Just reading back through the thread.
I stopped this book when I figured out what was going on. Like Snow by John Banville I found it needlessly disturbing and a rehash of another more famous book.
I can’t see myself returning to it.
Finished Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man there. Some great writing in it in fairness. Loved the line where young Stephen gets a scholarship to Belvo and the father rejoiced that the lad won’t have to go to the Christian Brothers with Paddy Stink and Micky Mud.
Or the description of Hell at the retreat. That nearly had me questioning my agnosticism.
Bits of it went straight over my head too.
It’s still easy to see why the book was banned too. At times it’s scathing about the Church and the notion of a 16 year old boy frequenting prostitutes would still be scandalous.
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When I read Dubliners I was struck by the utter brilliance of the writing.
I have glanced through Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake but too out there for me even - well in particular Finnegan’s Wake.
Dubliners is Safe as Milk, the other two are Trout Mask Replica.
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I’m on to Ulysses now. It could be a while before I report back to the forum.
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The missus has booked tickets to see a stage version of it here. I’m dreading it. It’s on the 18th. I was hoping to get out of it by flying back for the county final but 10pts down HT it’s unlikely.
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I saw a stage version in the Abbey a few years ago. It was very good.
Was it in polish
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No and I don’t know how foreigners can enjoy Joyce as so much of it is so Dublin specific.
They have to pretend harder than the Irish
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And the problem is, they’ll make it artistic
Ah lovely 
Still reading the Robert Harris books. Finished Pompeii last night. Enjoyable read. It’s mad there is actual handwritten accounts of the eruption of Vesuvius.
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Really enjoyed that one. Story is almost an irrelevance. Bits about Pliny the elder, etc and the description of the volcanic eruption are great.
Well, computers and printers weren’t invented back then….
Sarcasm aside, I’m not really getting your point.
Which is precisely why it’s a bit mad that a first hand, written account from almost 2,000 years ago was saved.
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Is it though?
The bould internet tells me that Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The bible and all was being written back then. And we’ve all seen movies of the Romans and their scrolls. Wiki again tells me that the Egyptians were using scroll 2500 years before that.
I’d also say it was pretty big news locally back in the day…
Some ideas here
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Any recommendations from that genre? I like to listen rather than read crime/thriller books