Backlog review. Originally read/reviewed August 2011.Title: Ulysses
Author: James Joyce
Published: October 1997 (Everyman's Library) (Originally published 1922)
Rating: 3.5 stars
Summary: The most famous day in literature is June 16, 1904, when a certain Mr. Leopold Bloom of Dublin eats a kidney for breakfast, attends a funeral, admires a girl on the beach, contemplates his wife’s imminent adultery, and, late at night, befriends a drunken young poet in the city’s red-light district.An earthy story, a virtuoso technical display, and a literary revolution all rolled into one, James Joyce’s Ulysses is a touchstone of our modernity and one of the towering achievements of the human mind.
My Review: (Yes, I am reviewing one of the "Greatest Novels of All Time" while watching the Lizzie McGuire movie. I am that awesome.)
I have rarely had such a difficult time rating a book as I did with this one. I was conflicted, to say the least.
I was first introduced to Ulysses in my British Lit class last semester. We studied a 30-ish page segment, and I was intrigued. It was difficult going, although I understood it a lot better than most of my classmates; I enjoyed it a lot. It made me want to read the book, particularly when my professor read the last page or so aloud (despite my obvious wishes that he wouldn't, as I'm a huge spoiler-phobe and had already decided I wanted to read it), and I fell in love.
