audio cassette
English language
Published Feb. 1, 1992 by Caedmon.
I’m angry at anyone who ever said this book was worth reading. What a nightmare. “Wandering Rocks” was pretty good at least....
This is an absolutely brilliant novel, delving deep into a single day in the lives of a handful of characters. Joyce's mastery of language displayed in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is developed even further, as is his use of stream-of-consciousness, deeply authentic sense of place (and time!), and the unique perspective of his alter-ego Stephen Dedalus. Taking cues from Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses is structured around the journey of its main protagonist, Leopold Bloom, back home after a day of mourning, camaraderie, debauchery, and so on. With chapters written in wildly inventive ways, Ulysses is a joy to read, even if often posing difficulties with understanding. But this is appropriate, as how fully can we ever hope to understand the thoughts of another person, or for that matter, even our own?
I've read Ulysses twice now. I liked it better the second time. It may be the best book I've ever read, but it's a tough call. It's monstrous, yes, but it's masterful. I don't think anyone can top Joyce's command of the English prose nor should they - Finnegan's Wake is (disclosure - haven't read it) that kind of monstrous overreach.
If not the best book, it's definitely the greatest book, if such a distinction makes any sense.
It took a lot of effort and a lot of handholding (lectures, an [b:Annotated Ulysses|10543|Ulysses Annotated|Don Gifford|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254003s/10543.jpg|13227] reference nearby), but it was worth it.
