Ulysses by James Joyce (Review)
Last June, I read a brief commentary on James Joyce and “Ulysses.” Joyce’s famous novel took place on June 16, 1904, and the fictional anniversary has since become Bloomsday (Joyceans eponymously named Bloomsday after Joyce’s character, Leopold Bloom, and the day serves as a time to celebrate the author and his works). The essayist commented that there are two types of people in the world: those who have read “Ulysses” and those who have not. Since the novel is so regularly lauded, I set out to join the select crowd. Despite the entire novel taking place in one day, the book is a dense package of complexity that warrants time and consideration.
The quick summary of the plot is somewhat unfair, as it beguiles the depth of the plot. Basically “Ulysses” inspects Leopold Bloom’s day in Dublin. It does so in eighteen episodes that run parallel to Homer's “Odyssey,” which focuses on Odysseus or “Ulysses” in Roman myths. June 16, 1904 begins with the secondary antagonist, Stephen Dedalus, whose mother recently died. The story shifts to Bloom’s character and bounces between the two from the morning until night brings the novel’s conclusion. From beginning to end, it is difficult—particularly without context and time for contemplation—to understand what Joyce worked to accomplish.
This complexity largely emerges from the two-sided—albeit valuable—coin of Joyce’s language. On one side, “Ulysses” contains a descriptive cadence that is quite lovely on a micro level but incredibly complex on a macro level. Thus the language is beautiful and worthwhile but also somewhat impenetrable. It took significant work to plod through “Ulysses,” which constantly raises the question, “should literature take this much work?”
I am still without a concrete answer on this front, but I am glad I worked through “Ulysses.” Though my decision to read the book sprung from my desire to join the in-crowd that has read Joyce’s magnum opus, it was still worth the effort. There is significant care in Joyce’s word selection, and the writing is quite poetic. I found myself wishing, however, that I could study the book in a classroom environment so I could trek through the book with others. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys the complex beauty of language but do so with the warning that the complexity may limit enjoyment for many readers.
