James Joyce is good

[Lethe]

i've heard so much bullshit about his writing style and this and that blah blah blah.

he is a great writer.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Lethe...

I've never been able to read or really comprehend his books...

But his poetry! Wow. Love it.

:hi:

[JTG of the PRB]

2. I read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" during my final semester of college.

I'm not going to pretend I understood it all, or that it was easy, but it was very interesting and I wound up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.

[Lethe]

3. that is the condensed version of Of Human Bondage

Maugham is beyond good. Joyce is beyond Maugham.

[Heidi]

4. Agree,

but I think a lot of people give up on Joyce before they can really get into the rhythm of his work.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. I've given up on Ulysses

Portrait was great. Every 2 or 3 years I'd attempt Ulysses, convinced I'd understand more than a few pages. Nope.

[Lethe]

6. are you irish and have you drank to excess?

these things matter...

[bikebloke]

7. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in high school

I started it about five times, struggling with it. Click. Then the gears finally meshed. It flowed smoothly. One of the best reads in school.

Others in the class tried to turn it into hyper-symbolism. One person even said it referred to the Vietnam war (this was way back then).:eyes:

[Orrex]

8. You're 100% correct, and many of the literary greats are similarly derided

Here and elsewhere, alas.

Joyce isn't really my cup of tea, but I can't deny the brilliance of his work.

[rug]

9. He richly deserves every morsel of shit ever thrown at him.

http://www.claddaghireland.com/library/molly.htm

[Zomby Woof]

10. I tackled "Ulysses" last year

It wasn't as challenging as much of the conventional wisdom suggests. Not simple, mind you, but not Sisyphian either. Going into it knowing it's mostly based on "The Odyssey" helped me look for clues. I read the Modern Library edition, the best one out there, because it's based on his original, corrected manuscript, and not the butchered revisions which occurred as a result of the obscenity case (courtesy of our free-speech-loving USA).

Some of it was laugh-out-loud funny, especially the sequence regarding the chemist and the shaving soap. Joyce had an eye for the absurdity of marketing even in its infancy.

Enjoyed "Dubliners", which I had read on my own after being introduced to "The Dead" in a college lit class. Decided to proceed with "Portrait of an Artist" and then "Ulysses".

As for "Finnegan's Wake" - not yet. That is the one which deserves its tough reputation for unreadability. I will try though, eventually.