Rating: 
Summary: Mission Accomplishable
Review: O.k. to start with...for all of you out there who are interested in reading "Ulysses" but are intimidated by all of the rest of you out there who say it's unreadable, take my advice. Read this book. It's absolutely ridiculous to say this book can't be read. I can't say you're going to find it interesting or enjoyable, but you can read it.There are people who would have you believe you have to wage a massive campaign of pre-"Ulysses" study before delving into Joyce's novel. I've heard it's necessary to read biographies of Joyce, read all of his other literature, read about the history of Dublin, read Greek mythology...even study Dublin city maps!!! Don't you believe any of this. "Ulysses" is perfectly approachable having read none of the above. I admit that reading "Portrait of the Artist" first is helpful, and at least having some passing knowledge of "The Odyssey" won't hurt, but being familiar with these other works will only help you appreciate some of Joyce's nuances. Being unfamiliar with them will not prevent you from digesting "Ulysses." Now, for the book itself. Is "Ulysses" good? That's become an almost irrelevant question to ask. Do you have to like "Ulysses?" No. Do you have to admit that it is the greatest novel ever written? No. Anyone denying that the book was influential in altering the course of literature would just be foolish. However, I don't think "Ulysses" is the be-all and end-all of 20th Century literature, and the new ground that Joyce broke would have been broken anyway had he not done it first. He was certainly an innovator, but other authors (Faulkner comes to mind) use Joyce's modernist approach to fiction and do it better. For ultimately, Joyce is a lousy storyteller. Notice I did not say he is a lousy writer. One can't deny the absolute mastery of language apparent in "Ulysses." But Joyce is almost completely unable to connect with his reader. Parts of this novel come close to doing just that, but in between there are vast numbers of pages of dull, dull prose that set out to be as incomprehensible as possible. What was Joyce afraid of? Was he scared that what he actually had to say wasn't either particulary interesting or profound, so he had to bury it underneath layer after layer of obscure allusions and writing styles? I didn't understand every part of "Ulysses," and I don't believe all of these so-called Joyce experts do either, despite the massive amount of critical study done about it. However, understanding every single part of the novel and understanding the novel are two different things, and I believe I understood "Ulysses." And what I found is that it's not the beast everyone's made it out to be, but neither is it particulary interesting or profound. In short, I would recommend that everyone read "Ulysses," if for no other reason than that you can have an opinion on it. I won't be reading it again, so I guess I'll have to just live in ignorance of all the hidden delights Joyce offers his readers. I neither loved it or hated it---there are many books I've enjoyed reading less and many more books I've enjoyed reading much more. Before reading "Ulysses" I was reluctant to state that I didn't like Joyce's writing, feeling that any opinion about Joyce without having read his masterwork would be uneducated. Well, I've read the damn thing now, and I can state with a very educated opinion: "I do not like Joyce's writing."
Rating: 
Summary: It is a great book after all
Review: This is in the eyes of most literary critics the greatest novel of the twentieth century, and a major addition to the Western literary Tradition. So much has been said about it in so many ways that I will free to chip in my less than two cents without doing the reviewer's ordinary task of describing the work, and telling the reader what it is all about. Bloomsday is a day on the literary calendar of the world. And Daedalaus, and Leopold Bloom and Molly are with K. and Falstaff, and Sancho and Pickwick in the cast of world - literary creations whose image is part of the collective human consciousness generation to generation as most real human beings are not.
Ulysses is not easy to read even if one takes a Gilbert Stuart or some other modern guide , and figures out what each section with its own separate style, technique, theme parallel in the Odyssey is all about. And there are parts and not simply small parts which bore in their incomprehensibility as only Finnegans Wake will exceed. But there are also, and this is all through the work great lyrical passages of course culminating in Molly Blooms yes I said I will yes. There is too I suppose the particular pleasure of trying to figure out all these literary mysteries and these hidden hints in the multi- layered language of the text. Already Joyce here is moving toward the creation of his own language and the portmanteau and pun principles are richly at work. In Oxen of the Sun he writes the history of the English language parodying its styles. And the whole theme of parodying rewriting alluding to the great work, and somehow superseding it are in the frame of the work ( Before Bloom and before Daedalus there was a real Ulysses) Joyce's effort to write in one day the whole of human experience and to make too of the form of catalogue encyclopedia a higher way to art is part also of the transformation of popular forms into the highest art forms. Shakespeare did it on many levels and so must Joyce, as Hamlet Daedalaus reminds it. Ulysses at publication time was revolutionary to many in its putting on the page the lusts and obscenities , the sexual thoughts and even ' experiences' of its characters. It too broke the frame of convention in a whole host of other ways including through the shifting centers of its narrative consciouosness- the way it tells and does not tell its story. The sheer lyric musical beauty of Joyce's prose is poetry at its best .And the epiphanies on oval leaves are revelations of the beauty in language itself its sheer joyful joycean playing. And how can I having read through with dismay so much of the hidden and not so hidden anti- Jewish character of so many in the Tradition not be hearted by the warm feeling which flows toward the good souled Leopold Bloom. If I were to complain about graduate school time reading through the longest longeurs in Joyce I would nonetheless always keep in mind that one wee bit of an Irishladdie allalone went out there and by himself only made a masterpiece all mankind can make its own by reading and rereading before running on to riverun from bend of bay to swerve of shore past Howth Castle and environs
Rating: 
Summary: Der, I like stories!
Review: This is one of those books that "smart" people like to "read." Well if being smart means liking this, count me out! I don't know if it's modern, post-modern or what: but I know this much, I'd rather just curl up with "Bridges of Madison County" for a good cry! I don't understand why such a 'great' author can't seem to come up with a straightfoward plot that makes sense. I'd like to have seen Leopold patch things up with Molly, am I right? I mean, let's get down to brass tacks: don't we all hate those intellectuals who consider this one of the century's 'finest works of literary craft'? I mean these are the people who put "Citizen Kane" in the top ten...and totally ignored "Life as a House"! (No offense, but Orson Welles is no Kevin Kline!) Unless Oprah puts it on her book list, I won't be picking this one up again, that's for sure.
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