Dublinesos (1914)

Extremely well written. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I remember reading it very quickly and with a special appreciation for Joyce. ( )

In a traitorous reversal of my usual approach, I give this edition of Dubliners five stars, and the stories themselves two. Jeri Johnson has produced more or less an academic edition at an outrageously cheap price; her introduction is excellent--providing background to the writing and publishing of the work, and solid readings of a few stories; her notes are *extremely* extensive (to the point that she annotates words I'm pretty sure I knew in middle school). So, excellent job there.

On the other hand, I couldn't help feeling that this edition was a distant descendent of The Dunciad. Not only because so much effort had been put into annotating words that more or less anyone reading this book should know, but because there seemed to be little point to the process of annotation. Sure, I appreciate being told that all of the landmarks and streets and shops are 'real,' and that occasionally they have some meaning that would otherwise have escaped me. But even with that meaning in my mind, very few of these stories are at all gripping. Without the stylistic hijinks of Ulysses, you're left with the bare fact that Joyce has no imagination, no ability to create plot, and not much of a mind for ideas. That doesn't matter when you're writing Ulysses. It matters a great deal when you're asking me to trawl through nearly 200 pages of dull, romanticized anecdotes about how x loves y but y betrays her; how w, x, y and z sit around drinking; and how people sometimes drive fast cars.

In short, most of these pieces are dreadfully boring, at all levels of boredom: stylistically tepid, intellectually dull*, emotionally uninteresting.**

There are, of course, exceptions. The Dead is fine. Eveline is fine melodrama. The Sisters towers above the rest of the collection. But at the end of the day, why would you read these things when you could read Henry James stories, which are better written, more intelligent, and not so obviously transcriptions of something that, you know, happened to me the other day on my way to the Liffey?

If this book had been written by, say, James Giffon, not only would it not get the hundred pages of notation treatment. It wouldn't even be in print.

*: the annotation tries to persuade you that these stories are not dull, and that Joyce is very cunningly using references to Dublin landmarks to place his characters. No doubt that seems very impressive when you don't know the landmarks, but consider that this is the early 20th century equivalent of putting your character in Toms and having her carry a Coach purse. It's not interesting in the slightest.
**: I recognize that it was very hard for Joyce to publish a book with the word 'bloody' in it, and that he took a risk writing a story involving a kiddy fiddler, and so on. These facts should be noted by historians of censorship; they are not reasons for reading the stories. ( )

Cover: Lothar Reher, Übersetzung: Dieter E. Zimmer, Nachwort: Joachim Krehayn

Harrow book club read. Captures aspects of life, not just Dublin life.

Rated at Joyce's standard. "The Dead" alone is a good enough story to pull this book through, but there are so many others. The characters are creepily modern; living in Dublin today the stories could all still take place (with taxis replacing carriages and street-lights replacing lamps). Mystifying. ( )