A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The book I've been reading over the last week is "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, published in 1916. The book is listed as number 3 on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th century, a list of the best English-language novels. I've read several other works on the list and I'm not sure if I agree with that assessment, but what do I know. Here is what the book's jacket has to say:

"James Joyce's first and most widely read novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the story of of Stephen Dedalus, a young man struggling to decide between a religious vocation and an artistic one. The aftermath of the struggle that is so poignantly and unflinchingly recorded forms a large part of the story of Joyce's masterwork, Ulysses, in which Stephen reappears as a main character.

In A Portrait of the Artist, Joyce renounces an episodic framework in favor of a group of scenes which radiate backward and forward. As such, the book more closely resembles a random series of portraits than a chronological narrative. Using his own childhood and adolescence as the basic theme of the story, Joyce attempts to recreate the past by embracing it."

Be warned, there may be some information below that may spoil certain sections of the novel, though, I'll try to keep them to a minimum.

This is my second reading of Joyce's novel, though, the last time I read it, it was 20 years ago. I have no clue what possessed me to read it again but I'm glad I did. I was amazed how much of the book and themes I was able to recall from my required reading back in High School. Some of the book can become tedious and for me it rambled from time to time. On the other hand, there is a lot of good to be found in this novel as well. After several passages or a chapter I was left thinking about what I read. Here are a few items from the book that have stayed with me:

Stephen, attending his first Christmas at the adults table, listening to an argument that becomes rather heated between his family and their friends over the role of the Catholic church and the late Irish Nationalist, Charles Stewart Parnell.

Stephen's triumph at an early age over a wrongful punishment by the prefect of studies at a Jesuit boarding school.

A trip to Cork that Stephen takes with his father, that becomes painful and embarrassing for him on several occasions. Most brutal is the realization by Stephen as to how unfit his father is to him and to his family.

All of chapter three. The chapter deals with a three day retreat at Stephen's current school, Belvedere. A series of sermons are retold in the novel dealing with hell and the experiences one will likely meet in hell. Though I'm not a religious person, I found the descriptions and narrative to be very interesting and very powerful. By the end of the retreat Stephen is terrified for his soul and seeks confession away from his school to save himself from his mortal sins of the past couple of years, specifically his time spent at the brothels in Dublin.

Finally, I found the conclusion most satisfying where Stephen comes to the realization that he must leave his faith, his family, and his country in the pursuit of his artistic development.

I'm not sure that I can recommend this book (I gave the novel four stars at Goodreads which is probably being generous). I enjoyed the style and format of the book but it's probably not for everyone. There are some moments where the book does become tiresome and a little unclear, mostly due to the stream of consciousness narrative technique. Perhaps someday I'll take a shot at reading Ulysses but after spending a week with Joyce, that time will not be soon.