Robert McTague answers “I have tried reading this book twice but...”

Deepak Pitaliya asked this question about Ulysses:

I have tried reading this book twice but could not get past 30-40 pages. I even read Iliad and Odyssey before starting this book as the book is supposed to draw some parallel with Odyssey. Is it readable?

Robert McTague Deepak--don't know if it's too late, but wanted to recommend one other resource: It's called The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires. I have the Giff…moreDeepak--don't know if it's too late, but wanted to recommend one other resource: It's called The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires. I have the Gifford, Gilbert and Ulysses Annotated texts--those are great scholarly works--but the Blamires book is the one to use if you want to just follow along and understand, in common language, WTF is going on. It also makes the story more relatable and deeply human (something Joyce was good at, yet overlooked for).

Ulysses is not for every reader. Still, it is disappointing that so many respondents inserted their own, clearly worldly, opinions about unreadable or bad literature. I'll simply say that reading Ulysses is an undertaking--Joyce stated publicly that it was meant to be so--and so, the reader must accept, going in, that this is the case. Please don't feel too compelled to perceive it in ways one is used to with all other books (yet, try to read Gravity's Rainbow sometime. No easier). No one--not even John Kidd--can claim to have uncovered all of its mysteries, and no one ever will. It also, unless read several times, requires more analysis than simple reading as you go along...and that, admittedly, is not for everyone. Yet, that aspect of its aesthetic alone makes it intriguing and worth consideration (just think of it as an expedition, not an armchair stretch)--even if it's not an entirely enjoyable book (user experience may vary). Good luck, if I'm not too late!(less)

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