Reviews

I finally finished reading Ulysses. It was simultaneously the single greatest book I’ve ever read and a book that I cannot fully recommend to anyone. It is a massive undertaking to read it in a way that allows you to stick with it and truly appreciate it.

It took me rereading several of the chapters, and I found it incredibly helpful to simultaneously (with each chapter) read/listen to the corresponding parts of two companion books: the Ulysses Great Courses audiobook and Patrick Hasting’s ‘The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses’.

The two companion volumes were very helpful for a first time reader and complemented each other nicely. The Great Courses course focused more on the overlap between Ulysses and The Odyssey, parallels with Hamlet, while condensing discussion down to a series of well structured half hour lectures around each chapter. In contrast, ‘The Guide’ was a better summary of events and things to look out for in each chapter targeted towards a first time reader. Of the two, The Guide was more helpful, but using both was worthwhile as the perspectives were different enough.

The book is nuts. The first half is hard to read because it doesn’t distinguish between narration, character inner monologue, or spoken dialogue. Also, Stephen Dedalus’ inner monologue is very hard to follow both because he is smarter than most of us and because he is interested in things others don’t really find that interesting. Chapter 3 is tough going because most is in Stephen’s head. But, keep going. In Chapter 4, you get to Leopold Bloom’s mind which is a lot easier to navigate.

Then in the second half of the novel things go even nuttier. This is where Joyce starts experimenting with writing in sometimes very rewarding ways. You have a chapter devoted to music, where the writing mimics music. You have a chapter on childbirth where the writing style evolves through a 1000 years of English writing styles, old English to modern, to mimic the development and birth of modern writing. You have a chapter written as a play. You have a chapter written as a scientific inquiry of questions and answers. They are all intriguing, though they differ in how difficult they are to follow.

Midway through the novel, I wasn’t yet convinced that it was a worthwhile read. But, the fun of the second half was more than convincing. At the same time, it is so difficult that it will not appeal to 95% of people out there, and those it does appeal to will need to be in the right frame of mind to tackle it.

What book would I choose if I could only read one book over and over again for the rest of my life? Ulysses.

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1.0

I hate you James Joyce. I try to get through this book every summer and i never make it more than a few hundred pages in. WHY DO PEOPLE ENJOY HIM? Dude just like to hear himself