erock's review
Ulysses by James Joyce
erock's review
rating:
bookshelves: makes-brain-hurt---
recommended for: the astute
status: Read in October, 1996
rating:
bookshelves: makes-brain-hurt---
recommended for: the astute
status: Read in October, 1996
Well, I have tried and tried to 'get into' Joyce. Actually, to be more frank, I have tried and failed to 'get into' Joyce. Mostly I find Joyce irritating at best, mind numbing at worst. I will be the first person in the history of literature to say out loud that, "I don't get it and I don't care."
The last time I tried to read this book, I really tried hard. I went all out! Had some extra literary criticism with me to help make sense of the whole debacle and I sat down one cool October evening with a glass of gin on ice and picked up where I left off the day before.
The next thing I know, I'm waking up the next day, apparently having drunk myself silly and fallen asleep. If anything, Joyce expected the reader to enjoy a few, but if that's what it takes to get through that book then ... yeesh, I don't want to.
You're not alone--and in a way you're not the first. Read Dale Peck's book review collection Hatchet Jobs. He pretty much dismisses all of Joyce's work in one of his essays.
