Somehow I found myself reading some lists of the 100 greatest novels of the last century, of the English language, etc. I realized I wanted to read some of them and thought I'd give it a shot. I'm always intrigued by things like this, and I although I never complete any such list, it's fun to get started. So the first novel on the list I decided to go with was James Joyce's Ulysses. I've heard of James Joyce but never read anything of his, and I had never heard of Ulysses. It happened that the Chambers County Library on Eagle Drive had a copy, so I picked it up on my lunch break one day.
The thing is, I can't make heads or tails of it. It's a pretty long novel, but if it's good, that doesn't bother me. I've read 25 pages. I keep having the sensation that maybe a page was ripped out and that's why it makes no sense. But no, the page numbers are there and nothing's missing. It does throw me that there are no quotation marks when a person is talking. You just have to infer where they should be.
I didn't want to have my impression of the book spoiled by reading summaries and things on the web first, but I think I'm going to have to. Have you read Ulysses? Have you read any James Joyce? Is it just his style? I know the problem isn't just the age, because I've read older things than this with no problem, but maybe the style just isn't timeless? If not, how did it make number one on this list?
Not sure what to think, probably off to research it now. I'll try to find sources other than just wikipedia. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No, I haven't read it or anything else by him. Now I'm feeling curious (and under-educated). I'll ask Gunter.
ReplyDeleteAfter I wrote this, I went ahead and read some things about it online. It turns out my response is pretty common, and Joyce himself was amused that he had written something that would take scholars a whole lifetime to get the full meaning. (It's giving me that yucky feeling of literary snobbery, both from Joyce and the academics who put it as #1 on this list.) So, I'm not going to read the rest of it. Returning it to the library today and on to The Great Gatsby. :)
ReplyDeleteYay, Gatsby! I teach that, so I *might* be able to have a discussion about it!
ReplyDeleteI am obsessed with starting these lists of books and am always determined to get through them and then end up getting distracted by something much lower brow.
ReplyDeleteI had the same response to Ulysses.
Don't let me fool you, Leisure Girl. I am *always* distracted by the low brow. :) It's just so...FUN.
ReplyDelete