Dubliners (Unabridged)

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Summary: A poignant, unflinching portrait of life
Review: I had never read Joyce before, but I picked this book up and...I'm converted. The short stories hit their marks perfectly, with no wasted words. Can't wait to read it again!

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Summary: A wonderful collection of short stories
Review: If you read this book for no other reason, read it for the last short story -- The Dead. It is the most haunting and beautiful story I have ever read. It explores the human psyche, relationships between men and women, and the Irish-English conflict in social gatherings. Joyce is an amazing writer.

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Summary: I thought that Dubliners was great at 20. I now know that
Review: at 31 it's better. In my opinion the best story is "A Painful Case", which transcends a simple story of man meets woman...and becomes the most exquisite narrative of an introvert coming to grips with his own illusions. But it's all great...truly great, at least for a poorly educated American to understand.

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Summary: The best book ever written?
Review: What can I say? Within the pages of this modest, slim volume is everything a young writer needs to know about writing. IT'S ALL THERE. I've been reading this book once a year for 12 years and it's poetry, compassion, acute observation and sheer economy blows me away every time. And as for the characters, they are so real it scares me. You may end up preferring other books, but you will never be given such a clear glimpse of how good a Masterpiece can be.

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Summary: "The Dead" is perfect
Review: As far as I'm concerned, for depth of insight and wisdom into the foibles of humanity, Joyce never topped "The Dead." It is certainly the greatest short story written in the English language -- heartbreaking and immensely moving. It will never leave me. "The Dead" alone would be reason enough to buy "Dubliners" (if you've never read it before) but the other stories are also wonderful. His most accessible work by far.

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Summary: Great Stories
Review: Great writing - enthralling, captivating, etc. I can't give enough praise to this work. If you haven't read it, you should.

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Summary: Poetry in prose
Review: Dubliners is one of the books that has accompanied me all over the world. I cannot be totally objectif in a review of these collection of stories . I can say two things, though: for non-english speakers who are currently learning English, I suggest their reading Dubliners in its original language. Once they do it, they will know why I said so. And that the music, the poetry present in every line of this fantastic prose, to depict a moment of revelation (or epiphanies, as Joyce liked to call them) in the life of all those dubliners reaches moments of absolute perfection, like the final paragraph of "The dead" and its unforgettable image of snow "falling faintly and faintly falling" all over Ireland.

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Summary: Dubliners' Unforgettable Characters
Review: James Joyce's Dubliners has been described as a commentary on the moral and physical decay of Dublin. But if you have read it, you know that it is never wholly negative and often quite humorous -- somehow Joyce makes a series of human failures into an affirmation of existence. This is largely due to finely drawn characters. Gestures, idiosyncrasies and turns of phrase bring them to life; never stereotypes, but types that we know. When I first read Dubliners, my favorite story was "Araby." In it, the young protagonist becomes infatuated with a friend's sister and promises to buy her a present at the Araby bazaar, a promise that quickly becomes an all-consuming obsession. After a series of frustrating setbacks, the boy finds himself at the bazaar a few minutes before closing time staring uncertainly at a stall whose "great jars stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance." Everything, from his late departure to the patronizing tone of the clerk, seems to mock his once-coveted errand -- which leads to the epiphany encapsulated in my favorite line: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." What a perfect description of adolescent angst. Characters in the other stories are equally memorable. Meet Mrs. Kearney of "A Mother," who appreciates her husband "in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed." And Little Chandler in "A Little Cloud," whose smallness is conveyed by "the half-moons of his nails [which] were perfect and when he smiled you caught a glimpse of a row of childish white teeth." A great introduction to Joyce and a book to read over and over again.

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Summary: Dublin reality
Review: Having glanced at some of the reviews preceeding mine, I should note that I am not a literary scholar or student, and I have no special understanding of post modernism or other literary currents. I just stumbled across the book and read it as I would any other book, and my review is based on no more insight than what a regular reader would have.
Disclaimer having been duly posted, on with the review:
The stories themselves are brief images of lives in Dublin in the late 18, early 19 hundreds. These I divide generally into two types of stories: intimate and detached.
The intimate ones put you in the place of one of the characters. You share their experience and their thoughts as the story unfolds around them. The story, however, is often more of a non-story; simply a slice of life, which may or may not be mundain, depending on the story. These stories are no different in concept than other daily-life short stories by other authors.
The detatched stories, on the other hand, are different. One could go so far as to say that if the concept of "reality TV" existed back then, they would probably be a manifestation of it. These stories put the reader as an observer on the side, looking in with the lense of Joyce's eloquent writing. In some of the stories, in fact, you get little insight into the minds of other characters than what is interpreted from their mannerism, facial expressions, body language, and so on. In some cases you get a brief occational view of the main character's general beliefs, but in "Ivy day in the committee room", for example, you are exposed to none of the inner workings of any of the characters. The readers feel as though they are another person in the room, sitting silently on a couch in the corner, looking around and simply taking everything in. You know nothing at all of what goes on in the minds of the other participants in the room. Instead, you get a detailed description of the sights, the sounds, the motions, the talk, the mood and the atmosphere.

This role of detached observance which I as a reader found myself was one I was not accustomed to in books; it is a role one assumes more often when reading a play or watching a movie. In literature, it takes some getting used to. For such form to work with a story, exposition is key, and fortunately, Joyce is masterful. You really feel in the story (albeit as an observer); sensing what the characters sense, feeling what they do. You can read their faces to try and understand what they are thinking, filling in yourself what is not explicitly stated.

Unfortunately, this is not always enough. The problem with real life is that, for the most part, it is boring and mundain. Most of our days are routine and would not likely interest anyone spying in on us. We could probably find a portion of our life that would interest others if we told them about it, but we would have to choose carefuly, or our listeners would lose interest. In the choice of some of the stories, I felt that Joyce had perhaps been too casual; literally, nothing happens. I finished these stories feeling that they were cut short of their actual end, and wondering if I missed the point. It was as though someone had told me about their day - woke up, brushed teeth, had breakfast, etc - nothing outside routine. Regardless of how well the story is told, at the end of it, you are left wondering, "why did he tell me this?"

Still, the vividness of details leads you through the stories, even when you don't understand their purpose; the ones who's point I could understand were good, even excellent. It is a good experience of a culture, place, people and era I was unfamiliar with, and enough interesting stories in this collection to make it an enjoyable read, especially for people who enjoy good narration.

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Summary: Great for Narratology studies, but otherwise mediocre
Review: Like many, I had to read this book as part of the requirements for my freshman course on narrative fiction in college. I was not impressed. Sure, for analysis on character portrayal techniques and center of consciousness theory, Dubliners is a useful and convenient tool; but as an example of brilliant writing, it falls very short. The fact of the matter is that some stories are better than others and to judge the book as a single work is a grievous mistake. It's surprizing there has not been a formal study of the many flaws in this book.