Ullysses is one of those books that I should have read (I own it - I was supposed to study it) and haven't, past the first 30 pages or so. Whereas, I did once have New Years Eve in a very huge country house and flunkies did indeed serve kidneys and kedgeree at 3 am (but not on the same plate). Good party.
I suggest try again, Glidd. Ulysses is a stupendous piece of writing, a breathtaking masterpiece on so many levels. Joyce was the most brilliant writer of fiction I have ever read, a true genius. With Finnegan's Wake, however, his writing so far outstripped my capacity to comprehend it that I am not competent to express a useful opinion.
I think when I was starting to read it (for an essay, you understand) it seemed to me that not having read Portrait of the Artist I was missing something. So I tried to tackle that first. Did I finish it? Not sure. But I definitely ran out of time for Ulysses. As for Finnegan's Wake - not at all sure that I took enough drugs to even hope to understand it. Mind you, in my early 20s, I found it also difficult to work up an appetite for Proust, although I wouldn't mind giving that another whirl now. Managed at least 100 pages of Du Côté de Chez Swann, but I found that the niceties of late 19th century / early 20th c French bourgeois etiquette a wee bit on the tedious side. It's not exactly Alastair Maclean, is it? Have also failed to read any Thomas Mann or Hermann Hesse. Maybe all this will be rectified one day, although life is short.
Or try Dubliners, Joyce's collection of short stories. They are easy to read and quite straightforward, but obviously very well written.
