Reviews

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  By Keenan Reed - March 12, 2012 8:44 pm Log in to Reply

  Nothing out there will make you work harder as a reader than James Joyce’s Ulysses. I would caution against diving in headfirst without a reading companion, such as the Bloomsday Book, by Harry Blamires–a no-frills, line by line guidebook that I found eminently helpful. Strangely, the most common criticism I hear about Joyce is that his writing is pretentious, and that he only works his literary miracles in order to show off his literary genius; This viewpoint always confuses me–It makes me wonder if other scientists thought Einstein was showing off when he developed relativity theory. I mean, if someone is uniquely capable, why should they be criticized for flexing that ability? But Whatevs. Joyce famously commented that it took him fifteen years to write this book, and it should take you fifteen years to read it, and while the statement is a bit of an exaggeration to be sure, it’s truer than it is false. So happy hunting, and don’t be afraid to take notes!