pick this up again. 

I liked the relationship between Bloom and Stephen Daedalus, as morally questionable as they are presented to be it was sweet in places, especially in the Homeric homecoming during the ‘Nostos’ third of the narrative. I didn’t as much enjoy the extremely sexualised relationships between couples and flings throughout though, Joyce is very specific in his depictions of these scenes and the ‘Roman Candle’ episode which I had read an excerpt from for uni a few years ago was not an enjoyable experience to revisit. After all, Bloomsday is an anniversary of Joyce’s first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be so what more can be expected. 

As it stands, for the better or the worse, ‘Ulysses’ was an extremely tricky read and I can’t say I enjoyed it very much, but know I will be glad of myself for reading it when I am scurrying around Dublin and able to recognise the locations in a few months.