Ulysses (1922) By James Joyce

For decades Ulysses has been on my reading list, I have started it numerous times, never getting beyond the first hundred pages. With the assistance of retirement and a pandemic shelter-in-place order, I have now succeeded in completing what is considered by many a literary masterpiece. Like most “Lit geeks” I would like to claim bragging rights for finishing the book. Instead, I am just happy to be done.

I completely understand why it has won its place in the English language canon. Parts of the book are brilliant. It documents Joyce’s command, his sheer mastery of literary styles. He has few rivals. Impressive as that may be, it is also perhaps the reason I feel disappointed. It is not a novel. It is a textbook on various writing formats. A good textbook mind you, but one which lacks a compelling story.

While Joyce’s mastery of prose is on display, his storytelling is not. Yes, he can write a scene, but if one is expecting a beginning, progressing to an end, look elsewhere. What Ulysses delivers is a start and a stop. Not a finish, a stop. Yes, Joyce can write. Wilde, Dickens and Shakespeare could also write, but they could also tell stories at the same time. Call me a traditionalist.

  

Why one should read Ulysses? – video

The plot, if one wants to be generous and call it that, is a day-in-the-life of three main characters, Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly Tweedy Bloom.  A friend who has read the book described Stephen as a “horndog,” a not inaccurate term. I could never understand how a book first serialized in 1914 and not published in book form until 1922 could be banned, now I do (though book banning is not something I will ever approve of).

Ulysses is not an easy read.  It begins with Stephen’s morning shave and continues on through 768 pages of one digression after another, which seldom return to the topic at hand. That this is a truthful representation of a day-in-the-life story, while not necessarily inaccurate, is all the same sad and, frankly, uninteresting.

Recommendation:  No, I did not find it worth the investment of my time. I will however recommend two of his other books: The Dubliners, and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Both were excellent.  I’ve yet to read Finnigan’s Wake