On Reading Ulysses

As you may have noted, I am a sincere fan of James Joyce.  I am a true, non-scholarly fan of Ulysses. I've read it as a scholar-in-training (never quite made it to Scholar), and I have/am reading it as an ordinary reader.  And I find that when I abandon caring about what James Joyce intended, planned, thought, or said about Ulysses, I experience greater joy and more profound understanding and interaction with the real and wonderful world that Joyce has created. (Mind you, I find what he intended, planned, thought, and said interesting in itself, but really the subject for a separate study.) Ulysses is not easy reading, but when one gives up the need to try to wheedle out every nuance, every dram of meaning, and one begins to enjoy the story and the characters, the reading becomes richly rewarding. 

Joyce deserves an audience greater than his academic readers.  He deserves to be read by the common reader, the person interested in great literature and great characters and great and playful use of language.

When I was in Dublin I saw and did not buy a book that looked wonder by the title of Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce's Masterpiece.  The author, as you might suspect, seems also to support my belief. Now a review is available, and I think perhaps I ought to pick it up after all.  If I pick it up, I'll be sure to review here as well.


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