Dubliners
(James Joyce)
The first time I was introduced to James Joyce's 'dubliners' (araby, to be specific), I was 13 years old and had no idea why a story about nothing was supposed to be so great. The second time I encountered JJ (in my early twenties), it inspired me to move to dublin and do a masters in irish literature. theres no accounting for taste, is there?
what is exactly so fantastic about dubliners is the pervading sense of lonliness and despair that permeates these stories, such as araby, where you wait for it...wait for it...wait for it.. (it being action i guess) and it never comes. so if nothing happened, why do i feel so depressed? half of the fun with this book is going back and reading the stories again to look a little closer and see how sneakily Joyce throws all this stuff in. houses sitting alone at the end of the row, dark windows, and the worst, all the floaty lingering sounds of exciting stuff happening but long gone once you show up to the bazzaar. brilliant.
my other favourite story in this turn of the century collection of work is the final selection, 'the dead'. no folks, its not just a film. its awkward and sad to watch snobby aspiring continentalist Gabriel Conroy try to interact with his family and friends (people who are waay beneath him, of course). he spends the whole evening worrying about how he people just wont understand him becauase hes too brilliant and then is he in for the shock of his life at the end... hes been living one life while his wife... well, youll have to see for yourself.
this whole collection embodies what joyce felt it was to be irish in the beginning of the twentieth century. isolated, backwards, cut off from the civilised world.. lonely and without hope. beautiful if you like world class writing and depression.
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