James Joyce's Ulysses, 100 Years Later: Book Review
by Armando Ortiz
A few days ago, I finished reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, and what better timing to put this up than today, Bloomsday. The date of when the story is set is June 16, 2012 and ever since its publication people have celebrated this day as the day that we get to experience one entire day in the life of Leopold Bloom.
Though it was a bit of a challenge at times, the overall experience of reading the novel was good. Prior to reading this I had read A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, and after some encouraging words from a close friend I decided to read it. Ulysses offered me a slice of what Dublin, Ireland was one hundred years ago. Joyce was no longer living in Dublin when Ulysses was written and published, but nevertheless memories of his life certainly must have been as vivid as the images in the book were. Through the eyes of L. Bloom and the voice of many other characters we are able to see what it was like to be in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Dublin. It also lets us understand the multiple realities that are ever present in our daily existence as we walk down a sidewalk or drive down the street.
Joyce describes the countless perspectives that exist in the reality of Bloom’s life, and if one considers that then what was done in Ulysses was an attempt at something that can be a daunting challenge. Imagine trying to capture the multiplicity of what goes on in a moment with the people that are close to you, like your relatives or friends, with your neighbors, with the cat that lies on the floor sunbathing or the flowers and cactus that decorate a balcony. Let’s also consider the squirrel that comes to visit my cat or the crow that paid it a visit when it was barely a kitten.
Yes, the writing is complex at times, but as life and time continues unfolding within the narrative we begin to see a man who loves life, and who relishes and despises it at every moment. Though there are problems in his life, like every other person’s in this world, he goes about his business enjoying the sights that he perceives, which includes the waves by the shore, ladies walking bye, peddlers, cavalcades of soldiers, pub meetings, meals and buildings that house café, restaurant, lawyers, candy stores, and notaries. His mind absorbs only a slice of what it seems, which is a lot, and interprets it. Through him we come to understand that at times we too get caught up in our mind’s thoughts while going through our daily routines like using the toilet, walking to the market, visiting friends and going to work. Our material body is present, but so are many other bodies and individual minds, which are individual universes that think of the past, present, future. At this instant people are recalling the things learned and the things experienced. In Ulysses we experience the ever present moment of Bloom, and see the actions that he takes, and the places where he goes, and the people he meets. Towards the end of the novel Bloom tries to bring Stephen into a kind of balance between intellectual thought and the spirit through a long and oftentimes disjointed discussion of one’s existence. The story is told in such a way that one cannot avoid assimilating the message of living in the moment, and taking on the responsibility that life demands.
There were moments where I wondered what I was doing reading the novel. I mean, there were instances where he used some really tough language, but more than that there were times when he would alternate with characters or describe certain settings causing me to put the book down and wonder what I was doing. Luckily, that only happened a few times, most of the time Joyce kept me amused and entertained with his puns and outlandish jokes. Many of the descriptions that he gives are funny and the word play that he uses at times dumbfounded me with amazement.
One of the features that I greatly appreciate from the book is how Joyce turns a “regular day” into an extraordinary experience. It offers us a day in the life of Bloom, a husband, father, friend, employee, foreigner, citizen, lover, a customer and an advisor who meets many other main characters who are imbued with the spirit of life, experience, and emotional voices. The people he meets and sees are the very same characters that one sees in a day, like the homeless man that sits on the bus stop, the window cleaner, works at the local coffee shop, sandwich makers, produce workers, pastry chefs, beautiful ladies that are beginning to bloom, in their prime or past their years of vigor. We see gardeners, firemen, cops, birds, clouds, soldiers, the sky, and in all that there are thoughts within all the millions of people that call the city home.
At times the book made me wonder how he came up with such a daunting task. In a sense I felt challenged thinking about how I could go about writing such a book with such ambition and manage to pull it off all in the scope of one day. How does one character in a book manage to go through so much in such very little time? Well, the answer lies in our own personal lives. Every breathing moment of our lives is an extraordinary event and it certainly is possible to fit in more than 700 pages of prose to describe one day of our lives. Just think for a moment of all the people that one meets in a day, and the stories that they have to share, now consider the inanimate things that come alive vis a vis our communal existence, cars, buildings, light poles, offices, and streets. Without people all these things would just be there, but no, it needs the presence of people to come alive. It needs the presence of multiple realities. It needs a multiplicity of perspectives and experiences and that is what the book gives to the reader.
Life can be overwhelming at times and it can be easy to get stuck on one train of thought, nevertheless, life continues to go, like a river, just like Bloom has to go through all that he goes through, and despite all the routine he manages to reminisce on his dead son, think about his daughter that is in college in some other town and think about his wife and what she is doing at that very moment in the house alone. There is death and life in the book. There is passion, chance meetings, undesired encounters, there are starving dogs and satisfied cats. There are those that talk with a fine English accent and those that talk as Irish country bumpkins. In the end the yes that is repeated a couple of times at the end of the book is a yes to life, and an embrace to the unknown that will one day become known, to the fears that will become common routine and to the commitments that we will follow through to the end. In many ways Joyce successfully captures the continuation of life and all that that entails in the everyday life of a person.
Declan Kiberd is right in his overall take on the book, in Ulysses “people are educated by their sins, and they must learn first how to go wrong, in order, later to go right, only in that way could the everyday be re-enchanted.” Through reading Ulysses we “learn how to watch and look at things.” In addition to morals and instances of humanity, Bloom’s mode of transportation aside from carriage and trolley are his two feet. Most of the places that he visits are done walking. There is an excessive amount of walking that reminded me of the times I’ve walked. It reminded me of when I was a student in South Korea and I would go for long evening walks around Sinchon, where every other person was a college student, and was out drinking with their friends. It brought back memories of when my friends and I would go have dinner together and talk about all kinds of things, and how we’d all get drunk and end up having another meal to sober up a bit. It reminded me of all the times when I was traveling through unknown cities and I would go out for walks and look around visiting ancient temples or museums. It reminded me of when as a kid I was in Chinatown and I saw the Lion dance being performed by 5 guys that were hiding under the giant lion costume. It reminded me of when I’d go to the alleys of Downtown L.A.’s garment district and buy discounted clothes with my parents. It reminded me of how when I was starting college I’d ride the bus and all the weird characters, including me, rode inside, every day, and how I eventually started riding my bike and how that brought new experiences. It also reminded me of the walk I take to the post office at the end of every month to drop off the paperwork that goes to the tutoring office. Life might seem to get boring at times, but there is always life and an abundance of possibilities, and it’s through reflection and our merging with life that we get to live life to the fullest.
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