Ulysses

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Summary: Pretense
Review: Thats all "fancy writing" is. That and snobbery. For all the great style modern authors may use, they are just using it to cover up a total lack of substance. Read a Tolstoy, a Manzoni, a Twain,a dostoyevsky, James P Hogan, Asimov. They had profound things to say and said them simply enough(ok not so much dostoevsky).

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Summary: Joyce: At least Ulysses was entertaining to HIM!
Review: A year ago, I decided that I would read the Modern Library's 100 best books of the 20th century. I have read some great books and I have read some bad books. The worst of these books being Ulysses. Now, I know that the Modern Library has chosen it as the #1 book of the 20th century, but as a common man and not a smarter-than-thou literature expert, I recommend that unless you just want to say you read it, forget it. Read an entertaining author. No wonder Americans don't read more often, the trash that people "in the know" tell them is a classic is as boring as driving across Kansas at 10 mph!
This book was deemed to obscene for the US when it was first written. The obscenity seems mild today but maybe they were just placating Joyce's ego by telling him it was too obscene instead of allowing unknowing Americans to waste many hours that they can never have back reading his rambling and self-glorifying pile of dung he considered his crowning achievement.
Pass on this one! Read Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Enjoy reading. Life is too short to waste your time on this crap!

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Summary: We Must Get Over Our Fear!
Review: I am the prodigal son. About one year ago I decided that I was going to read _Ulysses_, "The Modern Library's #1 Novel of the 20th Century." I read about the first 150 pages, and then I decided that it was too much. That it was not only a bore to read, but furthermore unreadable. That no one really understood this garbage, or rubbish as I believe I called it in an earlier Amazon review, they just said they did in order to sound more intelligent.

Then three weeks ago I decided to give it another try. I felt that I had let the book get the better of me. I wanted to get something out of the book. So I tried it again, this time reading it in a more precise manner, and making certain that I took all the time I needed. I committed to reading everyday, and decided I was going to make it through this book no matter what.

I quickly began to realize, that under careful observation, this book is one of the greatest artistic achievements of all times. Not only is the story in and of itself moving, but the way that James Joyce navigates through the story is what is superb. The character development is incredible, made possible by the stream of consciousness technique. I felt that I learned more about Leopold Bloom in one day than I did about any other character in any other book by any other author, outside of _Hamlet_.

Each chapter uses a different narrative technique. Some are told from the first person, some are told by an omniscient narrator, and some by unnamed witnesses. You are never bored with this because each chapter is new and fresh, however, this would be my one criticism of Joyce. The reader is never allowed to sit back and get to know and be comfortable with the narrator because it is constantly changing. One counterpoint I will make about that though, is that it truly displays Joyce's brilliance because he could truly write in any style. His prose is so good at some points in the novel that you almost want to laugh.

Leopold Bloom is a Jewish man in a Christian Ireland. He is persecuted for this as well as being a cuckold. He cannot get past his failings and the trappings that he has fallen into. He also wants so badly to have a son.

Stephan Dedalus is an aspiring artist that is in search of life. He wants love from someone and just like Leopold Bloom, his history is "a nightmare from which (he) is trying to escape."

Molly Bloom is Leopold's wife. She is just about the most unhappy character in literature.

You might feel by my description of the characters that this is a depressing book. I didn't think so in the slightest. It made me feel rather happy because life was being portrayed in such an honest and beautiful way. Don't be afraid of this book. Most people, like I was on the first attempt, come into this book being intimidated by it's reputation. Don't be. I will not pretend that I understood every allusion in the book, but it is not nearly as difficult as people claim it is. So I ask you to say yes to this book Yes. It is phenomenal.

Rating:
Summary: Unimpressed
Review: I would never understand why this novel was on the very top of the Modern Library's 100 best novels of all time, on the "Board's List", no less. I guess it is there because some authority had once said that it was the best. And once done, nobody dares to contradict the edict, for if you disagree, you are just not seeing the greatness the experts are able to see. The same way all "educated" opinions say that Munch's Scream and Picasso's Guernica were great art, that Citizen Kane was the best movie ever made, or that the Emperor's new clothes were most beautiful!

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Summary: A 45 hour trip for a first time reader of Ulysses
Review: I offer the following advice. Read Ulysses while listening to the Donnelly, Healy-Louie narrated audio-book. Other reviewers suggested reading aloud, which is good advice, but this excellent audio version of the book will greatly improve your reading experience and understanding.

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Summary: The death of literature
Review: With _Ulysses_, Joyce truly showed the world what a elitist egotist he was. Unfortunately, too many academics were entranced by occasional flourishes of vivid imagery to see this sham for what it was (and is): An intense act of laziness and hubris by a writer who had trouble telling stories. I think of _Ulysses_ as the precursor to all the self-indulgent pseudo-intellectual garbage that turned so many people off from reading "great literature" over the last 60 some odd years. However, the greatest tragedy comes from the fact that Joyce had talent in spades and showed it on occasion, such as with many of his short stories. If he would have tried to make _Ulysses_ even semi-comprehensible, it may indeed have been as great as some make it out to be. In the end, though, it's all just gibberish without a story to drive it.

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Summary: Pass the Extra-Strength Tylenol
Review: You ever hear that old adage about "what don't kill you, makes you stronger"? Well, struggling through Ulysses is kinda like that. If you haven't taken a bottle of pain relievers mid-point through the book or perhaps just sprained your wrists trying to hold aloft the 768 page tome, you might just start to understand the methods behind Joyce's madness. But understanding doesn't equal enjoyment.
Ulysses, one of the most celebrated and challenging books in the English language has been reduced to one of two things: to the general public, a curiosity, a book of importance that no one would really read or: to Lit majors: the equivalent of a double-dog dare among the Lit-Crit crowd; a book professors assign in order to weed out the weak, who more than likely change majors to something less demanding, like quantum physics. Inevitably, in both circles it has become a book to be endured, not enjoyed.

What is the book about? Joyce, a master of the written word *does* appear to have a lot to say about everything, including, but not limited to, religion, politics, sex, and literature. But if there is a flaw in the book (and indeed, it could be argued that the flaw lies with the reader, not the author), it's that Joyce seems more preoccupied with how his story is told, losing sight of the actual subjects. Ulysses is really about WRITING, it seems, and in particular, how well Joyce can do it. The skill involved in the writing often attains that genius status, but too often it feels strangely hollow, a series of breathlessly staged feats of writing skill. In other words, he's showboating.

Still, despite Joyce's blatant shouts of "look at me!", many moments of passion do leak through. Particularly impressive is the final 40 pages or so which takes on a confessional tone that at last attempts to engage the reader emotionally, instead of keeping them at a distance.

Reading Ulysses is difficult, to be sure. Joyce drops more obscure references than Dennis Miller after three highballs. Joyce assumes you've read The Odyssey, Dante's The Divine Comedy, the Bible, Hamlet, and, of course the dictionary. He also assumes that you have a passing knowledge of about 6 or 7 languages. But, even if you do have prior knowledge of said works and you know Latin, it cannot help make Ulysses as a whole, an engaging, vital work. It is a towering achievement, yes, but much more of a textbook on writing, which just happens to use the characters of Stephen Daedalus and Leopold Bloom as examples of the styles that Joyce writes in.

All said and done though, I would recommend this book as it is unique and it is one of those titles that, like childbirth, has to be experienced to be understood.

I would also recommend Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a superior work of art. It's just as inventive, it's moving and passionate, and it says what it has to say before wearing out it's welcome.

Rating:
Summary: Ulysses, Overated Book
Review: It only decries Joyce's Ulysses to know it is so overated as it is. The book is not so good, it is boring, it is a colection of words and a continuous experimentation of styles that, unhappily, do not mean anything to the meaning of the story; that is, the book's language is snobbish and useless. Those who say that "love" such a writing are to be thought about as non-readers or as victims of a literary abnormality.

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Summary: An Incredible Literary Journey
Review: June 16th, 1904 in Dublin - a city under British rule and starting to try and shrug off the weight of the colonial oppression. On this day Joyce sets his "heroes" (heroes that only Joyce could create), Leopold Bloom (Ulysses) and Stephen Dedalus (Telemachus), on their own odysseys through Dublin's streets. Along the way we get a catalog of minor disappointments and victories, major literary experiments and a reading experience to truly last a lifeline.

Stephen Dedalus, the hero from Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, is the young student, the educated, literary and artistic individual somewhat based on Joyce himself. Leopold Bloom is the older, cynical 20th century everyman, in search of a son (where Stephen is, to some extents, missing a father). They make their individual journeys around Dublin that day, finally coming together in a chance meeting and then becoming friends.

If you are after a riveting story, you won't find it here - the previous paragraph somes it up! What we get is to walk in these (and other people's) shoes for a day. We experience their small successes - an idle flirtation perhaps; we are with them as they realize some minor disappointment. Joyce termed these experiences ephiphanies and, to some extent, that's what Ulysses is - many, many iter-related and multi-layered ephiphanies.

We also feel part of Dublin the city and Ireland the country. It's difficult looking back now after 80 years of home rule, with its successes and failures, what it must have looked like then unsure of what the future would bring. Joyce gives us a divided picture - we see the "citizen", the nationalistic and stubborn individual who desires freedom at any cost; we see those who are staunchly royalist and who support (flirt with in the case of some of the women) the British soldiers. Joyce's picture is no one-dimensioned protestant-Catholic division either. This element of the book has great interest in it's own right.

Ulysses has parallels from Homer's "The Odyssey". The correspondence from chapter to chapter is highly selective. Some chapters use purely literary techniques to make a parallel (in particular "The Sirens") where others have more pointed comparisons. You do not need to be familiar with The Odyssey to get something out of this book. Familiarity with Joyce's earlier works - Dubliners and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man - is very useful, as is an understanding of Shakespeare's Hamlet. References to all of these abound.

What you will probably also need is a guide. I used Harry Blamires's "The New Bloomsday Book" and I would seriously recommend using it or something similar on a first reading. Joyce's writing in this book is wonderful but it can be very very difficult. Having someone hold your hand on the journey helps you get much more out of it.

The style of writing changes throughout the book; Joyce was experimenting with literary techniques to help tell the tale and give us insight into his character. Some of these are very successful - some are rather inpenetrable. In particular the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter is very hard-going in parts!

However, unlike some other literary works, Ulysses is always fun. You might find you get the most out of some of it if you read it aloud (or imagine yourself doing so) because much of the work is highly poetical. For the final chapter - the only one told from a female perspective - the heavy stream of consciousness deserves to be read in a gallop, letting the words flow over you.

Joyce wrote this seminal work over a period of seven years and, at times, it felt it would take me that long to finish it. It's certainly not something to embark upon if you won't be able to devote considerable time to it. With so many great books to be read, you may wonder why you should devote this amount of time and energy on a single book. In this case the answer is because it is a unique, wonderful and life-enhancing experience.

Rating:
Summary: uggghhhhh
Review: uggghhhh, after nine months i finally finished this rambling, incoherent string of words.

i took this book on because i'm reading the 100 best books of the 20th century (as defined by the modern library). i had read about 20 already before taking on this 'project'. so why not start at number 1? big mistake.

when i bought it, i had no idea what it was about, and i actually became excited when i heard that it loosely followed the odyssey. was i ever disappointed. this book just kept rambling and rambling. 2/3rds of the way through i still didn't know what was going.

the only reason i know anything about this book (even after finishing it) was because i went on the internet and found 'ulysses for dummies' - a cartoon depiction of the book. my suggestion, save yourself 9 months and read 'ulysses for dummies'

whoever listed this as number 1 was smoking too much crack - since i can't afford a nine-month crack habit, i guess i'll never be able to truly appreciate it.