From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce

Start date: June 1, 2021

Finish date: June 30, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: June 2021 Completist Selection
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What Members Thought

Jul 16, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, novels, classics, fiction, irish-20th-c

I read this back in high school (and a few times since) and it blew my mind. The textual maturity grows as Stephen Daedalus grows and it is absolutely captivating. The scene where his knuckles are beaten in class (thank goodness we have moved beyond corporal punishment in schools for the most part!) was so real that my hands ached. You of course see Stephen Daedalus again in Stephen Hero as well as Ulysses.
A must read.

141 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2015 Matthew rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, required-reading-high-school, general-fiction, 2021, read-more-than-once, completist-book-club

First read back in High School – 2 Stars

Reread as an adult – 4 Stars

This is a Bildungsroman – that is a word I always think sounds fun but I always forget what it means. I only realized this book is one because of my followup review of it on Wikipedia for extra facts. For those who are like me and think it is a fun word but can’t always place how to use it, it is “a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood . . . . in which chara ...more

87 likes · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2020 Tom rated it really liked it

An in depth look through the narrator's eyes of early turn of the century Roman Catholic Dublin Ireland and the conflicts it created with the narrator's sensitive artistic soul and intellectual mind. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 21, 2022 Summer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: a-z-of-classics-readalong, avant-garde-vanguards

A-Z of Classics Readalong - J

Well, that was a unique reading experience.

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I really love the idea behind this novel, there was so much of it that was new to me when reading. It's the first novel where the character has started as a 5-year-old and finished as a 20-year-old (roughly). I really love getting to know a character and their development in-depth like that.

Stephen was mostly likeable. I liked him as a kid, he was really sweet and how he thought of women and love in such a tender and roman A-Z of Classics Readalong - J

Well, that was a unique reading experience.

--
I really love the idea behind this novel, there was so much of it that was new to me when reading. It's the first novel where the character has started as a 5-year-old and finished as a 20-year-old (roughly). I really love getting to know a character and their development in-depth like that.

Stephen was mostly likeable. I liked him as a kid, he was really sweet and how he thought of women and love in such a tender and romantic way was really sweet. And he's a deep-thinker, an intellectual who is always questioning and mulling over life and what it means and what it stands for, and I really liked reading about a character like that. I'm someone who also does that, I enjoyed the stream-of-consciousness that was albeit confusing, but I read a study guide along with it which kept it making sense to me, and I'm someone who is a big back-and-forth/random thinker/talker, so it was nice to be able to read a narrative like what goes on in my mind!

But sometimes Stephen, and the book, wasn't likeable. That middle section where we had to read reams and reams of content/rants about hell, and then Stephen himself turns overly religious- I saw a comment on the GR Status Updates where someone said 'I think the whole of Ch3/4 was ironic', which is true and funny, but was still tedious to read. Also Stephen himself turned dislikeable when he started going to 'harlots' like! What happened to sweet Stephen who revered women?? He also turned into a bit of an arrogant arse aswell...

But then it brought it back at the end of Ch4 because that whole end of the chapter was beautiful and I was listening to a Harry Potter music playlist and it had just hit a really beautiful/inspiring part of the playlist at the same time I was reading it and it made a really nice moment. And then
in Ch5 I did like (as someone who occasionally writes poetry) that we got to see what he was thinking and feeling, and how that translated into him writing a poem- that was such a fun and enjoyable idea.

I also learnt a lot about Irish history, which considering I'm part Irish (but idk that side of the family at all) I should probably know about it, but anyway I've learnt more now! It was really interesting getting Stephen's (arrogant) perspective on the fact that Ireland was actually colonised, but the arrogance that he blamed his ancestors for losing their language and that he shouldn't have to repay their debts by learning it... Stephen 😭 I don't think cultural assimilation is that easy to fight. But I did like the fact that he wasn't a blind nationalist, by nature I don't like the concept of nationalism I like to think of the world as one place, and I liked that he was brave enough to question the status quo and point out the hypocrisy and irony of peoples/societies views. Commendable.

The way the writing level goes up in correspondence with his age was really interesting, but the downside of this is that Stephen/Joyce started to make me feel... really dumb. But hey, we can't all be philosophical geniuses right?

I'm really excited to get to see Stephen in Ulysses though, the novel ended with the official end of his childhood, he's about to fly the nest, experience the world, and I'm excited to get to see what he makes of it!

3.9 stars (lost points for those middle chapters, but rounded up for the novelties of the work) ...more

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Nov 13, 2021 K rated it really liked it

Knowing Ulysses is purportedly both the most difficult and best book in the English language intimidated me from pursuing anything written by James Joyce. After learning that this particular title was less linguistically avant-garde and semi-autobiographical, I gave it a go. Making it through this book proved to be both pain and pleasure. Pain, getting through some of the Irish vernacular, unreadable Latin passages, and several long paragraphs that required reading multiple times for comprehensi ...more

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