What are you currently reading?

[aligreto]

Welcome back, Fergus!
Yes, it seems to me, Ulysses is not an easy read. I don't know when I will start reading it. Still, it is a best seller book on Amazon USA and it is recommended by Amazon.  I like Dubliners since I read it first time when I was a high-school student.

Thank you, Manabu.
Ulysses was not an easy read but it was ultimately rewarding to finally reach the final page.
It was definitely thought provoking being a Dubliner and, obviously, and Irishman.
It was definitely an epic read.

[aligreto]

Then you're ready to read Finnegan's Wake....might need only a decade or so to finish it.

I've have Ulysses in my bookcase for 30 years, but have never gotten past the opening. FW I've at least read the first hundred or so pages.

From my college courses, I have the impression that part of Ulysses's fame was due to it being a pioneer work in using stream of conciousness--and FW being a logical next step, stream of subconciousness (since its surface layer is presented as one man's night long dream).

I think that I will leave Finnegan's Wake until I have reach my dotage.  It is only then that I will probably only have any chance of understanding it. 
I feel that one would have to totally suspend reality to get anywhere with any comprehension of this work!

Seriously, though, as far as Finnegan's Wake  is concerned, the thinking in Ireland has long been that it is best read aloud. This, apparently, facilitates the flow of language and also the stream of conscientiousness.

[aligreto]

It's been a long time and it was in translation and I had some commentary/guide book but I made it through Ulysses in my early 20s. There were some passages that I found just irritating or hardly comprehensible, even with a commentary, others are entertaining or immersive or both. Also, the "matching" of episodes to episodes from Homer is sometimes a bit silly (e.g. the Cyclops is paralleled by someone throwing something after Bloom)
I am not sure about translation quality but if one likes the  "many-voiced" style in a more manageable and less difficult way, I'd recommend Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz, basically a novel of 1920s Berlin, incl. its seedy underbelly.

Honestly, it must be very difficult to translate Ulysses into any language!!
Joyce himself may have made a good fist of it into French or Italian, perhaps.

[JBS]

I think that I will leave Finnegan's Wake until I have reach my dotage.  It is only then that I will probably only have any chance of understanding it. 
I feel that one would have to totally suspend reality to get anywhere with any comprehension of this work!

Seriously, though, as far as Finnegan's Wake  is concerned, the thinking in Ireland has long been that it is best read aloud. This, apparently, facilitates the flow of language and also the stream of conscientiousness.

I'm not sure Joyce intended for his readers to understand FW. I mean, would you know unprompted that "Anna Livia Plurabelle" is in part a stand-in for the River Liffey and in part the dreamer's wife?

But reading it aloud does make sense, given that it's in some ways a prose poem filled with portmanteau words and multi-faceted symbols.

[aligreto]

But reading it aloud does make sense, given that it's in some ways a prose poem filled with portmanteau words and multi-faceted symbols.

Also, as music was important to Joyce, reading Finnegan's Wake aloud is also purported to aid and assist with the musicality and lyricism of the text.

[Spotted Horses]

Joyce: Ulysses





I have, at last, finally completed reading this opus after at least three attempts to do so.
There are very many appreciations written about this book. I understand its importance as far as the form of The Novel is concerned. One only has to read it to discover how radical it was particularly for its time. I really like and appreciate Joyce's use of words and especially his play on words, being a fellow Dubliner.
However, this was a difficult read for me. It takes stamina to read one's way to the end. It took me three months to get through it without reading anything else concurrently.
In one sense I genuinely do not understand the universal appeal of this book. There are so many specific references to the colloquial essence of a particular place in time [Dublin], particular historical events and persons [in Ireland], colloquial expressions of speech and the manner of local personal inter-reactions that I find it difficult to comprehend how well it appears to have travelled. I wonder how much of it is really comprehended and understood? On the other hand I realise that its appeal can also be universal in the sense that the events, or similar, could have happened in any other European capital city even if the pervading historical background was different.
I must humbly confess that I did not understand or follow large tracts of the prose, particularly when I was presented with some paragraphs that went on for up to two or more pages in length, and sometimes more. There was also that extended "Play" in the novel. What on earth was that about?
Make no doubt about it, this is not an easy read. For me, as a result, this was also not an inspirational read. It was tough going throughout and I sometimes had to force myself to pick up the book again and continue. However, I am very pleased that I have eventually completed reading this epic tome.

After 30 years, I am perhaps 20% of the way through. There are parts of the book which are magical, and other parts of the book which seem pointless and/or unintelligible and I have the feeling that I am missing some essential reference and not getting it. A annotated version where I am endlessly referring to notes explaining what I am missing has no appeal. I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.

[Florestan]

I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.

May I suggest José Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda. I'm sure the world therein is very different from yours --- and as a bonus, you'll meet Domenico Scarlatti as a character. 

[Florestan]

Honestly, it must be very difficult to translate Ulysses into any language!!

It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

[Mandryka]

It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

I think you're missing something special. A lot of it will be untranslatable, but that's not the special bit. The special bit is the first two chapters of Part III.

The story is about a day in which two men who don't know each other just wonder around Dublin, they meet by accident, and then go their separate ways. Leopold is a father in quest of a child, his child died. And Stephen is an orphan, a son in quest of a father. When they meet, in Part III, it almost could happen. You think that Leopold could be the father for Stephen and Stephen could be the son for Leopold. But -- and here's something wonderful -- they transcend that. They go their separate ways. Stephen, young man, goes to live his life, and Leopold, middle aged man, lets him go, and kisses his wife in bed.

That process of them meeting and then separating is, for me, one of the high points in all the literature I know. And in fact, it is not at all hard to read, the language there is simple and the plot is linear.

[aligreto]

Balzac: Lost Illusions





My version was, I think, a good translation by one Ellen Marriage. I was quite satisfied with it.
This is a sorry tale of naivete, stupidity, loyalty, deception and narcissism. The plot and the characterisation are both well developed by Balzac. I found it to be a page turner despite the frustration regarding the faults of the main protagonists. As is often the case with men, it is the women in their lives who have the real strength, fortitude and grip on reality.

[aligreto]

After 30 years, I am perhaps 20% of the way through. There are parts of the book which are magical, and other parts of the book which seem pointless and/or unintelligible and I have the feeling that I am missing some essential reference and not getting it. A annotated version where I am endlessly referring to notes explaining what I am missing has no appeal. I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.

Joyce's Ulysses certainly immerses one in a different world. There can definitely be no question about that. Whether one comprehends that world seems to be the question. I, for one, did not fully grasp this particular world. However, I did grasp enough to realise that this is quite a unique take on Life.

[aligreto]

I think you're missing something special. A lot of it will be untranslatable, but that's not the special bit. The special bit is the first two chapters of Part III.

The story is about a day in which two men who don't know each other just wonder around Dublin, they meet by accident, and then go their separate ways. Leopold is a father in quest of a child, his child died. And Stephen is an orphan, a son in quest of a father. When they meet, in Part III, it almost could happen. You think that Leopold could be the father for Stephen and Stephen could be the son for Leopold. But -- and here's something wonderful -- they transcend that. They go their separate ways. Stephen, young man, goes to live his life, and Leopold, middle aged man, lets him go, and kisses his wife in bed.

That process of them meeting and then separating is, for me, one of the high points in all the literature I know. And in fact, it is not at all hard to read, the language there is simple and the plot is linear.

That is a very fair appreciation of the work.

[Jo498]

It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

Portrait of an Artist... has the distinction being one of two books I started reading but never finished because I lost them while travelling! and could never be bothered to buy another copy to finish (the other one was "Sophie's Choice").

[vandermolen]

A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:

[aligreto]

A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:

Dying is one of the basic inevitabilities of Life. We should all give it some thought at some stage. It will happen to us all at some stage.
I remember some years ago a person whom I knew died from a very unforeseen and unusual death. That person was not in the least prepared to die in any legal sense [personal affairs not in order nor any will made]. Tragically, when that person realised that death was a reality the unpreparedness caused that person much grief and distress at the end. It took years for the estate to be sorted by the family. This was definitely not something that this person would have wanted to be imposed on the family.

The other aspect, of course is the emotional, spiritual or psychological preparedness for our transition. I have also known someone who did know that they were dying and who finally allowed themself to pass. That was quite a thing to experience.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:

The book has been on my list. I think Michel de Montaigne said something like that freedom is an absence of fear of dying. I have tons of books about dying.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. David Quammen
Nice book about evolution.


 

[Mandryka]

The book has been on my list. I think Michel de Montaigne said something like that freedom is an absence of fear of dying. I have tons of books about dying.

If Montaigne said that he was completely wrong. Freedom is the absence of fear of living, obvs.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

If Montaigne said that he was completely wrong. Freedom is the absence of fear of living, obvs.

  Well-done.

Actually Schopenhauer wrote that we should be frightened of the life rather than death, something like that.

[vandermolen]

Interesting follow-ups to my posting the Kathryn Mannix book - thanks.
Now I'm reading this. I heard the last part read on the radio recently and am enjoying it: