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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce, Seamus Deane
by James Joyce, Seamus Deane
An semi-autobiographic novel, featuring a fictionalized character as Joyce's alter-ego, it traces his formative childhood years that led him ambivalently away from a vocation in the clergy and into that of literature.
There are sections which appealed to me (a priestly sermon on the damnation of ones soul into hell is particularly vivid), but by and large the plot line was too disjointed for me to engage with. Uncertain of exactly where I had been or what path the novel was taking me, I found myself struggling through long pages in search of moments of clarity.
There were moments where Joyce's deft handling of the english language carried me away from my confusion over the plot line, but unfortunately these were not frequent enough for me to forgive the novel as a whole. There were few, if any, characters that were developed well enough to carry my interest and advance the plot.
As I neared the end of Portrait I felt cheated. One of the reasons I had selected this novel was the desire to read a classic of modern literature (it is ranked #3 on the modern language's top novels of the 20th century), and ultimately I was left questioning my ability to grasp the depths of this novel.
For a well written review espousing a contrary opinion refer to Mohsen, 17Dec07.
There are sections which appealed to me (a priestly sermon on the damnation of ones soul into hell is particularly vivid), but by and large the plot line was too disjointed for me to engage with. Uncertain of exactly where I had been or what path the novel was taking me, I found myself struggling through long pages in search of moments of clarity.
There were moments where Joyce's deft handling of the english language carried me away from my confusion over the plot line, but unfortunately these were not frequent enough for me to forgive the novel as a whole. There were few, if any, characters that were developed well enough to carry my interest and advance the plot.
As I neared the end of Portrait I felt cheated. One of the reasons I had selected this novel was the desire to read a classic of modern literature (it is ranked #3 on the modern language's top novels of the 20th century), and ultimately I was left questioning my ability to grasp the depths of this novel.
For a well written review espousing a contrary opinion refer to Mohsen, 17Dec07.
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Jeff
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Sep 08, 2012 03:18pm
I totally agree with your assessment.
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I too agree. On the other hand, maybe it is our ability to grasp the depths of this novel that is lacking--just sayin'.
I'm sure there is some of that, but there are plenty of difficult books I've read that made me want to figure them out, whereas this one was not enjoyable or interesting enough for me to care.
I think if you understand the constructs of de-lineation in post-modern literature and are well versed to 'read' the stream of conscious thoughts of Joyce as he meanders from idea to thought backwards and forwards jumping years or days then the difficulties in negotiating the plot take second to the intricacies of the writing which itself is a precise and emotional view of language and how we think. Proust says it a lot better than me. It's not an easy book to read. If you want easy there is Twilight or 50 Shades or even one of the many modern fiction authors you can buy for $1 at any trade sale. What Joyce does is give is a lesson in thinking and how we express sub consciously how thinking. It's just difficult for us mere mortals to grip it simply because we think differently to the way we speak which is different to the way we converse which is not how we interact.
