Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Ulysses by James Joyce

4 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death

Minor: Racial slurs and Violence

qstew's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

if beckett's "three novels" is like having a stroke over 400pgs, this is like a mushroom trip that won't end while a drunk cuckold tells you about their day. respect for the innovation and the effort put on to compose it; did it pay off thought? my answer will differ depending on the day i've had.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Eating disorder, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 "Ulysses" is about the totality of experience. For Joyce, it's the totality of a single man's day in the life. For Melville's "Moby-Dick", it's not just whaling, but the essence of adventure and being out of one's element, then looking back on those salad days with the knowledge and pity of older age. For books like that... of course you won't get everything. It's not your life. It's Starbuck's life, or Ishmael's life, or Bloom's life.

If someone wrote a comprehensive story about your particular existence, then there would be thousands of allusions that a reader wouldn't pick up on simply because the minutiae of everyday existence is filled with nuance and even encyclopedic level of experience. So, I'll recommend that you don't look up footnotes. Just read it. Experience what you experience. Then, whatever you walk away with from "Ulysses" (and other modernist literature) will be completely and uniquely yours as you bring your own allusions and experiences to the book.

That lesson is why this is one of the top five books I have ever read in my life - and that's not even getting into the prose, the deep satire, the idiosyncratic all-caps Dublin, the allegories... life also goes on.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Miscarriage, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Antisemitism, and Pregnancy

feebles640's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Violence