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A review by karenluvstoread
Ulysses by James Joyce
2.5
For a part of this book, I found myself enjoying it while still being confused a lot with what was going on. As I continued reading, it slowly became a book I didn’t enjoy anymore. It was a mixed bag - often feeling like a roller coaster of enjoying it and not liking it. I had times of marveling at Joyce’s writing and times when I thought "What the heck?".
Still, I think Joyce was skilled at writing. He managed to do all sorts of different styles and structures; and he employed various techniques to tell the story of this one day in the lives of multiple characters.
As for the story itself, for what I could understand (which wasn’t much 😂), I didn’t care for it. To be honest, it’s not a book I have any desire to read again. However, some episodes were better than others and there were moments of beautiful writing along with some quotes I tabbed. I'll leave you with just a few notes from my reading of this book:
📝The first couple of episodes and episode 10 were probably my favorites of the whole book with episode 10 likely being my favorite of all. Episode 1 is right up there with it though.
📝Episode 9 showed me that I seemed to track Stephen's thoughts better than Bloom's and found more beautiful language in those sections vs. Bloom’s.
📝I think I liked the format of episodes 1, 10, 13, and 17 the best.
📝My least favorite episodes were 7, 15, and 18 with episode 15 being my absolute least favorite.
📝Some Favorite Quotes:
Still, I think Joyce was skilled at writing. He managed to do all sorts of different styles and structures; and he employed various techniques to tell the story of this one day in the lives of multiple characters.
As for the story itself, for what I could understand (which wasn’t much 😂), I didn’t care for it. To be honest, it’s not a book I have any desire to read again. However, some episodes were better than others and there were moments of beautiful writing along with some quotes I tabbed. I'll leave you with just a few notes from my reading of this book:
📝The first couple of episodes and episode 10 were probably my favorites of the whole book with episode 10 likely being my favorite of all. Episode 1 is right up there with it though.
📝Episode 9 showed me that I seemed to track Stephen's thoughts better than Bloom's and found more beautiful language in those sections vs. Bloom’s.
📝I think I liked the format of episodes 1, 10, 13, and 17 the best.
📝My least favorite episodes were 7, 15, and 18 with episode 15 being my absolute least favorite.
📝Some Favorite Quotes:
“How can you own water really? It’s always flowing in a stream, never the same, which in the stream of life we trace. Because life is a stream.”
"Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring..." (p. 165)