Every week in Time magazine, there is a feature in which some author I've never heard of lists the five most influential books he's ever read. This summer, Dubliners by James Joyce seemed to come up more than any book, so I decided to read it.It took me a while, but I finished the book on Tuesday. I've realized this summer that with the proliferation of blogs and on-line periodicals, it is becoming harder and harder for me to finish a novel. There are too many freaking distractions.
Luckily, Dubliners is a collection of short stories, so I was able to read it in spurts and finish it.
Now that I'm done, I'm a bit confused and actually upset with myself. Yeah, the short stories were interesting and well wrtitten, but I don't see how they fit together? What makes Dubliners great?
Maybe this has something to do with how I read the book. I didn't look for connections between the stories. I read them as isolated tales in an anthology of short stories. Maybe I should go back and read it as one large story, broken down into separate episodes.
Yet until then, I just don't get Dubliners.
1 comment:
well, it's been a while since i've read it, but i thought it was a collection of stories that dealt with life in Ireland. For instance, Araby and I'm sure a number of others contain religious references and/or symbolism. I think the book also deals with Ireland's relationship with England and the current (for Joyce's time) political atmosphere. An adjective that would appropriately tie together all of the stories in Dubliners would be 'freaking depressing.' However, I still enjoyed it. Hope this helps.
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