Dubliners by James Joyce (July 2017)
Joyce's
collection describes Dublin's middle class life at the turn of the 20th
century (1). Over fifteen stories, he observes and describes the many
ways people find to live and die in this town.
I'm not
sure what I was expecting when I opened this book. Perhaps it was
something less accessible and, in some way, more Irish. But I was
happy with what the collection turned out to be.
I got the
sense Joyce carefully balanced the understanding and empathy he felt for his
characters with his general disgust for how the environment encouraged
them to behave. After I finished reading, I was not surprised to learn
Joyce left Dublin soon after this collection was completed. Though
Dubliners was written over a century ago, I think many will find
themselves familiar with the struggle to find their own place within
this eternal balancing act.
Of the fifteen stories, I
enjoyed 'Araby' and 'A Mother' enough to read both an extra time. I also did the same for 'A Painful Case', a
type of story I almost always enjoy: a protagonist, accustomed to always
looking outward, has an epiphany when taking a rare moment to look
within.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Or apparently, anyway.
Sometimes,
we readers just have to take these types of remarks for granted. Who
knows what life in Dublin was like in 1905? Not me. But apparently
Joyce captured it perfectly, or so everyone says, and thus I have no
choice but to go with it.
