Dubliners

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Summary: Good introduction to Joyce
Review: This book is a painless and inexpensive introduction to the works of James Joyce. The stories are much easier to read than the later works of Joyce. They are amusing and touching portraits of life in Ireland in in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Summary: Great stuff for connaisseurs
Review: From the first page on, I started to love this book and to adore James Joyce's style of writing. In fact, the stories build a unity, but every single story is also convincing on its own. How James Joyce reveals the paralysis that Dublin holds upon its inhabitants, is fantastic. The story that moved me most is "The Dead". This one scene is marvellous: When Gabriel Conroy sees his wife standing on the top of the first flight, leaning on the banisters, listening to some far away sound... When he "paints" this picture of hers, calling it "Distant Music". That's something that reaches one's heart. I was really touched by this feelings which Joyce let his main character create. It's obvious that I recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who're interested in the literature of the early 19th century.

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Summary: Liked it so much, I read it again.
Review: Little snippets of life among the Irish working class. I read this book for the first time in my early 20's. Although I enjoyed it then, I liked it even more ten years later. This is one of those books that you appreciate more when you have some life experiences to compare it with.

Good strong believable characters and a subtle writing style that let's you draw your own conclusions.

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Summary: Chinatown
Review: Arguably the most boring book ever written, Joyce excels here in causing premature napping in most of his readers. If he's not describing the cobblestone archways or the giant marshmallow who lives down the street, he is trying to convince us that Dublin is in Ireland. I'm not biting.

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Summary: Poetry as Prose
Review: This is a wonderful collection of stories by the unique James Joyce. This book reads like impressionism on paper, painting transcendent watercolors with language. Each story is a portrait of Dublin life, but the Dublin portrayed here could have been any city in the world, full of pain, joy, laughter, sadness, regret, and Humanity. This book is the best place to start with Joyce, because the narrative hasn't developed into the ambiguity found in later works such as Ulysses. For first-timers, Dubliners is the Joycean work that is most friendly and affecting. But it's still miles away from any other author's work (Including JOyce's own).

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Summary: Earthquake
Review: Like in a gloomy church filled with a misty and humid atmosphere, you quietly look for heavenly light to lead your path. As you search for the light switch, feelings of uneasiness and discomfort fill your heart. With fear in every joint of your body, you nervously feel the whole universe will collapse in just a few moments. While feeling your way through the squeezing darkness, the ground starts to tremble from underneath your undecided feet. Earthquake! Yelling and screaming for your life, no one is around. As the shaky church tumbles to the ground, you hope to hold on anything with foundation to save you from going down. Lying six feet in the ground, your only hope is Superman. You continue to struggle with hope of one day finding that light switch. This little story is the feeling I got while reading The Dubliners. The tonality of the book was very depressing throughout. Joyce does a splendid job of letting the reader know the Dubliners and their way of life. Alcohol was excellent in portraying the tranquility of the people and their suppressed lives. Joyce also used a variety of experiences to clearly display the negative tone and outlook on life by the Dubliners. As to the hope of one day finding that light switch, Joyce always gives hope to the reader with his beautiful usage of the English language. And I am not afraid of saying beautiful in describing Joyce's artistic usage of words. For me, he literally paints in the mind a picture of his stories. Joyce's masterpiece of words was the light, hope, and Superman of The Dubliners. The flowery descriptions are what kept me reading. All in all, I thought the book was a fine piece of work that teaches great lessons on real life. I lived in the Philippines for two years and the attitude of life was almost the same as the Dubliners. Alcohol and suppression were hindrances to progression. But living with Filipinos for two years, you learn a lot about trials and tribulations. It is very humbling to be a witness of a heavy-laden people with such great potential. At the same time, the Filipinos' or Dubliners' example helped me realize the great blessings of living in a free country like America. Freedom is sometimes taken for granted. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not always taken advantage of. As we read of the good, the bad, and the ugly, let us be wise and learn from the bad, take in all the good, and change the ugly to mugly. We will be happier as we pursue our potential in a place where we can. We should all be so thankful.

Rating:
Summary: Not reader friendly
Review: The book is a series of short stories about different groups of people in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce uses these short stories to expose the social wrongs and paralysis of morals around the turn of the 20th century in Dublin. All of the stories end in tragedy, sadness, or continuation of a previous wrong. James Joyce's Dubliners was an interesting book, to say the least. At times I riveted by its description and imagery, and at other times I was lulled to sleep by its lack of movement. I also felt that the dark, almost gothic, feel of the book pushed me away. I think, though, that the main reason that I didn't enjoy the book completely was because I feel that I missed a lot of the symbolism that Joyce intended to use to prove his points. One of the main issues that Joyce addressed was the saturation of alcoholism. The characters used alcohol as a "cure-all" for their problems. I am reminded of one story in which a man literally gets fired over his alcohol addiction. He thought that he couldn't meet his deadline for work so he gave up. He decided to go to the bar and drink. For no reason; he just wanted to drink. He ended up spending all the money that he and his family had. He came home in a drunken rage and beat his kid. That is the feeling surrounding Joyce's short stories. I think that Joyce was trying to prove a point about the things that he saw as problems during the time that he spent in Dublin. I don't like the way that he went about it. Either I don't understand it fully, or I just don't like the way he did it. His stories are full of description, but the plot in each of them moves very slowly; then it all falls apart quickly at the end in a tragedy. His writing didn't grab me as I expected it would. I almost fell asleep during most of the book. Then, as I get to the end of each short story, I feel sick about the way that he ended them. But then maybe that is the point that he is trying to show: that the people are so lulled by their problems that they don't notice them until it ends in tragedy. I think that he could have gone about making his points differently, though. I don't think that he took into account the reader. Most people didn't feel as adamant about the things that Joyce is exposing as he did, and I think that he needed to keep the reader interested along the way. I think that if he went about it this way he would get his point across in a more profound and impact full way. I think that it could be possible that the symbolism that Joyce used, if that is what he was trying to do, could have just been over my head. You have the feeling throughout the book that you are missing the point of how he is trying to communicate with you. At times you feel that he is just rambling for no reason and you want to know why he is saying what he is saying. It makes you feel lost as a reader. I hated that feeling. I think that if he was going to use symbolism, he should have made the meanings of things a lot more clear. For example, at the end of the book it starts snowing and you get the feeling that the snow is supposed to mean something as a symbol of how things are going to end or what the characters are going to do next in their life, but you don't know what. You are completely at a loss for what it was supposed to mean. Well, at least I was. It could have been done better. This book is hard to understand and not very uplifting, but I must admit that the description and imagery is extraordinary, sometimes to its downfall. I also think that this book could have been more reader friendly, but I did enjoy some of parts of the book: the parts that I understood. I would recommend this book to anyone that feels like they are up to the challenge of trying to understand Joyce's mysteries in his Dubliners, but if you are looking for an easy, uplifting read stay clear of this one because you will be thoroughly disappointed as I was.

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Summary: Dubliners
Review: When I first began to read this book I thought it was hard to understand, and it didn't seem very interesting. The first chapter was "The sisters." I read it carefully trying to understand everything to build a good foundation to be able to comprehend better the other chapters. But when I finally got to the second chapter, "An encounter," I realized that it had nothing to do with "The sisters." They were two completely different stories. However, the more I read the more I realized that the fifteen stories that comprise Dubliners, while different, contain many of the same themes and settings. Most of the characters in "Dubliners" belong to the middle and low Irish classes of the twentieth century. Something common among all the personages in the book is their inability to decide by themselves. The subordination to England and to the Catholic Church limits their freedom to choose how and where they want to live their lives. Most of the characters feel isolated and unworthy. In "After the Race," Jimmy feels as if he doesn't really fit in the community of the people he is living with. Irish's weaknesses and low motivation to leave the terrible situation they are in tempt them to escape from the real world through things like alcohol or dominance. In Dubliners the use of alcohol as a way of escape is very common among men. At the same time, women try to escape their situation by controlling their daughters' lives. Some examples of controlling mothers are seen in the "Boarding House" and in "Eveline." In the "Boarding House." Mrs. Mooney's (the mother) intentions are to get her daughter married to one of the clients at the boarding house regardless of her daughter's happiness. In "Eveline," the mother plays the role of an unhappy woman who forces her daughter to follow the same steps she did. The stories also have a symbolic meaning. The English dominance and the Catholic Church are sometimes exposed by symbols. For example, in "Araby," the dominance of the father over the family can be representative of the power of the English dominance and the Catholic Church over Ireland. Because of the dominance found throughout the book, the atmosphere in the novel is that of pessimism and darkness. There is a shadowy environment in most of the stories except in the last one, "the dead." The characters of "the dead" are mainly teachers. Their economical situation is better than the other characters' in the book. Christmas time and the white snow are both symbols of hope and progression. Christmas is usually associated with the birth of Jesus Christ and therefore hope. The white snow means cleanliness of the old, which would be progression. This is a novel meant to help you understand the Irish culture in the 1900's. It also will help you experience the feeling of oppression and dominance the Irish people had. Through the characters in the book you'll be able to see life from different perspectives, having always present the pressure of the twentieth century in Ireland, which is the main theme of the book.

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Summary: Life, People, and James Joyce
Review: Life is a system of interactions: interactions with school, work, church, and essential to all of these are interactions with people. Humans are unique in that they are intensely individualistic yet in their last days they take a more communal perspective and define the success of their lives based on the relationships they had with others. Some understand this long before those last days, and because they know that relationships make a life what it is, they try to understand people. While actually getting out and meeting with people is the best way to learn about them, there is a saying that states something to the effect of "learning from others without making the same mistakes that they did" is another good way to learn. Now, I am not sure what mistakes James Joyce may have made in his life, but from his novel, Dubliners, I can tell that he was an avid observer of people and is worth lending an ear to. His words are capturing and tell the story of humanity at its most base and intimate level. Though I may interact with people everyday, and want more of this interaction in order to feel more alive, when I read Dubliners, I felt more human and more united with the persona around me than I ever had before. Joyce is a master of the English language, but if one looks only at his entertaining and piercing rhetoric, one is missing the point. Of course, Joyce's words compliment his work, but I think the real secret behind his success is his knowledge of human nature. In my opinion, Joyce lived a full life. From his writings it was evident that he knew people. He could read their every move, their questioning eyes, or even the organization of their rooms and make a story of it. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people Joyce wrote of were inspired by one or two minute incidents that triggered a chain reaction of assumptions. Take for example A Painful Case. Joyce goes to great lengths to provide his readers with the slightest of details about the character's room. He explicitly states the many things that are made of iron. Is this intentional? Without a doubt. Joyce goes on and describes the desk, the smells, the bed sheets. Joyce knows people. He knows that something so simple as the way books are arranged on a shelf can reveal an impressive amount about the person being observed. Reading Dubliners lets you look into the mind of a genius, someone who can understand humanity and is willing to share that knowledge. In each of Joyce's stories, from Eveline to The Dead, Joyce invites the reader to hear the thoughts of his characters, to see the situations they are living in and to make judgments. It's almost as if readers are being asked to take a crash course in social work case studies, or even better, a crash course in life. Joyce amazingly allows the reader to experience the ups and downs of humanity without being discouraged by it. Though he may emphasize prevailing shortcomings like alcoholism, the reader cannot help but be inspired by the stories. How can depression be inspiring? As a fond reader of this novel, it reminded me of my own humanity and made me proud to be associated with mankind. I smile on our chance to choose and to act, and reading about those who took control of that uniquely human feature in the Dubliners reminded me that I have that same right to act for myself. We all may make mistakes, but who's to say that we cannot rebound. In my judgment, Joyce's tone throughout the book is one that praises humanity, even on its follies, for all of our experiences make us human. And in his closing pages Joyce reminds us that there is hope to achieve a greater future. Humans are grand creations. We can choose to fly or falter, and though life may seem overbearing sometimes, even the most boring, monotonous life can be transformed into a cherished collection of stories. Dubliners is just that, and Joyce is a masterful storyteller and observer of mankind. I feel that by reading this book I have gained a deeper understanding of human nature, and thereby life in general. Joyce's Dubliners will forever be a cherished book on my shelf. I wonder what that says about me? Any answers Joyce?

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Summary: A Voice to the Voiceless
Review: James Joyce's Dubliners is a fantastic novel. Not only is his mastery of the English language amazing but his subtle tone and format create an evoking suspense. I found my self pulled into the twisted and emotional world of Dublin and its people. Once I started one of the short stories I couldn't put it down. Each story gave great detail about it characters and its setting. Amazingly enough Joyce never left out a detail. I found myself transported to Dublin in the early 1900s. I became an intimate observer of the people and their actions. I came to know them and their thoughts or at least I thought I did. At the very end of each short story Joyce and his characters seemed to turn on me. They weren't who I thought they were and they revealed a side I didn't know existed. This side was awkward and scary but familiar. These twists gave me a brief insight into the true character of these people. I saw their human qualities; all of them especially the ones we don't want to see. The qualities even we hide from others. Each character in this novel introduces us or reminds us of unique human experiences. From the young to the old each one a new experience that evoke such emotion that its hard for even the strongest of hearts not to be effected. These experiences may not have been all that pleasant but neither was the life in Dublin. Joyce certainly shows that in his stories. But one must remember that the bad experiences are part of life. How are we to know the good unless we experience the bad? In the end some still might find this book to be dull and boring. I know a few and I can only tell them they need to look at it in another light. James Joyce himself said one of the purposes of this novel was to give the Dubliners "one good look at themselves." So in essence Joyce was not only writing a story for entertainment but a documentary for education. All documentaries have three main purposes. The first is to seek to exalt ordinary people in their ordinary experiences. Joyce showed us they were ordinary and sometimes less. Yet he brought them our level or us to theirs' and showed us their human experiences. By doing this we see how they truly are and they also give us insight into our own lives. The second purpose is to give a voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless. Joyce gave the people of Dublin power by giving them a voice. Through this novel the people of Dublin were able to speak out to the world and to show them how life really is for them and perhaps how to avoid such drama in our own lives. The third and final objective of documentaries is more of an idea. The idea that through tribulation we receive transcendence. The characters of this novel certainly did go through tribulation and now that we have record of it and of their humanistic experiences they will never die. We will forever have a record of these people and what they went through. This novel was a masterpiece not only for its writing but also for its insight. I found it to be provocative and suspenseful. I would suggest reading and keeping such a novel forever. So if anyone out there is looking for enlightenment Dubliners is your vessel.