A bit of a challenge for late January, but Burgess’s readers guide to James Joyce is lightly written (perhaps because he is not an academic critic) and very readable, apart from the direct quotes from, particularly Finnegan’s Wake, which I don’t think I will ever attempt to read. You can take difficulty too far.
But I did want to re-read both Portrait of an Artist (preferably buy a new copy as mine is covered with schoolboy annotations) and Ulysses (and also, although not a re-read) The Odyssey.
He did make an interesting suggestion about Ulysses; don’t try to read it cover to cover, but read a chapter every now and then and come back to it later. This would challenge the format of what I am writing, as I take some pride in finishing every book I have started, unless either I loath and ditch it (in which case it never appears here) or occasionally read half or so and junk it, in which case it gets a dismissive reference.
Comentarios