Dubliners - James Joyce


photo via Wordsworth-editions

Dubliners is a book of 15 short stories written by James Joyce, which is about the life of middle-class people living in Dublin. It is set in a period where people were searching for a sense of identity.

I thought the stories were very ironic and realistic. My favorite stories were A Little Cloud, a story of a man who thinks he leads an unsuccessful and unhappy life because of his family, and The Dead, about a man named Gabriel, who later discovers how insecure he is and something else he didn't know about his wife.

Some of the characters and events in Dubliners, particularly those in The Dead, were actually based upon Jame's own life.

Basically, the stories in Dubliners are about people discovering themselves.

I loved this book because each story leaves you thinking long after you've finished reading it.
The conversations between the characters were fun to read.

I read it as a Wordsworth book, and the introduction gave me a very good understanding of the stories.


my rating: 9/10 (must-read)

update: Stevie pointed out the sequel to The Dead, The Ugly, written by a young Irish writer called Anne Pignone in 2007 (click here to read it)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You recommended Wikipedia to read about The Dead and the other stories in Dubliners, but you know there are plenty of editions available on the net to read for free as well. And so is Anne Pigone's rewrite of The Dead, called The Ugly, that takes place in Boulder, Colorado, 100 years later.

Stevie

Zawan said...

Stevie,
thank you for telling me about The Ugly; I didn't know there was a sequel to the dead.
I just found it and I'll read it and then write about it on my blog.

thanks again,
zawan