A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

I'm not going to pretend that I fully understood this book. It is a prose style that is beyond my faculties.

The story is about Stephen Dedalus as he comes of age, his relationship with Catholocism, sin or the perception of sin, and his path away from the church and toward art (namely, poetry).

The prose style matures as Stephen matures, with one whole chapter deovoted to scripture as it relates to sin and Stephen's struggling with the potential for being hell-bound due to his relations with a girl out of wedlock.

Beyond that, I was mostly lost. The dialogue was difficult, being of a time and using a lot of old Irish slang, as well as a bunch of Latin and lofty discussions about art and religion.

Not much more to be said about it. This book is canonical and highly praised, but far beyond what my brain is capable of grasping. I give it 3 stars.