Declan Kiberd

Kiberd’s thesis is that Ulysses is about the exaltation of the humble; the everyday; the way the most banal aspects of life can yield wisdom if we cease to insist on a separation of the sacred from the quotidian.

He bemoans the usurpation of Ulysses by specialists and pedants, claiming that Joyce meant for his work to be accessible to the common man. Ulysses is a book, Kiberd asserts, “with much to teach us about the world…” but too many readers are scared off of it by “the legend show more of its forbidding difficulty…” Joyce, Kiberd maintains, rejected the idea that education should be walled off from the masses, or that the common man could not be self-educated or appreciative of “higher” culture. Indeed, Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante wrote for the masses, and as Kiberd argues, “The popular reading can not only be enriched over time by the learned one, but it can also enrich the learned interpretation.”

Much of this very readable book consists of a chapter-by-chapter exegesis of Ulysses, explaining the themes of the chapters, and also noting the references/similarities to Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare (Hamlet). Kiberd’s focus (as he maintains is Joyce’s) is showing in what way the text points to the “sacrament of everyday life” and the repercussions of failing to appreciate this in one’s own life.

Evaluation: Kiberd makes very perceptive and thought-provoking observations not only about Ulysses but about other great works and about their place in society. I haven’t read Ulysses in many years, but I found this book quite illuminating even without specific memories about the events in the book to which he referred. show less

If you would like to (or have to) read James Joyce's Ulysses, you must get this book. It will make it a lot easier. And by that, I mean vaguely possible.

This book adds significantly to the pleasure of reading Ulysses. Avoid standard works like Blamires, and read this instead.

I thought I was going to hate this book, but it was pretty alright.