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Ulysses For Everyone
Reading James Joyce’s greatest novel for the first time
I was always intimidated to read Ulysses by James Joyce. I don’t think it was so much the size as what people said about it. It’s at the top of every “100 Greatest Books” list you could imagine. It’s also talked about as being one of the most difficult books to read, and barely anyone I know has read it.
About two years ago I finally picked up a copy at a used book store, wanting to hopefully discover what the hype was about. I sat down with a fresh cup of coffee, and by the end of the second chapter I gave up. I didn’t pick it up for another year, at which point I got halfway into the third chapter, which was nearly incomprehensible to me. I thought, I’m just not smart enough. Oh well!
Six months later I happened to mention my Ulysses struggles to a pastor of a small, rural church in Vermont. “How far did you get?” he asked. When I told him, he said, “Everyone gets stuck at the third chapter. Just get through that and you’ll be alright.” He encouraged me to push through, and that it would be well worth my time. He then went on to draw out some of the novel’s beauty, its themes and comparison to Homer’s Odyssey, weaving it together in a way that left me thirsting for more.
