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sherbertwells's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
With the help and hindrance of family, friends and teachers, author avatar Stephen Dedalus grows from a confused child into a freethinking artificer. While many passages in this archetypical Bildungsroman are accurate to my own experience (minus a few pre-Vatican II details), any personal affection I have for Joyce or his prose is overwhelmed by distant awe.
“I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile and cunning” (291)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry
Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Stephen has a major Madonna-Whore Complex and while that's definitely an intentional choice for the story it doesn't really get 'resolved' so that might be obnoxious...