To read Ulysses is to live Ulysses. I have just finished reading the absolute masterpiece novel that is Joyces Ulysses. My mind is quite frankly blown away. It’s hard to convey into words how utterly life changing and mesmerising this work is. It’s abstract, it’s funny, it’s absurd, it’s ridiculous, it’s life and life it’s self all written into the most stunning beautiful prose I have read. It’s a towering epic novel that only the Brothers Karamazov rivals. Packed with allusions and riddles, the novel is like a jigsaw puzzle that chapter by chapter is pieced together only for the next chapter to unravel it all and you start again. James Joyce was a genius of the very highest order and a once in a lifetime writer who we will never see the likes of again. To prepare before reading Ulysses I read ‘Dubliners’ and ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ which I would highly recommend before embarking on this tale.
To help understand Ulysses I had the wonderful guide by Patrick Hastings which was so insightful and is a masterwork in itself, this can be found online.
Also the amazing podcast Reading Ulysses hosted by Gerry O’Flaherty and Fritz Senn which goes deep in depth chapter by chapter.
And lastly a big shout out to Benjamin McEvoy over at the Hardcore Literature for his deep in depth insights and introductory video of Ulysses over on YouTube.
James Joyce is a journey that takes you on a surreal magical mystery tour, a novel that I will read and read again. To quote the man himself;
\-The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.
Lines of such beauty is hidden all over Ulysses, take the dive and start reading it today.
by kerouac11