Skip to main content

Portrait of the Artist, James Joyce 33%

Childhood:  the Christmas dinner argument over Parnell, with Stephen listening, has to be the greatest dinner argument passage in all of literature.  Breathtaking.

Then the book goes to his adolescence . . .  The writing remains just exquisite, but the topic . . . As a fallen-away Irish Catholic I can follow the adolescent angst just fine, but do I care about?  Not really.  The "child" Stephen is an observer, an innocent, the underdog.   Adolescent Stephen is the smart kid with the over-developed conscience.  At times the book feels like an archaeological artifact. "Believe it or not, there was a a time when . . ."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Netflix Lincoln Lawyer

 Just a long yawner.  Acting was fine; there just wasn't nearly enough plot to carry 10 episodes.  Tech guy accused of killing wife.  LL takes on the case after the tech lawyer's first lawyer is murdered.  Mickey Haller gets the guy off . . . trick is the guy is guilty.  He used a drone to dispose of bloody clothes.  Subplot Maggy McFierce trying to get a conviction of a human trafficker.  She loses but then wins.  The divorced couple almost gets back together, but they are on opposite sides of the adversarial process and work comes first.  Won't be in a hurry to watch Season 2
Post a Comment
Read more

Live and Let Die

 The Fleming book, flawed by 50's racism, moves along in plot and character.  Fleming is an excellent writer--great descriptive powers and pacing. The movie has no redeeming qualities.  All that's left from the book is the racism, and in the book you can feel Fleming's doubts about his racist scenes slipping in.  In the movie (made years later), the racism is incredible.  1972.  Those who say no progress has been made should watch this.  Impossible to imagine this film being made today.
Post a Comment
Read more