I noticed that Patrick posted on this book, and wanted to comment as well. James Joyce is an amazing writer, who can play with words in a way that most writers cannot. This is a story of coming of age. It is about choice-Stephen Dedalus has to choose between family expectation of a “normal” life and his artistic dreams. It is semi-autobiographical, and this makes it all the more interesting, to get the chance to look into his mind. Joyce was a forward thinker who began to change the nature of writing itself. If you like his work, I suggest another title of his: Finnegan’s Wake.

Oh I am so behind on posting. This is what grad school does to me.
So this was our first book, for the book group I have started to host. The discussion about the book was good, some people liked it, some not as much. A lot of people felt it was hard to get through, with the Irish vernacular and the obscure references to the culture that he lived in.

I enjoyed the novel, though more from a historical period piece on the coming of age of an artist and I really enjoyed both the aesthetic quality of the piece and the comments it had on aesthetics and beauty in general.