Reading along with the fantastic RE:JOYCE podcasts by Frank Delaney. Much easier going this time round.

I skipped the last 3 paragraphs, which may also have been the last 3 sentences of this book. Of course, that was still about 30 pages. I have seen a lot of times when someone gives a bad review to a book, someone else will say "I think you just didn't understand it." So, I'll say right up front, I just didn't understand it. Half of it seemed to be a bunch of nonsensical words strung together. The second to last section of the book was just a bunch of philosophical questions and answers. There seemed to be a play in the middle of the book about an indecency trial or something. I couldn't tell who Leopold Bloom was. Was Leopold Bloom Uncle Peter? I was left scratching my head about that, too. It might have made me mad if I cared.

I tried, I really tried. I began to skim a little and then a lot as I could not find any theme, purpose or plot. There were some images of the protagonists and the times and places they in which they existed which formed in my mind, so that is why it is 2 stars and not one.
In Dublin, recently, a tour guide slyly advocated for skipping the first 3 chapters of this book. Sound advice.

One of the best novels I've read, this year, ever…
Everybody's always talking about how to finish [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1346161221s/338798.jpg|2368224] in the first place. I had no difficulties, but I took some precautions to finish this superbly written, extremely funny and intensely meaningful novel: before starting every chapter I read a 2 or 3 sentence summary so I had a firm grip on the (sometimes difficult) text. I can recommend this to every reader; it absolutely didn't reduce the reading experience. It didn't spoil at all (it's not a case of whodunnit or something like that). Beside the summaries I used this little site dedicated to [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1346161221s/338798.jpg|2368224]: LINK. The map with locations and characters added to the reading experience; especially as it brought back memories to my Dublin visit some years ago.
This really might help those who failed to finish [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1346161221s/338798.jpg|2368224] before. Still, even than, there's a group of people that won't finish it, or will fully appreciate it. That's not the group of people who are not smart enough (a popular unjust opinion), it's instead a group of people who think they know it all and are smarter than the novel, itself. They're not. I firmly believe that one of the basic creeds of the novel is instead: you don't know nothing, but you live everything. So: turn down the conception of A truth. It's exactly for this reason that the novel is anti-racist, anti-nationalistic etc.
In the brilliant Chapter 17 there are many indications of a mobile, ever changing, state of life, so to speak. "That it was not a heaventree, not a heavengrot, not a heavenbeast, not a heavenman. That it was a Utopia, there being no known method from the known to the unknown: an infinity renderable equally finite by the suppositious apposition of one or more bodies equally of the same and of different magnitudes: a mobility of illusory forms immobilised in space, remobilised in air: a past which possibly had ceased to exist as a present before its probable spectators had entered actual present existence."
In a way, Bloom's one-day-journey, although obviously 'done before' ([b:The Odyssey|1381|The Odyssey|Homer|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349112871s/1381.jpg|3356006]) is just another life story in a long row of journeys (of heroes); just told differently (read the tough but impressive Chapter 14); it's about you and me of course. But remember: " No-one is anything." (Chapter 8).
It's incredible that an obviously very much constructed piece of art, which [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1346161221s/338798.jpg|2368224] is, reads like the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps because it's life itself.

4.6 / 5

I've read it once, in tandem with The Odyssey to maximize the relationships between the episodes in each. However, the translation of the Odyssey I was using had been written as a recollection of past events, and was therefore, not in the same order as Joyce had used to base his tale. Before that I read it in deterministically over 30 days calculating page numbers by daily Tarot card readings. I plan to read it again from front to back, finally. There's a lot of really brilliant stuff happening. Most of it over my head, but with a bit of guidance appreciation grows. This edition has copious notes which were invaluable. I also developed a song collection based on all of the music mentioned in the book. There are so many angles this piece can be attacked from. It's not your typical best seller type novel. It's been written in a most unconventional way, and invites unconventional reading strategies. Only Finnegans Wake could be more unconventional and invite more creative methods to enjoy. Have fun.

This is the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. The prose is appaling, the plot discombobulated & the characters weak. I value books greatly & always pass on those I do not wish to keep. However, as I would not wish this read on my worst enemy I threw my copy in the rubbish. A truly dreadful read. I mourn the loss of the time it took me to read it.