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A review by tumblyhome_caroline
Ulysses by James Joyce
5.0
I always think reading is subjective, one man’s meat is another man’s poison etc….BUT, whoever says Ulysses is boring or not worth battling through is just wrong. Ok! If I had to be glad I read one book in my life it might be this one.
This book is utterly incredible. I can’t say I have just finished Ulysses, more that I have just completed my first reading of it. It was a mind blowing, educational, fun, hilarious heart breaking and illuminating. The only down side is that I am going to have a hard job reading anything that follows this book and not seeing just weak imitation.
James Joyce famously said that if Dublin was wiped from the face of the world, it could be rebuilt from the pages of Ulysses ( well he said that but probably more eloquently). I don’t know about that but I do think that if a copy of Ulysses was projected into space, to be found light years from now by an alien race, they could reconstruct humanity based on this book. All of it.. right down to intimate details.. Gabriel García Márquez wrote: ‘Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life. Joyce has broken the barriers between those three lives.
It isn’t an easy book, not one you can snuggle up in a corner and just read. I read each section alongside listening to the excellent audible book narrated by Jim Norton, then went back and slowly studied it line by line (a resource list below) and then read it through again. So each chapter took many days. A couple of chapters took over a week, and I have a lot of reading time….I know I still missed many allusions and can see how academics can make a career out of this one book. But it is worth every second I spent on it… the writing is pure gold. In fact some sections (e.g. Proteus) are like poetry.
I read many reviews here on GoodReads about Ulysses and one thing I have come to realise is that everyone reads a very different Ulysses.. we all come to it with our own unique minds. Sections others found difficult were not the ones I struggled with, so I think we should all go into this with an open mind and find our own reflections in it.
I can see why people cry ‘Style over Substance’ but I think they are missing the point entirely. Firstly the single day recorded in the narrative is so much more than a mundane traipsing around a city, each sentence bursts with life and meaning. The substance of the book is immense. There is a story, in fact there are hundreds of stories. And the ‘Style’ or rather the ‘styles’ are partly the point. Each chapter (or maybe more correctly, section) is a different style, including a romp through historic literary styles, musical scores, a shape shifting trippy stream of consciousness, catechism, a play, a woman trying to sleep but rambling through pages of thoughts with no punctuation etc etc I think there are probably four sections that I found particularly difficult, but maybe those were the most exciting to look back on after working slowly through them. The others are moderately difficult but also more enjoyable than I can say. My favourite section has to be the long final section inside the head of Molly Bloom. Wonderful!
James Joyce has been accused of showing off with his knowledge. That makes me so cross. The man was a sponge for knowledge, probably a savant. I really dislike that people would want him to have dumbed down and not just let his mind and writing flow freely and play with language, humanity and writing. I love that he drops clues and intrigues for us to find all the way through the book. Some of his intrigues will never be completely understood. I think the joy is trying to keep up, failing but enjoying the process of trying anyway.
Anyway, this isn’t a book to read to tick off a list. This is a book to take time over and truly live within its pages, for months at a time. I do not believe it can be enjoyed to its full extent without some help. I read it as part of the Hardcore Literature Bookclub, link below, and used the resources also listed
https://youtu.be/d7neg72gv8c
Ulysses Annotated (revised and expanded edition) by Don Gifford and Robert Seidman
James Joyce’s Ulysses by Stuart Gilbert
ReJoyce podcast by Frank Delaney
Blooms and Barnacles blog and podcast
https://youtu.be/-bj_tUIkYUY for a good summary of each section
Time
The engagement of the reader to think and not expect hand holding by Joyce
This book is utterly incredible. I can’t say I have just finished Ulysses, more that I have just completed my first reading of it. It was a mind blowing, educational, fun, hilarious heart breaking and illuminating. The only down side is that I am going to have a hard job reading anything that follows this book and not seeing just weak imitation.
James Joyce famously said that if Dublin was wiped from the face of the world, it could be rebuilt from the pages of Ulysses ( well he said that but probably more eloquently). I don’t know about that but I do think that if a copy of Ulysses was projected into space, to be found light years from now by an alien race, they could reconstruct humanity based on this book. All of it.. right down to intimate details.. Gabriel García Márquez wrote: ‘Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life. Joyce has broken the barriers between those three lives.
It isn’t an easy book, not one you can snuggle up in a corner and just read. I read each section alongside listening to the excellent audible book narrated by Jim Norton, then went back and slowly studied it line by line (a resource list below) and then read it through again. So each chapter took many days. A couple of chapters took over a week, and I have a lot of reading time….I know I still missed many allusions and can see how academics can make a career out of this one book. But it is worth every second I spent on it… the writing is pure gold. In fact some sections (e.g. Proteus) are like poetry.
I read many reviews here on GoodReads about Ulysses and one thing I have come to realise is that everyone reads a very different Ulysses.. we all come to it with our own unique minds. Sections others found difficult were not the ones I struggled with, so I think we should all go into this with an open mind and find our own reflections in it.
I can see why people cry ‘Style over Substance’ but I think they are missing the point entirely. Firstly the single day recorded in the narrative is so much more than a mundane traipsing around a city, each sentence bursts with life and meaning. The substance of the book is immense. There is a story, in fact there are hundreds of stories. And the ‘Style’ or rather the ‘styles’ are partly the point. Each chapter (or maybe more correctly, section) is a different style, including a romp through historic literary styles, musical scores, a shape shifting trippy stream of consciousness, catechism, a play, a woman trying to sleep but rambling through pages of thoughts with no punctuation etc etc I think there are probably four sections that I found particularly difficult, but maybe those were the most exciting to look back on after working slowly through them. The others are moderately difficult but also more enjoyable than I can say. My favourite section has to be the long final section inside the head of Molly Bloom. Wonderful!
James Joyce has been accused of showing off with his knowledge. That makes me so cross. The man was a sponge for knowledge, probably a savant. I really dislike that people would want him to have dumbed down and not just let his mind and writing flow freely and play with language, humanity and writing. I love that he drops clues and intrigues for us to find all the way through the book. Some of his intrigues will never be completely understood. I think the joy is trying to keep up, failing but enjoying the process of trying anyway.
Anyway, this isn’t a book to read to tick off a list. This is a book to take time over and truly live within its pages, for months at a time. I do not believe it can be enjoyed to its full extent without some help. I read it as part of the Hardcore Literature Bookclub, link below, and used the resources also listed
https://youtu.be/d7neg72gv8c
Ulysses Annotated (revised and expanded edition) by Don Gifford and Robert Seidman
James Joyce’s Ulysses by Stuart Gilbert
ReJoyce podcast by Frank Delaney
Blooms and Barnacles blog and podcast
https://youtu.be/-bj_tUIkYUY for a good summary of each section
Time
The engagement of the reader to think and not expect hand holding by Joyce