I have tried and tried and tried to write this final blog posting on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and… I just don’t have much to say about it!
I was so looking forward to reading this book because while Ulysses was not my favorite novel, I did appreciate and sympathize with the character of Stephen. So what could be better than a story line centered on Stephen? Well a lot of things, apparently. Instead of reading I worked on my taxes, read a number of magazines, looked over at the Kindle once in awhile, watched Tangled more than I should have, listened to the iPod, read grammar manuals for heaven’s sake, and I don’t know what else.
I just could not get into this book! I still sympathize with Stephen and think that he is quite a intriguing character. He does go through a lot of deep soul-searching in this novel. I love the coming-of-age premise and actually enjoyed the beginning of the book describing his early boarding school days. It just never captured my attention after that and didn’t pick up some of the story lines I was expecting it too, such as Stephen’s relationship with his mother. While I still think Joyce is absolutely brilliant, his style of writing is laborious.
So, farewell to Stephen for now and hello to Humbert Humbert from Lolita, who I’m sure will be just as thought provoking as Mr. Dedalus!
Heather Paquette 