Ulysses

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Love/Hate Book
Review: Ah, Ulysses. What can one say that has not already been said? It seems that everyone who has read it, and indeed even those who have not, has an opinion regarding Joyce's seminal work. And now, after finally turning over the last page, I hereby add my own name to the long list of critics who have attempted to analyze this novel, and who, although perhaps unwittingly, have also added to the length of the grin on the face of its author--that eloquent literary trickster, that infuriating kicker-of-the-wheels of language, old double J himself.

What immediately strikes you upon reading the first few pages of Ulysses is that, despite the cloud of mystique surrounding it, it is only a novel--a collection of words written by one man. It is not, as some would have you believe, some sort of prophetic vision of mankind, a work of art so highly conceived and perfectly executed that it transcends all space and time. No, it is only, as all books are, a story. And thereby it can be reduced to this: a man wakes up, walks around, and then goes to sleep. If you're looking for anything more than that, then keep looking--because you won't find it here. It is simply the story of one long (and I do mean long) day.

But the plot is of little importance in this book. What the author wants you to focus on is style and meaning; and there is plenty of both to go around. In fact, there is too much. When Joyce attempts to reconstruct the evolution of the english language in a mock birth of modern speech and literature, he crosses the line that separates amusing people from annoying ones. In passages throughout the book--too numerous to mention in this limited review space--you often get the urge to say to its author, "Okay, that's enough; we get it already." But on and on he goes, confusing you, irritating you, making you wish you had never started reading this damn book in the first place. So why keep reading, you ask? Because there are parts of the book, again too numerous to mention, that for sheer beauty and clarity of description rival anything ever written. Joyce's portrait of a grizzled old sailor in a scene towards the end of the book quickly comes to mind as a shining reminder that there are rewards for making the long and sometimes frustrating journey on which he wishes to take you.

And that, I suppose, is what Ulysses is all about. You love it at times, you hate it at times, but by the time you reach the end you feel, well, something. And no more should we expect of our authors.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Brilliant book, a web of words encompassing centuries of literature and philosophy and its impasse on the overeducated lower middle class, a perfect allusion to a work of great literature (The Odyssey) that this book has matched well. Perhaps this is the first book to transcend the ability of what it has parodied. To those who have denied recommending it to someone of sixteen or seventeen, I had been upon this earth for a decade and a half when I came upon it, and just reread it one year later. Granted, you need a Latin dictionary and a good book of annotations to thoroughly understand it, but this book has made me realize just what a waste my public rural high school education was--Ulysses is literary heaven and hell and propagator of autodidacticism and eschews all principles of what has ever been said to create this century's magnum opus. I am exactly one-hundred years younger than James Joyce (and Stephen Daedalus), and on the sixteenth of June in 2004 I plan to! take the route of Leopold Bloom to vicariously relive it. One thing to be forewarned about: it is highly addictive. I have developed Ulysses codependency, as will anyone who gets through it. My head aches after reading it, for it is the best kind of masterpiece, the kind that attacks physically and intellectually at once. It is vulgar, carnal, and base (for its time, that is) and at once completely holy and pure because it has allowed the world to start over. Joyce is the avant-garde. He is our master philosopher and psychiatrist, who wrote the book that will never be shredded.

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Summary: Ulysses the Greatest? View from an Irish Lass...
Review: I know that I'm being sacrilegious here (especially considering that I live in Dublin, and Joyce is our Patron Saint of Literature and Literary Pub Tours), but how this novel is always ranked among the top of the 'Greatest of the Greatest' lists totally escapes me. I personally don't think that Joyce can lay claim to writing a true literary masterpiece simply because the language is immensely challenging. I strongly suspect that the accolades come in part precisely because of the fact that Ulysses rises far above the language of the less-intellectual novels that grace today's best-seller lists, and there is only a certain breed of reader that will wrestle with such a monster and live to tell about it. Not to down-play the other reviews here (which I think are all valid), but this veneration of Joyce seems to have a slight odor of literary snobishness. I can think of many more modern classics that are written with such clarity that even the less 'intellectual' can grasp the depth of the work...and isn't that truly the hallmark of a premiere author?

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Summary: Borges and I
Review: Neither of us was able to get through this tome. For me, it had nothing to do with it being a difficult read; I simply was not rewarded enough to continue. Admirable, yes, but ultimately this is far from the finest novel of the English language.

It is time to say it: the Emperor is not wearing any clothes. There are better books. Read Faulkner or Reinaldo Arenas.

Rating:
Summary: The 2nd Greatest Novel Ever Written (Finnegans Wake the 1st)
Review: James Joyce is a genius in every sense of the word. Ulysses is my favorite book bar none; then comes The Portrait. However, Ulysses progressively becomes extremely hard to understand, so one needs to get a guide to help through the hard parts. I strongly suggest the Bloomsburg Book becuase it helped me so greatly and truely lets one understand what is behind this book; it shows Joyce's absolute genius-- for example the chapter of Oxen in the Sun is structured around embryonic growth which gets so detailed it is amazing. Joyce utalizes knowledge from his classes when he was thinking about going to med school. All and all, one needs to put in a great deal of time to completely enjoy this book; it took me a few months, but one will be so greatly rewarded when they take their time and think about what joyce says then just to read the book in a week to say that you've read it. It is worth every second of your time

Rating:
Summary: There is a place in France
Review: I cannot imagine sharing my opinion about an 800 page work of world class literature after having only read the relevant CliffsNotes as one of the other reviewers has done. Talk about boring. A fool by any other name. Any who, James Joyce's Ulysses is one of the great works of world literature. Period. That it requires some effort to partake in Joyce's genius is too bad for the lazy. We each have our role to play...

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Summary: A Tour-de-force of Literary Style! A Must-Read !
Review: Joyce flaunts and celebrates style in this book. There's a chapter written in the form of a play, a chapter imitating the development of English, a chapter written in question-and-answer form, a chapter without punctuation (the closing monologue, probably the most beautiful, life-affirming thing ever written), and a chapter written in the sentimental style of a girl's novel. There are countless other stylistic tricks, some of which an impatient reader will miss. Yes, "Ulysses" is a difficult book to read...but just stick with it, pay close attention, and you'll do fine - and in the end, the rewards of having read it will be worth the struggle. Other more recent novels I recommend are P by Conn, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Day
Review: Ulysses symbolizes the height of modernist writing, and in many ways, was the first to address post-modern issues- in it's fragmentation and pastiche of form.

Each chapter, which accounts for a particular time of day in chronological order (perhaps the only linear aspect of the book), appropriates a certain 'style', which addresses the 'consciousness' that Leopold Bloom, our hero, is undergoing.

For example, when Bloom is worried about his job at the newspaper, the chapter breaks into journalistic form, adapting headlines and soundbites, however comical and absurd.

Another example, when Bloom enters a brothel, and is pensive about being recognized, the chapter becomes a play, where all the characters are faceless and have taken on roles.

There is a tremendously humane and sad scene at the pub, where all of Bloom's friends talk and banter over him, not hearing the profound things he has to say. Bloom is a poet that doesn't know it, to borrow from Dylan's rhyme. He is a modest man, navigating his way through his banal day. He goes to a burial and daydreams the corpse rolling down the hill. A bar of soap melts in his pocket. He goes to the beach and looks at a girl. In the bath-tub, he notices his penis, floating like a water-lily. And that is why this book is so kind and rare: His day becomes beautiful through his eyes. Each banality and prosaic task becomes macro-cosmic and mythical in the way that it is written. Bloom's Odessey is to return home.

With each transition, Joyce continues to astonish the reader with how agile his writing is. The most genius part of the book is the penultimate chapter, in which Bloom and Stephan (the narrator in "Portrait of the Artist" and Joyce's alter-ego), enter the former's home, both drunk and lonely. Here, the chapter becomes Q & A form, a series of questions that are answered. Perhaps Bloom, eager to sustain Stephan's company, so late in the night, adopts the role as an interviewer, the way we ask meaningless questions to allude the awkward silence.

In the end, Bloom crawls into bed, and his stream of consciousness blends into that of his wife's, Molly. Here, readers enter her mind, and we discover what has been bothering poor and gentle and lovely Bloom all day.

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Summary: World Literature's Greatest Comic Book
Review: These are the things you will probably hear the most about James Joyce's great epic: ULYSSES is hard to read. ULYSSES is a masterpiece of 20th Century literature. ULYSSES requires a deep knowledge of Western Civilization. ULYSSES is the expression of modern man's heroic quest for meaning in a world without heroes or meaning. ULYSSES has to be read along with a dozen other books on how to read ULYSSES.

Much of this is true.

But what is omitted by reviewers, time after time, is the warm humor, born of Joyce's compassion for people, that surfaces on every page. From the obvious riddles told to and by the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, to the scholarly puns and tropes uttered by the narrators, ULYSSES can be seen as one great comic book. Listen closely to the words of the one-eyed Citizen in the "Cyclops" chapter. Pay attention to what the soldier screams just before he decks Stephen Dedalus. The dark humor surrounding Paddy Dignam's funeral is hysterical.

No, this doesn't mean ULYSSES is light reading--don't bring it along on your trip to the beach or the ski lodge. The novel makes many demands on the reader, as do many of the other works we consider milestones of literature. This doesn't mean you have to read it in a dusty library and takes notes on every page. The book is filled with lightness and life. The fact that it ends with the word "Yes" is the most obvious expression of ULYSSES' life-affirming attitude.

Certainly there are devestating moments that wrench your heart: Stephen's run-in with his pathetic father and Bloom's vision of the ghost of his son immediately come to mind. But for the most part, ULYSSES is a raunchy, rowdy, ride that makes the difficult parts easier to bear.

Rating:
Summary: Tepid waters
Review: This novel was OK, but I didn't feel like it was speaking to me. Then again, I was reading it in a VERY dark room, and I didn't pause for lunch. This is a long book.