• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

James Joyce: Ulysses

glenda said:
Hi,

Both my husband and myself have tried to read Ulysses by James Joyce. Neither of us have been able to get through it. We both read a lot and are not completely stupid:confused:
Does anyone else have this problem with Ulysses? I think it's the rambling style prose, probably you have to be brilliant to write it, unfortunately- also brilliant to read it!!

Is it worthwhile struggling through...
Click to expand...
It's a great book but extremely hard to get through. I was only able to do it because of my degree and them forcing me to lol. But after I did I can see why people say this is the best book of all time. I agree though, painful but brilliant.
 
Finished Ulysses, it took some time...

732 pages while long isn't exceptional, I've read longer novels not one like this though, this is a marathon it's just so dense. It's also deliberately confusing.

For me it started off as a regular story then slowly it changed into something in between internal monologue and fantasy. I was coping up to 'Circe' which I can only describe as 'wtf's this?' even then that wasn't the worst of it, the worst chapter is 'Ithaca' a question and answer session from hell. Right after 'Ithaca' for me is the highlight 'Penelope' it isn't over until the braw lady sings.

The novel's about many things, on the surface it's describing the small events during one day in early 20th century Dublin but it's also about being Jewish, being Irish, being young, being not so young, bereavement, bad behaviour and understanding, there's also the small matter of it being based on Homer's Odyssey.

I read the Jeri Johnson edition (1922 text) which comes with explanatory notes, for what it's worth the novel has provoked debate in literary and academic circles so the casual reader can be forgiven for a bit of head scratching.

I stuck with it and for me it was worth it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top