Fionnuala's review of Ulysses (original) (raw)

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Fionnuala's Reviews > Ulysses

Ulysses by James Joyce

Ulysses
by

5498525

Reviewed in August 2012

This review is my attempt to reclaim Ulysses from the Joyce specialists and prove that it can have universal reader appeal. My edition was a simple paperback without notes or glossary but containing a preface which I intend to read after I've written my review. I'll probably look at other reviews too as, frankly, I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms from the world of this novel.

The word 'novel' seems inappropriate to describe Ulysses but at the same time, the word might have been invented specifically to describe it. Everything about it is novel, from the structure to the use of language, from the characterisation to the treatment of history.
But by ‘novel’, I don’t mean experimental in an obscure or inaccessible way, as its reputation seems to imply: I found Flan O’Brian’s At Swim-Two-Birds quite difficult to follow in a way that Ulysses is definitely not, and I’m finding Samuel Beckett’s Molloy, which I’m currently reading, much more difficult to get involved with. Ulysses was pure pleasure in comparison.

So why has this book developed such a fearsome reputation? Perhaps because we mistakenly think that to enjoy it, we need to have a thorough knowledge of the classics, including Shakespeare and Homer. The fact that I know very little about The Odyssey except that it recounts a long journey home made by Odysseus/Ulysses didn’t take from my enjoyment in the least. I’m not an expert on Hamlet either, but the little I know, and which most people probably know, was sufficient to allow me to follow the sections which refer to it. There are a few Old English phrases near the beginning that I googled but I soon decided to just let myself sink into the world of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus without further interruption.
Being able to read this without disruption is probably part of the reason I enjoyed the experience so much. When I bought my copy some fifteen years ago, I read about a third of it with great pleasure but as I had young children at the time and limited free moments, I had to give up when the reading experience became more challenging. And yes, it does become challenging in some parts, but never for very long, as if Joyce knew exactly how far he could try our patience.
As to deciphering those challenging sections, I think that one reader’s guess is as good as another’s. A big part of the pleasure for me was the puzzle element because I had plenty of time to reflect on what I was reading, time to figure out a meaning that satisfied me and also made sense of the bigger picture. And that’s what my reading without notes proved to me: there is a perfectly logical trajectory behind it all, even behind the more phantasmagorical elements. During the course of one day, Joyce reveals more and more facets of his main character, Leopold Bloom, and of the world he lived in. The characterisation of Bloom is so well done that by the end, he represents everyman, and every woman too, as well as messiahs and prophets, kings and emperors, in short all of humanity, complete with all of its goodness, and yes, some of its failings.
Of course, my interpretation may not be accurate and there may be acres of symbolism that I missed, but since I had such a satisfying read, how can that matter?
My satisfaction may have depended to some extent on the fact that I have an Irish background, but to what degree it helped me, I cannot tell. It is true that some of the material was familiar from history lessons and from general culture but at the same time, the Dublin of 1904 was a complete revelation to me. And the themes covered move quickly from the local to the universal so that a lack of knowledge of Irish life and culture shouldn’t be an impossible barrier, just a challenging one.
If you prefer exciting, stimulating, rewarding reading experiences, Ulysses might be the perfect book for you.

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Reading Progress

August 5, 2012 –Started Reading

August 10, 2012 –37.62% "I don't usually bother with status updates - why waste good reading time typing? However, if there is one book that cries out for a status update, it is this one. I should have started updating earlier because the experience of reading this changes from section to section. Right now I'm imagining the book as a map with characters moving about, intersecting with each other at pivotal points in time and space."

August 11, 2012 –52.3% "In this section Joyce has targeted some sacred cows: Irish nationalism; the Irish language, celtic mythology; tourist kitsch; the Roman catholic church; the innocence of young girls' romantic dreams. He's also put paid to any notion that the Irish weren't as antisemitic as other European nations - there were just fewer Jews in Ireland in the early 1900's so it wasn't very noticeable. It's all done with such style."

August 13, 2012 –68.49% "There were a few nearly incomprehensible pages around the 500 mark (pm?) that had me wishing my edition had footnotes but I'm enjoying the challenge of working things out. There was a lot of 'metempsychosis', Bloom's favourite word, around that day, I reckon, and the cast of characters increases as the hours go by. Themes debated get more universal: futility of war; intolerance; birth; right to life; the afterlife."

August 14, 2012 –75.35% "Reached the end of the Nighttown section (phew!), a drama with phantasmogorical stage directions, in which Bloom confronts his deepest, most unspoken desires and his greatest and most nightmarish fears via a series of alternately comic and horrific metamorphoses, cheered on by an ever increasing cast of characters who heap ridicule on peace-loving Bloom as well as on all messiahs and prophets, kings and emperors."

August 16, 2012 –83.17% "So far, the reader has been listening at length to Bloom's very interesting interior monologues but hasn't heard his voice very much, just the odd sentence in response to other characters' much longer turns. As a result, a certain picture of Bloom has emerged which Joyce overturns completely in this section, by means of a monologue, in which we discover that the Bloom people hear is quite different to theBloomweknow."

August 17, 2012 –93.35% "In this section, as if Joyce had anticipated his readers' confusion in the face of the complexities of the material, he presents the scenes in question and answer format, the questions being phrased as on a maths or science exam paper, the answers adhering strictly to the principles of logic and brevity, even when they are long, the whole enabling the reader to gain further and deeper insights into the Bloom weknow."

August 17, 2012 –100.0% "And so, yes, finally we get to hear Molly Bloom's own thoughts on men, women, sex, politics, birth and death, and yes they are thoughts that throw new light on many aspects of the story we've heard so far, and yes, they give us a slightly different view of Bloom, perhaps finally a true picture, yes, I think so indeed, yes."

August 17, 2012 –Finished Reading

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