Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

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         This semi-autobiographical novel tells the coming-of-age story of Stephen Dedalus, a young man growing up amidst the conflict for Irish home rule.  Stephen is used to letting other people dictate how he thinks about the world.  Issues like religion and patriotism play a central role in the Irish identity.  Stephen willingly goes along with the beliefs of his family and his teachers.  As he gets older, he realizes that those people weren't as wise as he once thought they were.  Without guidance from the people he used to respect, Stephen has to figure out what he believes to be true and find his own voice.

         It's been a while since I've had to write a review on a book that I read for school.  You might remember that those reviews are pretty short.  This will probably be short also; I get pretty tired of talking about books after a point.  The good news is that I actually liked Portrait, and class discussions didn't completely ruin it for me.  In fact, this book lends itself to deep philosophical discussion and analysis.  This is a good book at surface level, but there are lots of deeper layers that are worth thinking about.  Stephen deals with some pretty heavy themes: religion, nationality, family, and eternity, to name a few.  We get to know Stephen from inside his head (Joyce was apparently famous for this stream of consciousness style).  Sometimes it can be confusing, but I found that it also helps you to understand Stephen's thoughts and experiences.  I liked Stephen as a person despite the many mistakes he made.  He is annoying at times, I guess, but his determination to find out who he is and then stick with it is admirable.  On the whole, I thought that Portrait was a pretty good book, especially for a school assignment.

Rating: 3/5
Completed: October 22, 2012

Hello, blog.  I have neglected you.
It's been a while.  I've finally made it through Portrait as well as The Casual Vacancy and am on to the next book.  Which is awesome, by the way.  I promise I will try to post again soon, just in case there are people who sometimes read this blog.  :)
Reading this book made me think it's been a while since I've read a properly old book.  When is the last time you read a classic for fun (if you've ever done that at all)?  Mine was Sense and Sensibility in June 2011.  Maybe I should pick up another sometime soon . . .