Roman Clodia’s review of Ulysses > Likes and Comments
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It would be easy to spend so long posting cool quotes that I'd never finish reading the actual book! I'm so glad I'm finally 'getting' Ulysses :)
I almost want to read it myself now! :) Can it be enjoy separately from the Odyssey or you have to get the references?
Mark wrote: "I realize this question was not addressed to me, so I hope I’m not being rude by offering my humble opinion here. You can read, understand and enjoy Ulysses without any knowledge of the Odyssey at ..."
Not rude at all! And I've read Odyssey but I'm not well-versed in it :) Thank you!
Lovely review! I wondered what could possibly be said about Ulysses that hasn't been said many times over. I enjoyed your review very much because you focused on your experience of it. I could feel the emotion.
Yes, I'd agree, Mark - it's perfectly possible to read this without Homer though, as usual, knowing and recognising a 'source' text adds to the complexity of what's on the page. That said, Ulysses is so rich and dense with allusions and intertexts that it's unlikely that any single reader is going to get them all so we're all missing stuff, essentially - which isn't a reason not to give this a try.
I'll be very interested, Nastya, in what you think. Some parts were easier than I expected, others left me flailing around in confusion!
Mark wrote: "The need for special knowledge aside from the text is greatly exaggerated. Ulysses is just a simple love story, albeit magically told."
Well, that's one way of seeing it ;) I'm not sure I'd wholly agree, though.
Laura wrote: "Lovely review! I wondered what could possibly be said about Ulysses that hasn't been said many times over. I enjoyed your review very much because you focused on your experience of it."
Ultimately, reading is such a subjective experience, isn't it? It can be so limiting to approach a book through how other people have read and understood it.
No need for apologies, Mark. This is such a rich book that there's plenty of room for different ways of making sense of it :)
Really, it's not a problem :) I hope things improve soon for you and your wife.
That’s just it. Joyce does not move emotionally.
This is such a wonderful review. This is not to challenge your experience, of course, but I think the capacity to move is vast in “Ulysses,” and it may come in unexpected places: Bloom’s confrontation with the Citizen moved me, Stephen’s “Non serviam!” moved me, even the switch of styles and registers in “The Oxen of the Sun” moved me — emotionally, in ways far surpassing pure intellectual satisfaction.
Thanks Ilya for sharing some of your key moments with this book: I can absolutely see that our individual responses to this are wide and limitless. Maybe on first read the technical experience is overwhelming; maybe I personally respond more fully to a female voice and experience, even when ventriloquised? And yes, I found Bloom a very human, humane and beautifully flawed creation.
This is such a lovely review RC. Congratulations on making your way through this one. I don't think I have the chops to take on "Ulysses" right now, but maybe someday. You have inspired me.
Degenerate Chemist wrote: "You have inspired me."
Aw, what a lovely thing to say! I hope you do give it a try as it's a unique reading experience. Also, it's the sort of book where it's well worth having a reading buddy to talk about each chapter as you'll probably both have different takes and notice different things.
So enjoyed your reflections here RC !
I have tried to read Joyce many times in my youth and decided as an adult to let him be !
Yes, I can understand that, Jaidee - if you've tried and it didn't work, best to just let it go.
Gorgeous review :) For me, what drove me to read the brick was the chapter built from a series of questions and answers :) The first time I read it, flicking through the pages, I felt as though I was tripping on literature ;)
Thanks P.E., so lovely to hear about different people's favourite chapters. Mine is Molly's soliloquy but I also really like Gerty McDowell on the beach - another female character and a chapter twinned with the Nausicaa episode in the Odyssey.
I sometimes felt that the pleasure was more intellectual than emotional too, but I've decided it's not really true – I was literally standing up out of my chair at times with the intellectual excitement of it! I love Nausicaa too (my favourite episode in the Odyssey also; and by the way, I'm sure on rereading that Gerty has an orgasm as well as Bloom), but the whole part of the book from Sirens through to Circe is amazing to me, just beyond words amazing. And yeah, the soliloquy at the end, what can you even say? It still seems so fresh in 2026. I'm confident you will find your way to that fifth star on a reread :)
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Roman Clodia
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May 02, 2022 04:38PM
It would be easy to spend so long posting cool quotes that I'd never finish reading the actual book! I'm so glad I'm finally 'getting' Ulysses :)
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I almost want to read it myself now! :) Can it be enjoy separately from the Odyssey or you have to get the references?
Mark wrote: "I realize this question was not addressed to me, so I hope I’m not being rude by offering my humble opinion here. You can read, understand and enjoy Ulysses without any knowledge of the Odyssey at ..."Not rude at all! And I've read Odyssey but I'm not well-versed in it :) Thank you!
Lovely review! I wondered what could possibly be said about Ulysses that hasn't been said many times over. I enjoyed your review very much because you focused on your experience of it. I could feel the emotion.
Yes, I'd agree, Mark - it's perfectly possible to read this without Homer though, as usual, knowing and recognising a 'source' text adds to the complexity of what's on the page. That said, Ulysses is so rich and dense with allusions and intertexts that it's unlikely that any single reader is going to get them all so we're all missing stuff, essentially - which isn't a reason not to give this a try. I'll be very interested, Nastya, in what you think. Some parts were easier than I expected, others left me flailing around in confusion!
Mark wrote: "The need for special knowledge aside from the text is greatly exaggerated. Ulysses is just a simple love story, albeit magically told."Well, that's one way of seeing it ;) I'm not sure I'd wholly agree, though.
Laura wrote: "Lovely review! I wondered what could possibly be said about Ulysses that hasn't been said many times over. I enjoyed your review very much because you focused on your experience of it."Ultimately, reading is such a subjective experience, isn't it? It can be so limiting to approach a book through how other people have read and understood it.
No need for apologies, Mark. This is such a rich book that there's plenty of room for different ways of making sense of it :)
Really, it's not a problem :) I hope things improve soon for you and your wife.
That’s just it. Joyce does not move emotionally.
This is such a wonderful review. This is not to challenge your experience, of course, but I think the capacity to move is vast in “Ulysses,” and it may come in unexpected places: Bloom’s confrontation with the Citizen moved me, Stephen’s “Non serviam!” moved me, even the switch of styles and registers in “The Oxen of the Sun” moved me — emotionally, in ways far surpassing pure intellectual satisfaction.
Thanks Ilya for sharing some of your key moments with this book: I can absolutely see that our individual responses to this are wide and limitless. Maybe on first read the technical experience is overwhelming; maybe I personally respond more fully to a female voice and experience, even when ventriloquised? And yes, I found Bloom a very human, humane and beautifully flawed creation.
This is such a lovely review RC. Congratulations on making your way through this one. I don't think I have the chops to take on "Ulysses" right now, but maybe someday. You have inspired me.
Degenerate Chemist wrote: "You have inspired me."Aw, what a lovely thing to say! I hope you do give it a try as it's a unique reading experience. Also, it's the sort of book where it's well worth having a reading buddy to talk about each chapter as you'll probably both have different takes and notice different things.
So enjoyed your reflections here RC !I have tried to read Joyce many times in my youth and decided as an adult to let him be !
Yes, I can understand that, Jaidee - if you've tried and it didn't work, best to just let it go.
Gorgeous review :) For me, what drove me to read the brick was the chapter built from a series of questions and answers :) The first time I read it, flicking through the pages, I felt as though I was tripping on literature ;)
Thanks P.E., so lovely to hear about different people's favourite chapters. Mine is Molly's soliloquy but I also really like Gerty McDowell on the beach - another female character and a chapter twinned with the Nausicaa episode in the Odyssey.
I sometimes felt that the pleasure was more intellectual than emotional too, but I've decided it's not really true – I was literally standing up out of my chair at times with the intellectual excitement of it! I love Nausicaa too (my favourite episode in the Odyssey also; and by the way, I'm sure on rereading that Gerty has an orgasm as well as Bloom), but the whole part of the book from Sirens through to Circe is amazing to me, just beyond words amazing. And yeah, the soliloquy at the end, what can you even say? It still seems so fresh in 2026. I'm confident you will find your way to that fifth star on a reread :)