Dubliners

It feels a bit weird to review classic literature. Like, do I have the right to give James Joyce 4 stars? No, I don't think I do... I literally found this book on my shelf with my undgrad notes still tucked inside along with the cheat codes to my then favorite video game. So yeah, I'm giving it 5 stars because there is a reason that Dubliners is taught in undergrad and why it's the best introduction for anyone interested in Joyce. I enjoyed slipping back into the lives of everyday people, their trials and tragedies. It brings back a lot of great memories from high school and undergrad, and now from my trip to Ireland where I visited a bunch of the places mentioned in the stories. “The Dead” was the first Joyce story I ever read, and I remember just being deeply affected by it. It's still quite affecting now. I harbor a secret and extra-pretentious desire to write a short story collection called Denverites.

More like a 3.5/5

Story : Umm... there are some really nice short stories like The Dead, The Sisters, A Painful Case and there are some short stories that are just okay, I guess. I am a big fan of anthologies, but when almost every story has no action (well, they have, but they are forgetable) and the characters are not interesting, it's just boring. Also, I am a fan of stories that dive into the minds of our characters, but again, here we see little of everyone because they are in short stories and sometimes it feels like they are not finished or the development is very poor.

Characters : As I said, there are many characters and everyone is disturbed by something. They aren't so developed as I would like, but I understand why. The dialogues are just amazing and I am happy to say that every story succeded in that criteria.

Overall : Some stories didn't resonate with me, and that's fine. I don't really remember the characters because there are so many and we don't know very much about them. The dialogues are great... I don't know, I think I would be more satisfied if I just read the summary of each one (except those that I love). I can't forget how Haunted made me feel, and how memorable the characters and stories were, while here... I read the story ,,What was that about?”. Maybe if I'll read them again and if I would pay more attention (it will be hard not to fall asleep), I would like more of them.

This was a fascinating collection of short stories taking place in Dublin in the 1920s. James has a really interesting style of writing, despite his insistence on not using quotation marks, which bothered me a little.

One of the reasons I loved the writing style in this, though, is that I can hear the voices of my Irish relatives in Joyce's writing - I feel like I've heard many of these characters telling stories before, and it really helped me connect to the stories that Joyce was telling. I know that's not the kind of thing that's going to intice anyone to read it or anything, but for me it was a nice treat.

Con una prosa en apariencia inofensiva, Joyce demuestra maestría a la hora de exponer los sentimientos y pensamientos de sus personajes. La indecisión de Eveline en el cuento que lleva su nombre; la mezcla de sensaciones de Lenehan en Two Gallants mientras hace tiempo por las calles de Dublín; la angustia contenida de Joe en Clay; la frustración de Farrington en Counterparts; la decepción de Little Chandler en A little cloud; la tristeza de Gabriel en The dead. Todas estas sensaciones se te pegan y permanecen, pegajosas, días después de la lectura.

Imaginé todas las historias sucediendo en una misma Dublín, como si el autor decidiese hacer zoom aleatoriamente en distintos puntos de la ciudad y narrar lo que le sucede a sus ciudadanos en tiempo real. Con el pasar de los cuentos Joyce logra crear un contexto, un ambiente en el cual todas las historias se enmarcan: esa Dublin tan particular que cobra vida propia bajo la pluma de Joyce.

Me sorprendió cómo algunos temas y planteos de los cuentos están plenamente vigentes en la actualidad, salvando las distancias propias de la época. Desde algo tan trivial sobre cómo darle instrucciones a un taxi para dejar a un pasajero en camino al destino final como planteos trascendentales como el contraste entre la vida de juerga y la vida familiar; los riesgos diarios que enfrentan los pre-adolescentes en las urbes; el amor enfrentado a las convenciones sociales; la influencia de la religión y la política en la vida diaria; o la identidad nacional.

En varios cuentos hay un desprecio de los personajes por la Dublin que habitan. Hay también una minimización de la importancia y el atractivo de la ciudad, en contraste con la idealizada Londres o la Europa continental. Vivir la vida, para algunos, parece sólo posible fuera de Dublín. Hoy basta con abrir redes sociales y diarios para palpar esto mismo en sociedades como la argentina.

Las lecturas que resisten tan bien el paso de los años son definitivamente buenas lecturas.