Sarah Song Song itibaren San Felipe, Baja California, Meksiko
I have always been a bit reticent of tackling a writer with such an imposing reputation-- I rember glancing at the first few pages of Ulysses and Finigan's Wake in the sixth form library, and that pretty much put me off. However, Fun Home has inspired me to give Joyce a go. 'Dubliners' is my warm up in preparation for scaling Mount Ulysses ('Portrait of the Artist' is next on the list). Some of the stories are barely that-- they are moments of four or five pages. However, what astonished is how emotionally charged or engaging they manage to be; they are thought-provoking far beyond many novels I have read. There are definite themes that seem to tie the stories together, but given the amount that has been written on Joyce it would be redundant to list them here (it also avoids risking me looking an idiot!). Not all of the stories are successful, but I suspect that is as much down to my level of concentration or mood at the time I read them rather than inadequacies in the writing. The ones I found thoughts returning to were 'Araby', 'The Boarding House', 'Counterparts' and 'The Dead'. The latter stands out particularly, not least because it seemed much more a short novella than a story-- it is as if the collection builds to a crescendo with it, taking many themes or ideas from the other stories and, for a collection, providing a final, quiet (and somber) conclusion.