Is James Joyce's Ulysses the hardest novel to finish?

Be careless with your wishes: A Igoni... Enough's enough – authors can't work ...

Is James Joyce's Ulysses the hardest novel to finish?

James Joyce died 75 years ago this week, leaving a lifetime of books beloved by many... and Ulysses, heralded as both the best novel in the English language and the hardest to read. So what do you do if you get stuck?

When James Joyce finished writing Ulysses, he was so exhausted that he didn’t write a line of prose for a year. I can believe it; I needed a nap after reading 40 pages.

For the last three months, I’ve glared at its fat, lumpen form on my floor with a vague sense of personal failure. I’ve opened Ulysses twice, determined to finish it, and achieved getting all the way to page 46 (it’s a bit longer than that). I have read so little both times I started that I have never bothered with a bookmark; it seemed too sad flagging such a hollow achievement.