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Summary: Hmmmm...a review of Ulysses??
Review: How does one attempt a review of this novel? As other people have expressed, adjectives like "dense", "complicated", or "inscrutable" do not begin to convey the experience of Ulysses. I read it for a Joyce course at school, with the assistance of Harry Blamires's Bloomsday (oh...*that's* what happened) book. Reading Ulysses is quite a challenge to the late twentieth century attention span, but if you can get through the maternity ward (recapitulation of the history of the english language) and circe/whorehouse (the abandonment of the rational) episodes, I think you're rewarded with the hilarious, exremely erudite yet still accessible catechism of the penultimate chapter, as well as Molly's freeflowing stream (of thought). On a bookmark I received with an order from Amazon, there is a quote by Elizabeth Drew positing that the "test of literature" is whether or not we live more intensely for reading it. And after my first reading of Ulysses, I'm not so sure...But then, I think I've learned the value of a day...
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Summary: By The intoxification of action will alter humiliation
Review: Will there be a lift amoung the shadows of you word. Can the enterprise of your worries only understand the realization of what is read. I shall only read the fore play of descrimination and watch the whirl of the cars fly by.
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Summary: a masterpiece that may never be equalled
Review: When I first read Ulysses, my friends got tired of hearing about it. Sure it's difficult. Sometimes I literally had to read the book backwards in search of a missing or forgotten thread. One small section is so fiendishly composed that I had to write it out by hand to untangle it. Other parts are as obscure to me now as they were when I first read them. That being said, when you lock onto Ulysses--when you can hold onto the thread--the words, the pages, everything vanishes. Pure thought, like music or cocaine, insinuates itself into your mind and clings to the pleasure centers. That you may never totally unravel Ulysses is unimportant. The pleasure comes from experiencing not completing it.
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Summary: Why wade in James Joyce's stream of consciousness?
Review: There is no doubt that James Joyce is a master of the english language, with an endless knowledge of western culture. He takes a postmodernist stream of consciousness method of writing to its highest limits...but is that saying much? _Ulysses_ meanders about like a day dream. I, for one, hate the postmodernist approach to writing. You may consider me biased on this count. Give me a logical plot any day!
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Summary: My favorite book
Review: "Ulysses" is perhaps the most challenging and rewarding book that I have ever read. Its slow pacing and density frustrated me the first time through, although the book provided enough snippets of briliance that I kept reading. However, after putting it on the shelf for a year, I picked up a copy of "The Odyssey" by Homer and read the two side by side. This made the events in "Ulysses" much more understandable, as Joyce borrowed the structure of his book from "The Odyssey." It also helped me glimpse the true brilliance of "Ulysses". By taking one of history's most epic tales and overlaying it onto a single day in the life of an average, unremarkable man, both books furthered my understanding of the common aims and desires of all people. If you buy "Ulysses", pick up "The Odyssey" as well; this, more than any "Joyce 101" guides, will help you understand thiss fascinating and multilayered book. If you give it time and don't concern yourself with how long it takes to read, this book will grow on you and you will realize how many insights it provides on the human condition.
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Summary: Reading, reviewing, and rating
Review: Dear Amazon: How could it be that you publish a review submitted by someone who at the same time admits not having read the book while he rates it with 5 stars? (Note that this is ALSO my case) Clearly, the Customer Reviews is Amazon's weak point.
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Summary: pretty [expletive of your choice] good
Review: The rapacities of which subterranean species had the book undergone in the seventysomeyear epoch of its existence? Those of the academics. How had it resisted these rapacities? With a not unexpected degree of tenacity given its author's policies of silence, cunning, and exile, plus a dollop of a wideopen sense of humor, protracted and broadened throughout life. but of course you dont need joyce 101 my god to understand im just a seventeen year old kid knows nothing about ireland catholicism dublin or literature never taken a course on joyce but Dubliners Portrait Ulysses and the Wake joyce is joy Ulysses is life life is lovely love is joyous joy is joyce
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Summary: THIS IS A REALLY LONG BOOK!
Review: Man, this was a long book! No, really I mean really long. I swear this was longer than any book I have ever even looked at. You know, all of us have jobs, kids, TV shows and sports - who the hell has time to read something like this. I swear this would take me forever to read, AND that's if I gave up watching Pro-Wrestling. No kidding it's really that long. They say when the millenium comes we may need to stock up on necessities like toilet paper, well if you run out, I would recommend this book - not cause it's bad or anything (I wouldn't know I didn't read it) - but you would definitely not run out of paper for a real long time. I hear that it's supposed to be a classic or something, I guess that's cause it takes about 50 years to read. Take my word for it - IT'S LONG!!!!!
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Summary: Fingernails on chalkboard or Ulysses? Fingernails please!
Review: You shouldn't have to be a literary expert to enjoy a novel. Why anyone would say this is the best novel of the 20th century is beyond me. Joyce seems to have many different themes going and breaks new literary ground in this lengthy novel - but why all in one work? This book is extremely difficult to read, to say the least. This book has so much innuendo and hidden meanings that it makes your head spin! What's with all the foreign languages? A novel should be enjoyable and not so much a study guide. A blind man can see that ("tap tap tap tap"). What book would you wish upon your worst enemy? Ulysses by James Joyce in any form. Ghost of William Shakespeare Friends, Romans, Countrymen - lend me your annotated copy of Ulysses! Maybe Im being too hard on the book but I dont think so I will give it another shot in a few years with a copy of cliff notes in my hand but I dont think it will help very much can you read this you should check out the last chapter of this utterly pretentious socalled novel by the way dont tell reviewers of this or any book that they are inexperienced you shouldnt have to go to Joyce 101 to understand a novel I wish I could give no stars
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Summary: The Greatest Ever
Review: The enormity of this work by the greatest writer there ever was never fails to stun me. Joyce's masterpiece is largely unread beacuse it has been branded "difficult", but people who make this claim are simply not able to take in serious literature. Anyone who thinks that Joyce has a rival as the greatest writer in history needs only to read this book to be convinced. To get the full satisfaction from this book I think the reader needs to have read the works of Homer frist to understand the greatness and true meaning of the greatest book ever. Forget Plexus, Nexus and all that, forget to kill a mocking bird and all other pretenders, this book is the greatest.
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