Books of Literature by Nobel Prize Winning Authors: 2020 Challenge discussion
The Dubliners by James Joyce
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review of the book and James Joyce
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Tracey
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Sep 25, 2016 10:57PM
What is your final review of the book as a whole and as Joyce as a writer? Have you read his works before? Would you read any of his other works?
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I did not read The Dubliners with this group because I read Ulysses last year. Ulysses was an intriguing book, but certainly not one of the " greatest novels" ever written. I prefer Thomas Hardy every time.
My daughter read the book when she was in university and told me she found that many of the stories were sad.
Rosemarie wrote: "My daughter read the book when she was in university and told me she found that many of the stories were sad."I agree. It has a sadness throughout. My review is to follow.
These 15 stories of people in Dublin at the beginning of the last century were well written. Joyce defined his characters expertly and I felt I came to know these people and had a small glimpse of their life, their hopes, fears, struggles and inner demons. Joyce seemed to focus on the lower middle class but others of other classes passed in and out of the stories also.I went to Ireland back in 1999 and having experienced the hospitality of the people I wanted to know more of them. If you want to know a people, then look at their history and journey to where they are now. And read books by the very people who experienced this journey first hand. Dubliners certainly gave me some of that insight.
Religion, living conditions, unemployment, vices and family concerns are threaded in with the narrative. Political, religious and financial struggles seemed to be the cause of opposition and violence for these people.
The stories start with a death and end with a death. Death seemed to be the connection the stories had to each other. A death or loss of innocence, affection, hopes, status and belief runs in each of the stories.
A quote I liked:
we are living...in a thought-tormented age, and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hyper educated, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belonged to an older age.
That seems to sum up the book; that Joyce was showing us a better age even though the people had a lot of struggles, and that this age was dying.
I would read another book by Joyce. Not sure which but suggestions are welcome.
I do want to read this at some point, but didn't get to it yet. I am planning to start keeping up with the group reads for this group in october :)
