Ulysses

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Summary: A day in the life of Stephen Dedalus and Dublin.
Review: Ulysses begins where A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man left off. Stephen Dedalus has left Ireland only to return to his dying mother. Just because you've read and understood Portrait, don't expect Ulysses to come quite as easily. It's rough going in spots but well worth the effort of getting through. In the process you will be taken through 783 pages that encompass less than a twenty-four hour period in the life of Stephen, the Blooms and Dublin. And what a day it is. Everything you might imagine happens, and much more than you ever could imagine also occurs. From the uneasy start of Stehpen's day to his boring job as a teacher he plods through his mind as he tries to plod through his life. In the course of the day a man dies, a woman gives birth, Stephen finds himself at the library discussing his theories of Shakespeare, Hamlet, and that paternity may very well be legal fiction. Also during this same day Leopold Bloom is going about his routine business in Dublin and finally fatherless Stephen meets sonless Bloom. They venture off into the night world where the present and past hallucinate in a theatre of the mind living nightmare that culminates with Bloom taking Stephen under his wing. And while all this was going on, Mrs. Bloom, Molly has had her own sort of day. The Blooms have an odd relationship yet manage to maintain a bond through their thoughts that neither of them does well in putting into words to one another. Whatever they do, they do with full thought and awareness of the other. What makes this book so terrific is the wide ranges in style that Joyce uses. Each episode is like a novel in itself. There is no boredom or tediousness to get through, the main thing that makes it difficult are the constant allusions and references that Joyce makes that may have you wondering at times just what is going on. There are a number of good books to refer to while reading Ulysses and they can make it easier, but even without them, it's worth plunging forward and reading it all. The novel covers every part of human existance from the banal to the sublime. You will not be in doubt as to what these people are feeling or thinking, their stream of inner consciousness takes up most of the book. And what's great about that is in finding out what these people are about you can learn something about yourself that you were not previously aware of.

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Summary: yes yes yes Leopold yes
Review: Incredibly to us, from our "modern" vantage point, "Ulysses" was at one point suppressed in most of the civilized world for its supposedly raunchy sex scenes. Today, we can see that his fiction worked on much higher levels: his portrayal of sex (and other things) is more inventive than Miller's, more subversive than Mappelthorpe's. Joyce's intention is no less than to create an entire mental universe; his novel is a potent artistic answer to the philosophical question, "Do we really exist?"

Leopold Bloom, the hero of the story, is a completely ordinary man; but Joyce's combination of words and the proliferation of cross-connections between the current word and the next illustrate that there is often little connection between *what* we think and the *words* we think. So Joyce is in effect trying to write a novel without words; he wants to get into the stream of Bloom's thought directly, without preface or interference.

Though most would agree that this is a "difficult" novel -- perhaps the first book to attempt to break the limits of language -- it is a must-read. Bring the book on a picnic, along with your dictionary and a lot of time. The famous final chapter is worth all the work.

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Summary: --Introibo ad altare Dei
Review: I wrote this review previously w/ my other Amazon account but now that I changed email addresses, I'm going to publish this review in this account

Ulysses is considered by me to be the greatest book ever written. Now the following review is just the very basic storyline, in order to even begin to fathom the magnitude of it's magnificence, you need to read the other reviews and so here it is. It describes in florid detail a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly and Stephen Dedalus, a young would-be-writer -- a character based on Joyce himself. Bloom, a Jewish advertising salesman, spends the day wandering through the streets and offices, pubs and brothels of 1904 Dublin

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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."

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Summary: Kidneys, infidelity, and parenthood
Review: Reading Ulysses is a different experience for everyone. One thing is for certain - it is a difficult,long read. It is also, strangely, very hard to put down and it leaves you searching for meaning and just in a state of complete wonder. Amazingly, Joyce is able to convey each character's thoughts and dialect in a way that has never been achieved by anyone else. It feels almost as if each character was composed by a different author - they are so unique and detailed. Though I cannot express much of anything that has not already been said - let me make one recommendation to the reader of Ulysses - read something to help you through it (even cliff notes) and also read the Odyssey again - you will find this very helpful in navigating through this remarkable text.

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Summary: A brilliant work of literature or load of crap?
Review: First of all I tried to like and understand this book.

I have read 200 pages of something that is really boring because some people kept on claiming that it is brilliant. At the moment I don't find it nessesary to read it any furder.

But here are the conclussions I have made.

Why this book is interresting:

-The stream of consience idea is great, really. I love it.
-I also love the idea that he descided to write about some of the things no sensibele writter would have ever written about. Like how Bloom went to the toilet or mastrubated.

Why this book is a load of crap:

-Way to long (I have nothing against long books and I have read quite a lot of books and I love Homer, Dante, Shakespear, Milton, Orwell, Huxley, Poe, Bulgakov, Plato, Swift, Nietzsche, Dickens, Asimov and many more so I do know a bit about litterature) this book should have ended whit the third chapter.
-It lacks a plot. I am not saying that there has to be a overlingly complicated story behind it but it should have some directionlines.
-The languege. Joyce seems to want to point out the whole time how good he knows English and that is very irretating.
-It has no real meaning. I know that people have looked for one but all they have come up whit where some things like it is an epic of the body (well describing how someone goes to the toilet could hardly be discrived as epic. The also spoke about the complex intriging monologs and the praise of the mind (well the just say a lot of things and never seem to be able to think in a straigt line for longer than 3 min. And finally the the so cold new light that Joyce shines on myths. The mostly bring up Odysseus whit this one. Well people seek for Odysseus in this book because Joyce told them to do so.
-Almost anybody could have written this book.

I would also like to point out that when it was released all the people who love this book now (writters and proffesors) hatted this book. If it had never ben forbidden it would have just been forgotten like it perhaps should.

I would like also to say that I didn't stopt reading tis book because it was to difficult but because it was borring. For after all I have read Paradise lost in the orriginal and I do find it difficulter to read that this one.

Perhaps it is just so difficult to read because it is borring has anyone thought about that?

(Excuse me for my English.)

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Summary: To read the words is to read the man
Review: I was intimidated at the bulk of ULYSSES, I must admit. But i found myself shocked by it's radiating brilliance. The book is a labor to read, one often has to re-read a paragraph or (god forbid) a chapter to allow the work to truly flow and make sense. Joyce uses beautiful detailed writing of the human mind, all of our peculiar little idiosyncracies and actions that define us as human beings.
The greatest feat I've had in my young life is reading the last page and closing the book. You sit back and for hours are confounded as to the brilliance and success of Joyce to write the actions of two characters in a day. Each thought, each subconscious connection and little bits of thinking and reacting are somehow branded into the pages of ULYSSES. I dont think i will ever read such a significant work again. It is bold, it is at times monotonous, at times incoherent, but there are some golden pages were you are sucked into the writing, for the words on the page are your thoughts, your fantasies, your raw human nature.
It took me a month to read the book, i read it in the midst of depression and suicidal thoughts. I was able to lose myself in ULYSSES, i was able to walk the streets with Dedalus and Bloom. I was able to sit on the beach and watch the dog sniff around for something he had lost in a past life time. It is a masterpiece while being imperfect, which is an awful lot like being a human being.

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Summary: You may have fooled the others...
Review: but you don't fool me.

It seems that there are three types of Ulysses reviewers out there:

Type 1: "This book is a work of genius that requires great effort, rigor, and intellect in order to digest."

Type 2: "This book is way too smart for me, but I THINK it's good. Everyone says its good, so I'm probably just too dumb to understand. When I read the Cliff's Notes it helped."

Type 3: "Why the f@$k should I "read" something by someone who didn't take the time to "write" something? This is stream-of-consciousness at its most unreachable and unrewarding. This is a slap in the face to Aldous Huxley, Philip Dick, KV, etc. Books by those authors are actually ENLIGHTENING and furthermore, ENJOYABLE(!!!!) to read."


Guess which type of reviewer I am and win a prize.

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Summary: On faith
Review: I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This book is not for the casual reader.

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Summary: a true classic
Review: I tried to read Ulysses when I was about 20. I couldn't get into it. The stream of consciousness put me off completely Now I'm over 60 and I greatly enjoyed the book. I could hardly put it down. The writing is beautiful. I just had to go out and get a gorgonzolia sandwitch with a glass of burgundy.