book of books - Dubliners

James Joyce is one of those writers that before I picked up one his books came with a certain reputation for not just being difficult but also being worshipped. A friend was telling me about ‘Bloom Day’ in Dublin where you can follow round Leopold as he does all the things he did in the 24 hours covered by the book. That sort of dedication after all these years is not the sort of thing that gets shown to just any writer.

But you have to be careful throwing the word ‘genius’ around because there would no doubt be plenty prepared to argue that if a book is almost totally inaccessible to the average reader (Ulysses) then where is the cleverness in that. Aside from that particular war of words a book like Dubliners is something that can be read by anyone and apart from a couple of references to Irish politics, particularly around the movement for independence, there are no major obstacles with this text.

Plot summary
This reminds you of a Robert Altman film with 15 stories going on but unlike something like Short Cuts there is no intention here to link the stories together. Like a patchwork of different streets and suburbs Dublin grows out of the stories of the people who live in it with the rich and the poor all represented here. The stories seem to get longer as you go through the book and ending with The Dead there is a picture completed at the end that makes you realise that whether rich or poor, religious or atheist, male or female and drunk and sober life is a struggle and what everyone wants is to find love and a safe harbour. the other attractive feature of the text is that Joyce never makes a judgement on the activities or beliefs of the characters but tells it straight handing the reader the chance to make their own judgements.

Is it well written?
It demands a fair bit of concentration to come to each chapter fresh and as a result Joyce has to pitch for your attention fifteen times. The fact he manages to do it and provoke different reactions in the reader answers the question about the success of the writing. Creative writing course tutors always talk about the importance of characters leading and shaping the story and here there are plenty of examples of how to get that process right.

Should it be read?
If Ulysses is too intimidating then this is a Joyce that can be picked up and read at leisure. Because of the nature of the separate self encapsulated chapters it makes ideal bedtime reading because you can knock off a chapter a night over a couple of weeks. I have not stumbled across anything mimicking this approach to describing a City and its people, there must be some, but for a first introduction to a living biography style it is something well worth coming into contact with.

Summary: the city of Dublin and its people come to life through these stories of rich and poor and happy and sad folk.

Version read – Penguin modern classics paperback

Dubliners - post IV

There is something wonderful about a story that has an ending that you had no way of predicting and this falls into that category. The reason it works so well is because you step into the mind of the main character of Gabriel and understand just how much it upsets him when he gets it wrong guessing what his wife Gretta is thinking.

The Dead
At a family get together the nephew of three aunts carries out his duty and carves the goose and then delivers a speech which wins applause and the affection of his aunts. The only fly in the ointment is that he has a row with a University colleague who accuses him of not loving his country. But she leaves early and as the evening draws to an end he is content at having a successful evening and starts to think lustful thoughts about his wife. Just before they leave she is captivated by a song sung badly by one the guests. Once home Gabriel’s lust is stirring and he starts to think that Gretta shares it when she unexpectedly kisses him but when pushed on the question of what she is thinking about it turns out that far from thinking about her husband she is dwelling on the memory of a boy she used to know that sang that song. He died, partly for her, and leaves Gabriel realising that he is struggling to match up and far from being a successful evening he is left feeling empty.

Review of Dubliners will follow at the weekend…

Dubliners - post III

It’s interesting reading this book along with another collection of short stories over lunch (Exile and the Kingdom) because in a way they are quite similar using the same settings - Dublin/Algeria – bedding down different characters in a location that rolls out like a patchwork of different suburbs which reflects back on the characters.

A Painful Case
A solitary man makes a friendship with a woman at a conference and starts seeing her in both the open and in secret walking through the park and talking with each other but one day they have a disagreement and breaks off the friendship. A couple of years passes and then he reads about the death of the lady in the paper – an account of her falling in front of a train and her daughter explaining that she had become a drinker. The man realizes that she must have been terribly lonely and then faces up to his own solitude.

Ivy Day in the Committee Room
Some canvassers for a politician meet up to report on their progress and moan about the lack of payment from the party organisation. More men come in and swell the ranks boasting about how many votes they could get and then some drinks finally turn up having been sent to appease the men and it works with them using the heat of the fire to pop the corks

A Mother
A cracking little story about a mother wanting what is right for her daughter but pushing it too far and losing it all. After her daughter has been signed up to sing for four concerts the mother becomes worried when one is cancelled and starts to get concerned that her daughter will not be paid so she demands payment otherwise she will not sing. She gets half the money just before the curtain goes up but is fobbed off in the interval and so is replaced after carrying out the threat not to perform and as a result loses not just the other half but her reputation as a reliable singer

Grace
This is the penultimate story in Dubliners and is so far the longest covering firstly the drunken escapades of Mr. Kernan, then the decision by his friends to go and repent at a religious retreat and then finally the retreat itself where Kernan starts the process of settling his accounts with God. Includes some religious banter about the Pope and Protestants and Catholics that is mild mannered and an insight into the willingness of people to mix if it is in the right circumstances

The final chapter comes tomorrow…

Dubliners - post II

The one problem with reading a book that is written like the Dubliners is that each chapter involves a fresh mental engagement because it is not following on from what has gone before but is something different. It can make it slightly more of a struggle compared to reading a traditional novel. There is also a growing suspicion that he is writing about people based in different parts of the City and depending on where they are from there is a meaning there that would be instantly recognised by someone familiar with the City, which I am afraid I am not.

But on the positive side there is a skill in the writing here that hints and leaves gaps for you to fill in that gives you enough to expand in your mind on these short excerpts of people’s lives.

Bullet points between pages 47 – 104

Two Gallants
Two friends discuss how they have wasted time and money taking girls out to wine and dine them before seducing them. One boasts to the other that he is now able to get paid for taking the women out and tells his friend to wait until the end of his date to prove it. You sense that the price of proving it to his friend has been irreparable damage to his relationship but at the end of the night he had a gold coin in his hand.

The Boarding House
A woman separated from her drunken husband runs a boarding house with her daughter and son living there. Her daughter Polly gets involved with one of the lodgers and the mother decides that to protect her moral standing he must marry Polly so intervenes in the relationship and forces him to make that decision – one that both dread being made

A Little Cloud
Two old friends meet after a gap of eight years with one returning to Dublin with a successful career as a journalist in London under his belt. The two friends meet in an up market bar that the Dublin-based resident had been past many times but not been able to go into and as he talks of his wife and child he sows the seeds of resentment that flare up when he gets home and is left in charge of his infant son

Counterparts
A man who comes across as an alcoholic ruins his chances of keeping his job as a legal clerk after being rude to his boss and then pawns his watch to fund a drinking spree. But he ends up only half drunk, loses his reputation for a strong man after being beaten at arm wrestling by a younger man and then heads home and finding his wife out starts to beat one of his five children to make himself no doubt feel more of a man – an insightful take on that sort of abuse from the father’s side

Clay
Maria visits one of the men who she used to look after when he was a boy and tries to make it special by buying a cake that she leaves on the tram and those she is visiting try to make it memorable but the most powerful scene comes from the mistake the old maid makes singing a song calling on those who loved her to love her still

More tomorrow…

Dubliners - Post I

This book by James Joyce is a series of fifteen stories of ordinary people in Dublin that makes you think almost of a cinematic experience with lots of different excerpts making up a commentary on a City. So far the stories seem to be told very straight without judgements being made against the characters he writes about. The plan was to read more pages but sadly I fell asleep on the train and the eyes blurred and the words...

Bullet points from pages 1 - 46

The Sisters
A young man discovers that his mentor, a priest named Flynn, has died and as a result he feels a release rather than a pressing grief and accompanied by his aunt goes to visit the sisters who cared for their brother the priest. They tell their guests that he was struggling with the priesthood and found it almost too much and then end with a story about a broken chalice, a boy having some sort of breakdown and a sense of failure.

An Encounter
Two boys, it is meant to be three but the third one fails to turn up, arrange to meet and spend the day walking across to the docks and generally having a good time mucking around and firing catapults. They are met in a field by a strange man who disturbs them with his talk of giving boys who talk to girls a good whipping and in the end the boys, who have invented pseudonyms for themselves manage to escape from him and head home

Araby
The Araby of the title is a bazaar that a girl who is idolised by a boy mentions as somewhere she would like to go. Those are her first words to him after months of him following her and walking along her path to school. His uncle promises him some money for the bazaar but forgets and gets home late but the boy gets the train and gets to the bazaar just as the final stalls are packing up and while he is there the lights start to go off

Eveline
The youngest girl in a large family is left after her mother dies with her abusive father but a sailor offers her a way out to live with him in Argentina. But as the moment of decision comes she waits on the dock side while the sailor, screaming out her name, is pushed by the crowd up the gangway

After the Race
You go from a story about Eveline to one about five young men who have money and the advantages of a good education who are meeting to have a meal when they come across an American Farley who takes them to his yacht where they play at cards and the focus of the story Jimmy loses heavily and has no idea of his losses but welcomes the rest that comes at the end of the game

More tomorrow of the various tales of Dubliners...

book of books - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

After Ulysses the book seemed to be written by James Joyce in a more conventional way but there are things going on here at various different levels and sadly I’m sure I completely missed a few of them and as a result I made understanding the story that little bit more difficult.

Plot summary
The book is centrered around Stephen Deadalus, who is introduced at the start of the book as a teenager who is at University at the end of the book. His family are continually moving for a combination of political and financial reasons. Stephen is at a Jesuit school and goes through a period he believes is incredibly sinful and as a result starts to turn his back on the church but then goes the other way and is so devout the priests believe he can join their ranks. But then he chooses to go his own way and then becomes a student that is both intelligent and slightly worshipped by his peers. In the end he chooses to remain away from the church even if it upsets his mother and remain true to his own beliefs.

Is it well written?
There are moments when it is very easy to understand what is going on and other moments when you get lost and start slipping out of touch with the narrative. Ultimately it takes a couple of says for the story to sink in and you understand that it is about Stephen’s individuality and development of his intellect that matters. He has to overcome politics, religion and towards the end poverty to assert himself and that comes through the text, even if not as clearly as that at first reading.

Should it be read?
To get an idea of how literature can help someone develop their own views and how it can provide an escape to some extent from reality it is worth reading. As an introduction to Joyce I’m not sure because without reading his other major works it’s hard to judge when you should start out on this one. I actually liked coming to it after Ulysses because I was able to understand what happens to Stephen next so it made you feel an attachment to him already.

Leads to
Ulysses and at some point The Dubliners and Finnegan’s Wake. In terms of personal development of a character there are other books based in colleges and universities but they would probable be more literal than this story.

Version read – Penguin essential classics

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – post IV

Just as you expect with Joyce things become that little bit harder to follow as the book moves to its conclusion. You can either read this word by word, line by line, which I did last night with a reading light in bed, or like a normal novel. The problem is that you feel you loose something in both approaches. Anyway here is the general gist of the last pages of the book.

Bullet points between pages 228 – 276

* Stephen is seen very much as one of the intellectual forces by his peers and he seems to spend his waking hours thinking about things in terms of poetry and he dreams about a girl that he sent some love poetry to

* He is on the fringes of not just his friends but also his family and the evidence of the latter comes when he confides in a friend that he has refused to attend the Easter services with his mother despite it hurting her

* He seems to have his eye on a girl who also visits the library but seems to share that desire with a friend Cranly, who also tries to catch her eye as she leaves and he stresses when he goes days without seeing her

* Eventually he bumps into her and they have a cryptic exchange of words that leaves him liking her even more as he heads off

* In the end he seems to have escaped/dwells in a world half dominated by literature and reality with the former inspiring his actions and behaviour in the latter

Bearing in mind that when we next meet Stephen he has lost his mother, although there are some Joycism's already with him telling a friend she had ten children and in Ulysses it is described as fifteen, it provides the groundwork for why he would be full of a longing for her because of the way he regreted hurting her over religious differences when she was alive.

Full review to come by mid-week...

Things you can only get away with in Joyce’s world

As I get near to the end of The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man there are several things about James Joyce’s world that make a real contrast with living in 2006 and so these are just a few I could think of

Walking around a capital city late at night dreaming up philosophical thoughts
Try doing that in London and you are likely to get your thoughts drowned out by the sirens, your eyes blinded by the neon or if you walk down by the river something a lot more sinister interrupt your night dreaming

Have an argument that becomes a shouting match with an Irishman about religion
A friend once thought it might be the right place and right topic of discussion to buttonhole a staunch catholic in an Irish pub and tell him that he thought there were aspects of his religion that were flawed. He was then floored in the more basic sense

Masturbating on a beach
It goes without saying this one, enjoyed by Bloom in Ulysses, is either going to go unnoticed or land you in hot water with the police or local vigilantes – take your pick

Go through a life that mirrors a work by Homer, Ovid or Saint Thomas Aquinas
With work, family etc you hardly have time to know that someone throwing a tin you in a pub is meant to be the Cyclops or that men singing in the corner by the piano doing bad karoke represent the sirens

Portrait of the Artist as Young Man - post III

Joyce is able to catch you in a web of religious debate, Irish politics and the profoundity of the shift from adolesence to adulthood and leave you wondering just where you are. It is rather like falling down a water shute without anything to grip onto but occasional glimpses of the pool below to reassure you that at least you are headed in the right direction.

Bullet points between pages 158 - 228

* Having had his sinful moment and then gone to his confessor Stephen turns into the most devout church goer so much so that he is called into to get advice that he should go into the priesthood

* Initially the idea attracts him because he is seduced by the position and the power but then he has a moment when he sees his friends swimming and sees a girl (vision of a girl) who he identifies as an angel or youth and decides that the way he should live his life is by making mistakes and being real

* The family keep moving and the next scene of family activity is in a different house and Joyce manages to convey the squalor with Stephen having to wash in a bowl in the sink before heading out to University

* At university Stephen seems to have carved out a reputation as a free thinker and his comments are eagerly soaked up by students hanging off his every word and you are introduced to a couple of his friends who urge whim to sign a petition for an independent Ireland and after his refusal to sign question his loyalty to the country

* Having gone through the religious phase, the indifference and now the intellectual critic of it all he is able to spar in conversation with the dean of studies and anyone else who wants to question him on his views

More tomorrow...

Portrait of the Artist as Young Man - post II

I have never visited Ireland but Joyce does give you a yearning to go there, although no doubt the Dublin he writes about has changed out of all recognition. But there is a love for his country that comes through his writing and makes you want to go and sit in a bar in Dublin and soak it all in. Maybe that’s an ambition for 2007?

Bullet points between pages 90 - 158

* Stephen and his father head back to Cork, the family home of the Dedalus clan, to sell up some of his father’s property and Stephen is dragged round the city and his father’s old college

* He is embarrassed by the reminiscing but part of his trip includes a trip to the bank to get some money out that he won for an essay prize

* That money soon changes hands with a prostitute as he experiences his first taste of sex and it changes him because it is a major sin and there is no retribution it starts to turn him away from the church

* There is then a lengthy sermon preached by the priest on the theme of hell and the Dante like vision of intense never stopping fires make Stephen feel that the message is for him and he has to repent of his sins

* He has a nightmare about the corner of hell that is being reserved for him and goes to confession and the chapter ends with him feeling saved and his soul is intact after he has admitted all of his sins - all this at the age of 16

More tomorrow (altough it is the work Christmas lunch so the post might not make any sense)...

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - post I

Stephen Dedalus is one of the two main characters in Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man focuses on that character but at a much younger age. Bearing in mind he is 22 in Ulysses he is a school boy when he is introduced in this story.

Unlike Ulysses James Joyce seems to be sticking to a more easily readable style here with it much easier to create a picture in your mind of what is going on.

Bullet points between pages 1 - 90

* The story starts at a Jesuit school in Ireland and Stephen is homesick, bullied and struggling to enjoy his school time and after being pushed into a ditch becomes ill and ends up in the infirmary

* The sense of homesickness, loneliness and desperation to fit in and understand how to blend in and succeed in the school is tangible and well described by Joyce, who presumably must have experienced the same things

* He then goes home for Christmas and the meal is disturbed by a row between his father Simon and Dante some sort of family friend over politics, specifically the right or wrongs of priests using the pulpit as a place to recommend certain political parties

* The row between the protestant Dante, Stephens father, his great uncle and a friend Mr Casey, who has spent time in prison for his political views, breaks down as they row about a story told by Casey who recounts the time he spat in the eye of a lady heckling him after a speech.

* Casey then breaks down after saying that there should be no God in Ireland with tears in his eyes and cries for Parnell a politician who fought hard for autonomy and Home Rule

* The story then moves back to school and in a vivid passage Stephen is beaten for making up the story that his glasses broke accidentally despite the truth in his tale. The beating scars him mentally and he goes to the Rector to complain and as a result of that bravery is heralded as a hero by his classmates

* Things at home change and they move house and Stephen dislikes Dublin but there is a suggestion that political activities by his father have forced the change as much as financial cut backs

* He is told to stay in the Jesuit school and because of his friendship with a girl he comes in for another dose of bullying and seems to always be acting in the wrong way provoking more animosity

More tomorrow...

Great Ulysses links

Before I forget and Ulysses dissapears into the distant past these are some really good links that have a combination of serious facts, free copies of the book and an animated version of the story that is worth looking at whether you intend to read Joyce's work or not.

A good start would be the Ulysses site edited by John Barger with links, analysis and timelines for the characters

The Brazen Head is a site with a similar ambition to be the start for all things Joyce and this looks at the author on a much wider basis than just Ulysses

Wikipedia is always worth a check for the essentials and it points to some of the links summarised here

Project Gutenberg of course has the text if you want to try it without having to go out and find a copy of the book as does the One page of Ulysses a day blog

For a great audio guide through the book, with lots of insight into the characters and the locations you cannot beat the RTE Radio 1 Irish radio Reading Ulysses series

For light relief try the Ulysses for Dummies site with its animated version of the epic

Hope they help if you set off to read Ulysses the RTE site really helped me to get to grips with it all and some of the other sites have got me ready for more Joyce

book of books - Ulysses

Ulysses by James Joyce is one of those books that has a reputation that precedes it and rightfully so because it is difficult, sometimes inaccessible and for its time it would have been shocking as well with its thoughts on sex expressed particularly by Molly Bloom.

Usually you go through a book without resorting to aids or advice but it really cuts down the enjoyment of Ulysses if you try and do it alone and I found some of the sites on the web, particularly the Reading Ulysses series on RTE1 added to the enjoyment of the book.

The other issue with Ulysses is that some people will tell you that before reading it you need to have read other books, particularly Homer’s Odyssey and while that might be true Joyce mixes things up so much that it is not a literal interpretation so while those other texts might be useful it is possible to get a quick summary of the tale of Homer’s Ulysses and understand the references.

Plot summary
The book follows one day and night in the lives of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom. You start with Stephen a 22-year-old intellectual who teaches but is in debt overshadowed by the death of his mother and his well-known father Simon. Then as the location moves to the newspaper office you pick up the story with Bloom, who sells adverts in the papers. The day starts with a funeral, moves back to the centre of Dublin, has a strange passage in a couple of bars and a brothel, a cabman’s shelter and then Bloom takes Stephen back home and the final chapter is the voice of Molly Bloom who has been repeatedly mentioned in the story but not yet introduced.

Is it well written?
It is written in a number of different styles with it set out like a play in some sections, using no punctuation in others and includes things like music to illustrate points. From a readers perspective it keeps changing and that is what makes it so difficult because it is hard to keep a grip on reality. The references to Dublin are overlaid with Homeric and Shakespearian references that make it very difficult to try and picture sometimes where the characters are. But there are chapters, which are very satisfying – particularly the penultimate one – and you can tell that Joyce is able to produce a work that is telling several different stories and working on various different levels. For that reason it is the sort of book you end up going back to.

Should it be read?
So many people are put off but I am really glad I got through it because not only is there a real sense of achievement but this story remains relevant now. None of the issues – anti Semitism, nationalism, adultery, sex, debt and drunkenness – have gone away and for that reason this connects to a modern readership. At 700 odd pages it is going to be a commitment to read this in terms of time but it is best attempted at one go because otherwise it is not only difficult remembering the story but is too tempting to give up.

Leads to
Because of the microscopic nature of the attention on just two characters and the single day it naturally gets linked in with Proust and Remembrance of Things Past. Also because of the references in the text Homer’s Odyssey and Shakespeare’s Hamlet would be worth reading before, during or shortly after.

Version read – Penguin modern classic paperback 1972

Ulysses - post XI (part two)

Well the end comes and it is a strange feeling because this book has grown on me and I found the last chapter with Bloom and Stephen one of the most pleasant to read and it stirred a real interest in both men and then the voice changes and Molly finishes things off

Bullet points between pages 679 – 704

* There is a suggestion that Molly is becoming slightly jealous of her daughter as she ages and the attention of men, and her lover Blaydon, is focused on Milly rather than herself

* Molly reveals that she knew that Stephen had been in the house and she had watched as Bloom fell over the railings and remembers the other time he came home with a guest, a dog, that also was an unwelcome intrusion into the home

* She reflects on the funeral that started the day and is dismissive of most of the mourners and wonders how Simon, Stephen's father, is getting on now he is a widower and that takes her into thinking about Stephen and the Italian lessons that he is being paid to teach her

* She conjures up lewd thoughts about Stephen and although attracted to an academic type of man has to admit, despite putting the best gloss on it, that she does not have the same level of intelligence around the subjects of literature and poetry

* She muses about her relationships with men and the way women behave generally and then there seems to be an understanding that although she can get round him an does things behind his back Bloom at least won her hand because he treated her in a way no one else had

“ That was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is..."pg703

* The ending is wrapped in memories of the coast of Gibraltar and of her youth beauty and the moment when she accepted the path that took her through the years to 7 Eccles Street

"I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I say yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."pg704

I will post a review and share some thoughts on the experience of reading Ulysses in the next couple of days. That’s the first winter reading challenge book done just four more to go…

Ulysses - post XI (part one)

So we come to the end and the final chapter is dedicated to the voice of Molly Bloom - a character we have heard numerous references to, mainly because of her affair with Blaydon, and it is a strange train of thought we jump on board with her

Bullet points from pages 659 - 679

* The first thing you notice is that there is no punctuation and this is a seamless, endless series of thoughts all running into each other starting with the idea that Bloom is having an affair because he is hiding things from her

* She thinks back to when she first got engaged to Bloom and it seems to be a happy memory although she makes it clear she had other admirers and probably could have done better than Bloom but he seemed to get to her and win her over

* Fashion is obviously important to Molly and she lists the items she has seen other women wearing and items she has her eye on or has recently purchased and boasts about her appearance despite her age

* There are some thoughts about her formative years in Gibraltar and the friendships and things she saw there - fashions and spanish patterns of behaviour

The second half comes after midnight...

Ulysses - post X

I’m leaving the final chapter as a treat for the weekend and so these bullet points are from the penultimate chapter, which involves just the two men Bloom and Stephen.

Bullet points between pages 600 – 658

* Bloom and Stephen sit in 7 Eccles Street, Blooms house and talk about their pasts and work out they have met each other twice before and had a mutual connection but if you think that they are getting on well it seems shattered by Stephen singing an anti-Semitic song

* Despite that Bloom hopes the young man will stay and be a good influence on his wife, whom he knows is having an affair with Blaydon and there is a slight hint that he might be hoping of a future relationship with his daughter

* But Stephen opts to leave and they go out to the back door and stare at the stars and then Stephen, who has no where to go heads out into the night leaving Bloom to go back inside alone

* Back inside Bloom notices that all of the furniture has been moved around which disconcerts him and he surveys his possessions, does some accounts that indicate he is well off, and then heads to bed

* Upstairs he climbs into bed next to his wife and there is a great description that displays his full understanding about her adultery

What did his limbs, when gradually extended, encounter?
New clean bedlinen, additional odours, the presence of a human form, female, hers, the imprint of a human form, male, not his, some crumbs, some flakes of potted meat, recooked, which he removed.pg652

* He then decides that of all the options – ranging from assassination of Blaydon to divorce or suing for damages – he will stick with his wife. For those Homer references this seems to be about purging himself of the jealousy of the suitors

One of my favourite passages in this chapter is when Bloom looks back over the day – the contents of the book from his perspective so far – and reminds the reader of all the things that have happened

The preparation of breakfast (burnt offering): intestinal congestion and premeditative defecation (holy of holies): the bath (rite of John): the funeral (rite of Samuel): the advertisement of Alexander Keyes (Urim and Thummim): the unsubstantial lunch (rite of Melchisedek): the visit to museum and national library (holy place): the bookhunt along Bedford row, Merchants' Arch, Wellington Quay (Simchath Torah): the music in the Ormond Hotel (Shira Shirim): the altercation with a truculent troglodyte in Bernard Kiernan's premises (holocaust): a blank period of time including a cardrive, a visit to a house of mourning, a leavetaking (wilderness): the eroticism produced by feminine exhibitionism (rite of Onan): the prolonged delivery of Mrs Mina Purefoy (heave offering): the visit to the disorderly house of Mrs Bella Cohen, 82 Tyrone street, lower and subsequent brawl and chance medley in Beaver street (Armageddon)- nocturnal perambulation to and from the cabman's shelter, Butt Bridge (atonement).pg650

Final chapter tomorrow…

Ulysses - post IX

The end is in sight and a slightly easier chapter and start of the penultimate one should have made it a good day for reading but things were draining at work so I have struggled and not been able to read any Homer today. Still here is what I did get through in Ulysses

Bullet points between pages 540 - 600

* Bloom and Stephen head for the cabman's shelter where a sailor appears to know Stephen’s father and then shows off some tattoos but when asked by Bloom to recount some stories about his sea faring days the sailor refuses to discuss things

* A woman comes in who Bloom seems to recognise but she is told to go away and Bloom relaxes but then the atmosphere tenses as the sailor and the man running the cab shelter disagree about the role of the Irish in the British navy - whether it is exploitation or not and Bloom starts to get itchy feet

* After leaving Bloom invites Stephen home and on the way back they talk about music, with Stephen praising Shakespearian songs and Bloom revelling in the friendship that you sense he hopes is starting between the men but this doesn't seem to be coming back from Stephen

* As the two head towards Bloom's home they disagree on various topics and when they arrive Bloom has to climb over the railings, he falls but manages to get the door off the latch and get in and open the door to Stephen. The style is questions with answers, another twist of style added after the other experiments earlier in the book

* Bloom offers Stephen the chance to wash but he is not keen on water and turns the chance down and Bloom makes him a cup of cocoa and you discover Bloom is 38 and Stephen is 22

More, hopefully much more tomorrow...

Ulysses - post VIII

The two main influences I can detect at least on Ulysses are Hamlet and the Odyssey. Both of those references crop up in the hallucination passages just before the end of part II and part III

One of the giveaways of the Shakespearian references is the moment when the man himself appears but also the appearance of Stephen’s dead mother but this also has Homerian overtones because when Odysseus visits the land of the dead it is his mother he meets there. Plenty to think about and of course there are those who will happily write a thesis on it all but all I really want to do now is finish the book!

Bullet points between pages 500 – 540

* The focus of the madness shifts slightly away from Bloom, although he continues to be involved and focuses on Stephen who meets his dead mother who urges him to stop being an atheist and repent

* Stephen then gets involved with a debate with an English solider as a mirage of King Edward appears and the solider threatens to attack him if he is rude about the King and there is a good insight into the politics with Stephen describing himself as a green rag to a bull

* Things then calm down and it is Stephen who is involved with the police but Bloom comes to the rescue – he must have sobered up – and defends Stephen and tries to bring him round as the chapter ends Bloom also sees an apparition of his dead son Rudy

* Bloom and Stephen walk off together - the first time in the book they have been alone with each other – and Bloom starts to ask questions about his father and indicates that although he has been around when Stephen has been drinking and in the newspaper office he obviously doesn’t know that much about his personal circumstances

More tomorrow…

Ulysses - post VII

I have to admit that reading this book today has been hard going. It has produced all the things that I feared Joyce might have in store. When I started putting together some bullet points it became clear it is not the easiest thing to do when you don't know what is real or a dream and Joyce seems determined to make life as difficult as possible for the reader and is almost so keen to lose you he will violently shake you off.

Bullet points between pages 420 – 500

* Things start slowly with Bloom appearing to go and visit a brothel where he is known to the madam in charge and is obviously a former visitor but then things take a surreal turn and the text is written like a stage play with italicised descriptions and directions for the cast

* Some police suddenly threatens Bloom with arrest and as he tries to argue his way out of it things start to take a very surreal turn and he is in a courtroom in front of a judge answering all types of charges and changing his character almost with every new accusation

* Throughout the case there are numerous references to numbers with three whores, the eight beatitudes (it should be seven shouldn't it?) and along with that there are moments when your head starts hurting when Bloom appears to change sex and at one point gives birth to seven boys

* The court case still rumbles on and all of the main characters so far seem to make an appearance including the talking corpse of the man they buried that morning and at various moments Stephen plays the piano and makes a few odd comments not always related to the proceedings

I am going to struggle on tomorrow...

Ulysses - post VI

I have read plenty of other comments on the web by people who have struggled with Ulysses and today I agree with them all it has been very difficult reading. Part of the reason is that you are trying to take in the story and at the same time look for this meanings and symbols and the net result is a headache and a failure on both counts.

Bullet points between pages 370 – 420

* Bloom is sitting and reflecting on the argument in the pub wondering whether or not it was meant to be maliciously anti semitic and wonders if he should have answered back more

* The scene then shifts to Horne’s house where Bloom and Stephen meet but the frustrating things is that because of the style, which is narrative without speech, it is hard to work out whether or not they are talking to each other

* It becomes clear after a while there is an argument over religion going on and Bloom tries to play the role of peace maker and things change tack while they discuss the child murderer in a celebrated case

* There are references to Gods and sailing across the sea but they are all mixed up with Thor being the God, which is mentioned, and then there are other references to Greece and drachmas being lost on the horse race

* There is then a discussion about science, in particular around the question of childbirth with both Stephen and Bloom taking part in the debate

It feels like Joyce is toying with you at this stage mixing things up and then hinting at things without making them obvious to the reader. Still, more tomorrow…