The Greatest Non-Autobiographical Autobiography
5 stars
This was a fascinating book. Yes, really. Obviously it's a thinly veiled facsimile of Joyce's own life but that's makes it all the more intriguing. It also casts a critical eye over Ireland at the turn of the 20th century (a tear has shed from my eye that I feel the need to clarify that now; time marches ever on). So I can understand some readers who come away confused or irritated that the book is a bit hard to 'get'. Context is everything and this book is set in a specific time and place. If you've never lived in Ireland you're already hamstrung. If you're not familiar with Irish history and culture, you're at a disadvantage. If you're not familiar with, and do not understand, the immense wrangling that Ireland was having with itself at the time, then the book will come off as the work of an arrogant …
This was a fascinating book. Yes, really. Obviously it's a thinly veiled facsimile of Joyce's own life but that's makes it all the more intriguing. It also casts a critical eye over Ireland at the turn of the 20th century (a tear has shed from my eye that I feel the need to clarify that now; time marches ever on). So I can understand some readers who come away confused or irritated that the book is a bit hard to 'get'. Context is everything and this book is set in a specific time and place. If you've never lived in Ireland you're already hamstrung. If you're not familiar with Irish history and culture, you're at a disadvantage. If you're not familiar with, and do not understand, the immense wrangling that Ireland was having with itself at the time, then the book will come off as the work of an arrogant writer inflated full of their own ego.
I didn't find it that way though. I found it a very forceful book whose title is completely accurate as to its contents. This is Joyce as he transforms from being one with Ireland, to being one apart from it. It details his slow progress and explains (quite well too) how various factions of society from the people, to the history, to the [British] government, to the church engaged in a conspiracy to prevent Stephen (i.e. Joyce) from fulfilling his true potential. That is, until his epiphany.
Certainly easier to read than 'Ulysses', 'Portrait' is still quintessentially a Joyce novel with its delicious use of the English language and a narrative that is segmented but never disjointed. I thoroughly enjoyed it and glad I did so given many surprise parallels that appeared between myself and Joyce which are quite amusing (if not thrilling) since we are so separated by time, place, and person among many other things.