My thoughts can be summarized in 4 points:
* It’s brilliant!
* I have no idea what I am reading!
* Boy, it’s a bit of a slog to get through!
* This is the most Irish thing I’ve ever read!
The first 3 chapters – Buck Mulligan is funny but a bit of a jerk. Later in the book, some of the characters in the carriage on their way to the gravesite make fun of Buck Mulligan and his ‘aunt’.
Chapter 4 (I think) where Stephen goes through his depression and talks about a dog on the beach was a bit weird.
Is it just me or is Leopold Bloom a bit of a player? Letter from a mysterious woman, checking out women as he walks along the street?
I can see why the book created a stir back when it was released. It’s pretty filthy.
The antisemitism is a bit uncomfortable to read in 2023 but that’s how people talked about it so casually back then (“because we never let them in”).
The chapter I just finished where the characters (Stephen, Buck, John, etc) are debating Shakespeare plays (Hamlet is him, etc etc) tested me a lot because I don’t know Shakespeare as well as I would like to.
Truthfully, I’m finding it hard to get through just because the whole work is so massive. I am taking frequent breaks from it. It’s also hard sometimes because it is such a stream of consciousness to it and it can turn into rambling upon rambling.
Any thoughts or things I should prepare myself for for the rest of the book?
by RivetCounter