Just finished James Joyce's Ulysses!

By Panther_Cloudy

Seriously, what a rush—took me about 6 months. I’m usually faster than that with books this long (a month, sometimes two if it’s a bit harder). I started back in December as a lockdown thing and now I’m basically ending it while sunbathing in June. I don’t even know how else to put it: this book was unreal and it honestly changed how I feel about reading it. If you’re on the fence, just go for it, but I’d say don’t jump straight into this—start with *Dubliners* and *A Portrait* first. The way Joyce writes is just ridiculous. He sets up these images you can almost see, but not quite, and it’s so layered that it basically hijacks your imagination. There were like 3 times I thought “okay, that’s it,” but I pushed through. Once I got past the tough parts, everything after was way easier, almost like it opened up. I even felt like it “rides” along the way the ocean does in the Odysseus story (and yeah, I’m guessing that’s on purpose). I’m from London and I still haven’t been to Dublin yet, but somehow Joyce makes it feel familiar, like I grew up there. That’s especially true in *Dubliners*, and you really get the same vibe in *Ulysses* too. One thing though: at the beginning I tried to just go with it and I skipped the appendices, which ended up being a mistake. After chapter 1 I was suddenly obsessively looking at every little detail. To be honest, I didn’t fully “get” a lot of it. But I figure that might be normal—like only Joyce himself could really understand it completely. After this I’m grabbing some short stories to clear my brain, then back to my sci-fi favorites. And if everything goes okay, I’ll probably try *Finnegans Wake* sometime next year.