Dubliners
by James Joyce
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Book Summary Information
Author: James JoyceEdition: Perfect Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 1580491650
Number of pages: 190
Publisher: Prestwick House, Inc.
Book Reviews of Dubliners
Book Review: "A long mournful whistle into the mist"
Summary: 5 Stars
Although James Joyce lived outside of his native Ireland for most of his life, his work is as Irish as peat smoke. His story collection Dubliners, published in 1914, consists of fifteen slices of early 20th century life in the city where Joyce was born. Dublin itself is a detailed backdrop, and the self-awareness of the characters plays out on Dublin's streets and interiors. The reader doesn't find rollicking plots here, but the character sketches are rewarding and somewhat open-ended. Many of the characters are at some turning point or epiphany; many are rather unlovely; but all go under the lens with no moral judgment from the author. This is not a book that spoon-feeds attitudes or opinions.
Joyce reveals to us a boy whose adventure leads to a brush with a child molester; a young woman planning to elope but choosing the safety of domestic servitude at the last minute; a boarding house proprietor who turns a blind eye as her daughter gets pregnant by one of the residents; a rage-filled clerk who craves drink and takes out his frustration on his colleagues and family; an emotionally remote man who spurns the affection of a woman and is confronted with his own loneliness when he sees her obituary in the paper. In the final story, the novella-length "The Dead," Gabriel is an educated but socially awkward character who suddenly realizes that his lack of engagement with life is profoundly crippling.
These characters don't seem to be putting their best feet forward for the reader's entertainment, but they ARE drenched in their own realities. The trappings of religion thread through the stories ("the Holy Ghost and the banshee"), as do poverty, drink, repression, fear and rage. Was this the Ireland feeling its national identity, unfurling itself after the Local Government Act set it on a liberating course to Home Rule? Dubliners is like a family portrait taken early in the morning after a long, hard night; there's no romanticizing and it may not be the whole truth, but you have to acknowledge that the shadowed eyes and weary postures have a crystalline reality. Five stars.
Linda Bulger, 2008
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