Dubliners by James Joyce

In Dubliners, completed when Joyce was only 25, he produced a definitive group portrait. It is a book, as suggested in the Introduction, ‘rooted in an intensely accurate apprehension of the detail of Dublin life’.

Full of brutal realism, each chapter is a story within itself. And yet, beyond its bitter truths, lies a book full of enigmas, ambiguities and symbolic resonances.

Dubliners remains an undisputed masterpiece, a work that compels attention by the power of its unique vision of the world.

It is surprising how easily our perception can be influenced. When it comes to classic literature, this is doubly so! How long have you had the idea that reading James Joyce is just too hard? Well this year our book club took the challenge and Joyce’s Dubliners has scored the highest yet. We were all in agreement that the writing was superb and that Joyce has that very Irish knack of telling a tale that is entertaining yet sorrowful. As we have said before … no one does it like the Irish!

It was commented that the narration serves as an observer to what, in anyone else’s hands, would be ordinary, everyday stories. But Joyce has a way of bringing his characters to life with everything that makes us human. Clever turn of phrase and descriptive language all come together to weave a picture of Dublin at a time that it was truly Irish.

Our discussion included an interesting look at Joyce himself and some of the challenges he faced getting published. As a group we always try to do a little background into authors. I helps to round out our discussions and also adds an extra dimension to what we learn from the literature we read.

We shared real life experiences in Ireland and had plenty of opinions on the traditions and uniqueness of the Irish people. We also felt we were able to pin point the difficult position the country and its people were caught in at the time of Dubliners publication. Somewhere between the modern and traditional world.

Something that only a writer of Joyce’s calibre would be able to deliver.